jj ez81

[menger]

i ordered 3 ez81 from aes and 1 of them archs and blows the fuse, aes sells them for like 11$ i thought that was dirt cheap, 1 out of 3 bad is down right insane, has anyone else had this kinda luck, is this normal for jj the ones i have in my amps dont look right im feeding 308 ac and getting 346 dc what the general regard for jj ez81, i know im not happy with them who make a desent ez81 for a desent cost?

[jgab]

I like vintage ones. I have never had any problems with RCA, GE or other USA EZ81. You could probably find them as cheap as your JJ's.

[katopan]

I've only bought the one JJ EZ81 but it's been in my 18W for over two years with no problems. Other amps have been SS recto. But a faulty brand new valve is pretty poor.

[menger]

I dont know if you can find a ez81 cheaper than 11$ im pretty good at finding cheap parts, i emailed aes lets see if they value my biz i buy about 300 400$ worth of supplies a year from them, im thinking its just a fluke, plus i broke my prized bugleboy ez81 the same day iv had desent luck with the jj, im just hoping there cool and ship me a new one we'll see, anyone ever get the russian kind from ebay? id try them if i got some feedback on them mark

[krx]

AES will just have you return the bad tube and they'll send you a new one. JJs (like most new tubes) come with a (short) warranty.

[Plexi]

oh yes, many good NOS EZ81 can be found for that price, also look for 6CA4 which is the USA equivilent

here are 2 NOS RFT for 19.00 and looks like 6 bucks shipping..,so not includding shipping, those are less than the JJ..

http://cgi.ebay.com/EZ81-RFT-NOS-MATCHE ... 45ee73b8a0

[marshman]

I've also had pretty good luck finding nice strong US made 6CA4/EZ81 for really great prices...press on!

Just because you got 1 bad EZ81 out of 3, doesn't mean that 1 out of every 3 JJs is bad...might be the only bad one in a case, you just got the short straw.

[chabby]

Yes - That is absolutley normal for JJ in the last year. I know a local tech here in town that ordered 6 cases of JJ 6V6's and 6L6's as they had been stellar for the last couple years for how inexpensive they are. But this last year he ended up having as much as 60% bad tubes shipped to him.
He has since switched to Mesa tubes which are Chinese and they have been great he says. They must have a QC deal with the Chinese that includes not shipping bad tubes out to market. Neither he nor I ever thought we'd be extolling on the virtues of Mesa tubes, but they've been really good lately.

For every day type stuff I'll continue using them in place of the JJ's I used to love. Thankfully, I ordered a couple cases of JJ EZ81's a couple years ago when they were still good. I haven't had one bad EZ81 in that batch. nos of course is the way to go with all tubes when money is not considered.
BTW - Mesa also sells nos tubes, at least in some types.

[menger]

Last year i stopped at guitar center to check out what tubes they had on hand, anyway the kid behind the counter rings me up some mesa el84 and 6l6 at 20$ a set, i asked how many more 6l6s he had so i wind up with 6 set of 6l6s for 120$, then he says he can knock off 15%, the 6l6 are rubys and they are pretty nice tubes, i have had some good luck with the ez81s i got one at a resale shop the other day pegged out my tester id never had any tube do that plus i got some off fleabay so im stocked up again, also scored a hammond organ of craigslist free got a ton of great tubes a quad of el84 a pair of 7591 2 mullard 5ar4 tested new ef86 7199 and a bunch of 12ax7 12au7 if you ever see a hammond with the tonewheel in it grab it mark

[Merlinb]

Things are not helped by the fact that the 18W uses 'hot switching' (i.e., the standby is before the reservoir cap), which is the most brutal way to use a rectifier valve. If the standby were moved after the reservoir, or simply removed, the JJs would stand a better chance of living through the night!

[leslie]

I use nos RFT EZ81 never had a problem, I mean lotsaaaaa gigs with strange kind of wall voltages from 220 to 260V .you can find the pair on the ebay for about 20 bucks. standard procedure power on, wait ten or so seconds then standby.Power off, just hit both switch off
Don't spoil the amp be crude it will last longer if you hear the crackle at gigs just give it a good kick

[chabby]

Last year i stopped at guitar center to check out what tubes they had on hand, anyway the kid behind the counter rings me up some mesa el84 and 6l6 at 20$ a set, i asked how many more 6l6s he had so i wind up with 6 set of 6l6s for 120$, then he says he can knock off 15%, the 6l6 are rubys and they are pretty nice tubes, i have had some good luck with the ez81s i got one at a resale shop the other day pegged out my tester id never had any tube do that plus i got some off fleabay so im stocked up again, also scored a hammond organ of craigslist free got a ton of great tubes a quad of el84 a pair of 7591 2 mullard 5ar4 tested new ef86 7199 and a bunch of 12ax7 12au7 if you ever see a hammond with the tonewheel in it grab it mark

Yep - those Mesa's can be alright, surprisingly good sounding tubes at least the El84's and 6L6's I can vouch for. Yep on the harvesting of classic tubes out of old organs. I got a whole bevy (love that word) of EL84's, 12AX7's and 12AU7's from a hammond A043. All of them are Hammond Labeled made in Holland tubes. Also got quite a few nice preamp tubes over the years that way. I have had good luck with those Ruby 6L6's too Menger and just put a sextet in an old Fender Super twin, they sound great. JJ's were the hottest thing on the block for a while in terms of inexpensive modern tubes. Too bad they took a dive.

[joe6v6]

I had a run of JJ GZ34's that was bad, 2 out of 4 were bad, one drove me nuts trying to figure out what was wrong with the amp, it would short out after it ran for a while. From what im reading here it looks like I wont be buying JJ's any time soon. .. .. Joe