Fav Tubes in Your 18 Watter???

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BibFortuna

Fav Tubes in Your 18 Watter???

Post by BibFortuna »

Aighty guys,

time to play, "Your Fav Tube"! with your host, Bib! :wink: k, you knew it had to be coming, so lets hear it!

me? been really diggin the tough, taut midrange of the JAN Philips 12AX7's in whatever slot that accepts them. the gold Ei that Gray shipped my amp with sounded great, and spongy, but the JAN's offered something just as cool, yet different.

power tube wise, i'm still trying to wrap my head around the biasing moves, so the stock EL84's are rockin' me along.

what about y'all?
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Graydon
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Post by Graydon »

I've been using JJ EL84s and EI 12AX7s. The EI 12AX7s seem to have a slightly brighter top end without being too brashy. I kinda like them, maybe even better than the Gold Pin Elites which are very smooth and refined sounding.

Richie sent me a pair of EL84 EHs a few months ago (thanks again, Richie) and although they seemed OK at first, recently, my ears got tuned into a buzzy upper midrange thing happening, so I swapped in a set of JJ EL84s and that went away. So, I don't know if these EH EL84s just wore out or if that harshness was there all along and I just recent;y noticed it. Either way, I am not inclined to use them.

Other than that, virtually every tube I have tried has sounded fine. I am definitely not a tube snob of any sort. Any tube will work just fine for me. :mrgreen:
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RossH
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Post by RossH »

For EL84's I use Groove Tube 7's. They work great. Nicely balanced. I have also used Westinghouse from Germany. They were a little darker and cleaner but also good.

For 12AX7's I've used Chinese, Yugo's, Sovtek's, and Old NOS Mil-Spec National's. They are all good. I'm not much of a tube snob either. The Chinese and Yugo were just a little thinner but broke up nice. The Sovtek's are a bit brighter and have a nice range. And the old National's have a darker, very full fat mid tone. Those are what I have in there at the present. I got these from a friend who owns a military testing laboratory. They have just been sitting around for years. It is interesting to see what subtle differences they all make. But in the end, they don't have such a massive character difference that I wouldn't use any of them. They all play great music.

~Ross
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Post by Plexi »

EL84s I lean toward the EI and JJ..EI being my first choice. As for the Preamp tubes. It seems thats hard to chose.. No matter what brand..i usually listen to them and pick what i like. I usually like to find tubes like GT or Ruby..or ones that have been tested for microphonics etc..I saves from buying a bunch of the other brand tubes,and find out some aren't worth crap..even new.. I have a dealership,and do amp repairs,so i go through alot of tubes.

I agree with Graydon..the new EH tubes were ok.. I just got them to try,and sent him a pair to test. I also got them in a lower current rating match,and found after about 20 mins..they weren't holding up in the 18..and small bit of redplating. I have a few pair of GE NOS i like..and they were all matched very clsoe when i tested the lot of them..

Richie
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Jason

Post by Jason »

Bib,

Yeah, count me in on the JJ's as well. I think they sound fantastic and take a bit of a beating. The screens seem to act up less than the Sovteks. The Sovteks always worked fine for me, but I have not tried the EL-84 EH's yet. About Mullard, Telefunken, or Amperexes, etc., for that kind of BIG $$, I know most people here can tune an amp to sound killer using the current production EL-84's. Also, the Svetlana SV-83 is similar to an EL-84, but the screens can't take more than 200-250VDC or they will self destruct. In order to use these, you would need to drop some screen votlage/current draw. As for the JJ's, you absolutely can't go wrong with these IMO. I haven't tried the Ei EL-84's yet--been meaning to give them a shot soon.

For preamp tubes [don't shoot me!! :mrgreen: ], but I actually like and use an older batch of Sovtek 12AX7 WXT's for both channels gain stages and a 12AX7 LPS in the Phase inverter. I also use and like the 12AX7 EH's, RCA [NOS] large ribbed plates and small rubbed plates, GE gray ribbed plates, Amperex [Globe] short smooth plates and long plates [Globe], etc. I also scored some RCA Gray ribbed plate 5751's at a local flea market. They sound good in the PI section, IMO. Chinese 12AX7's also sound pretty good as well [Mesa Boogie SPAX7's and 12AX7's form some old amps that sounded pretty good at the time].

The LPS and EH's are very good sounding tubes for the most part. Relatively quiet and high gain. As far as the Ei 12AX7's, I haven't tried these ever. From what the guys wrote, they sound very worthwhile. I have read that VTL [Vacuum Tube Logic] was partial to the older Ei 12AX7's for use in thier amps.

Jason
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Post by Graydon »

BTW, I had my first instance of redplating last week. I had one JJ EL84 that was glowing nicely. I tried a new set of EL84s and the problem went away. That was the first of probbaly 20 - 30 pairs so I'd say that's pretty good. I still use a 125 ohm cathode resistor on everything I make.
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KingCrimson
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Post by KingCrimson »

But what about the rectifier tube?

No one ever mentions that hardly.

Is it not that important or are there only a few choices anyhow?
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Post by KingCrimson »

....and yes, I realize the rectifier's main duty is to transfer AC to DC, but surely there are different sonic attributes that different rectifier tubes bring as far as compression and so forth.

....................and who REALLY invented radio; Marconi or Tesla? 8O
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jhguitarlab
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Post by jhguitarlab »

Use a good NOS rec - The Stones were oh so happy they could afford their new Gibsons in 68;-]
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Post by Blewsbreaker »

I went through MANY tube types when I got my 65' 18watter last year and here's what I endend up with to arrive at the "throne" of tone...
2-nos mullard EL-84's
1 nos mullard in phase inverter
1 nos phillips (holland) for tremelo channel
1 (used) small plate Brimar for channel 2.
1 Mullard EZ-81.

RFT (nos) el-84's sound REALLY good in the 18...better that JJ's. rca's,phillips,mazda(crap silver plates)...
The RFT's are nos that were made in east germany..
I believe sometimes sold as Harma tubes by that outfit in England...
Rock on,
blewsbreaker
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Post by goneracin »

I have to admit I am sort of a tube snob. I love the vintage stuff. My favorite combination is
V1) Telefunken ecc83 if I want it bright, Amperex holland if I want it a little darker
V2) Mullard or Amperex
V3) Amperex, or RFTecc83 for a touch more gain
V4&5) Amperex/holland El84. Sylvania blackplates a very close second.

For current production stuff, i like the EI gold el84's, and the LPS sovteks for 12ax7's. I had some EI 12ax7's but they all had a tendency to be microphonic in v1 esp.
Im having a hard time getting a good match on EI EL84's though. In the amp, they vary by quite a bit, even the so called factory matched pairs have been off by 8-10 mah. I guess I just need to buy more and have enough that hopefully I can rematch them here by current draw.
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JonFrum
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Post by JonFrum »

KingCrimson wrote:.

....................and who REALLY invented radio; Marconi or Tesla? 8O




Tesla, of course! :D
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Post by Groundpath »

I like Mullards in every position in the amp. New stuff I like JJs the best out of the ones I've tried. Tesla invented radio.
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JJ 84s-

Post by BDC »

JJ-84s&EH 12ax7s- best current setup
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sgtoverdrive
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Post by sgtoverdrive »

i like em all xcept the jjs and sovteks good tube in a pinch but if i dont have to i dont! tungsram and old tesla roznovs are neat .all have different flavors as of late ive been putzin around with 7189s due to high voltage in certain amps me and my posse are testing.we found that old russain mil spec labled el 84 are the best sounding of any we tried ,.and cheap too.hard to find the ones wit da pyrimids on em but generally 78 to 83 you got a good chance of finding a very robust tube with superb tone.i like these on the cheap if ya can find em.many type most burn right up these however do not.sgt od.
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here are some of my favorite flavors

Post by sgtoverdrive »

i like one just as much of the other in most cases
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Post by HeeBGB »

New production I like the JJ's for power tubes and the 12AX7EH for preamp. The JJ 12ax's aren't bad either but I like the feel of the EH better. I am also really diggin' the russians I got from Barry. They're getting better with age

I have a set of Mullard el84 pulls that are good but they do not beat the articulation and gain of my GE's. To be fair the Mullards are pulls and look like they have a lot of hours on them, but they still sound very good.

I have a couple of RCA 7025's which I also like very much.

For power tubes I would say the GE's followed by my Mullard pulls and the JJ's with the Russians closing in on them.


Greg
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chriswu101
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Post by chriswu101 »

Is this the Russian tubes you mentioned sarge?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... eName=WDVW

Chris
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Post by lbet »

I have done a bit of tube swapping with the TMB. For 12ax7's I would normally put as many mullards in it as I could find. I love the midrange grind. Next come RCA black plates or gray plates. I too like amperex. I like EI's when I want to darken things up a bit. They have good gain and I would normally match them up with One chino 12ax7 in V1 or PI.

Right now though this is the linkup.

V1 - Mullard ECC83 - Don't leave home without one. Great sound on Normal Ch.
V2 - RCA Gray Plate 12AX7 - Nice tone on the TMB Channel.
V3 - Tung-Sol 12AX7 - Very Sweet with good top end clarity.

The amp came with Russian miliatry EL84M's Very nice sounding tube. Full mids and not too much high end. Good focused bottom end too. None the less I threw in a pair of Amperex El84's. The amp is a little brighter becuase of this but the distortion is slightly more complex than the EL84M's. JJ's are cool too.
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