Do tubes make the amp?

[AncientMariner]

Just bung my 3 ha'porth in. Some amps will benefit from NOS valves and some won't.

I had a Laney AOR30 a while back. On paper potentially a great amp: 2 X 6V6 and switchable gain stages. With the original Chinese valves it was tolerable. With NOS Mullard 12AX7s in the preamp it was plain nasty. Spent ages trying to make that sound good before I gave up and moved it on (the new owner paid someone to replace all the valves too, and they still disliked it after ).

Now I know those Mullard 12AX7s because I've had them in other amps I've made since then and they're a nice valve, but that amp wasn't designed for them, and a current production item was better. Just choose what suits and don't get suckered.

[7enderman]

it depends on the amp.
my ´66 super does not sound with old sylvanias, a friend own a ´72 silverface and the same tubes sound perfect.
for preamp stage i prefer in the fender RCA blackplates or jan phillips at V1 and somne old GE stuff.
The 36er needs NOS tubes for the EF86 only and sounds perfect with JJ´s for the AX7 and the EL84.

In general you can polish **** as long as you want but it will just remain ****.
So if the amp does not have the tonal substance and quality you will not be able to improve it that much by using NOS tubes.
A fine amp could be improved with fine tubes but it will take some time to find out the perfect match.
General recommendations like "use this or that" are not the real truth.
It will be at least a hint, but you have to find out the perfect match by yourself.

[novemberrain]

General recommendations like "use this or that" are not the real truth.
It will be at least a hint, but you have to find out the perfect match by yourself.

+1 on that!

My favorite guitar is a Jeremy Ledford replica with a Kahler and a big ol' humbucker in the bridge position, what sounds good for that guitar would part yer hair with a normal Srat and that doesn't begin to address what happens when you plug a Tele with fresh strings in.

It's all subjective. SO subjective! The real question is do you want to compete with the Hong Kong hi-fi guys and pay $125 for a smooth plate Telefunken just to check it out? Everyone seems to think there's some magic tube out there that will make your JTM45 into a JCM800, that "magic tube" doesn't exist!

I ought to set up a booth at guitar shows where you can rent my Telefunkens for $5 for five minutes so you can see if they do it for you!

[nomad100]

i like JJ tubes I have a mesa nomad100. I can't comment on the mesa 12AX7 verses JJ because the pretubes were shot when i bought the amp. GC sent me new mesa power tubes, and the were so sterile vs the JJ's. I have all JJ tubes in it now and get complement after complement on my tone.