18Watt.com

My dad is sort of a collector of old radio gear, Ham, CB, shortwave etc..
I noticed he had the top off one of his old tube type CB radios and i found this little gem sitting happily inside the chassis:



These are supposed to be the holy grail of 12ax7 eh? I have tried it in a couple different positions in my 18watt and can't say that it sounds much better if any different than some old GE 12ax7's i have. Funny enough the internal structure of the GE tubes looks almost identical to the amperex.

Where have you guys found this tube works best in the 18watt, right now i have it as the phase invertor and it sounds pretty decent there.
Might throw it on ebay since people are paying $40+ for these things with the full label on them!

Hey, I've got one of those, it was the prize piece of a lot of 200+ TV tubes I got for around 40 bucks, along with many 5U4GB's and 6AQ5's.

I actually haven't tried it in my 18 (heresy!) I just love it so much in my SE EL34 amp, sounds somewhere between a Mullard and a Telefunken to me, "milky" and "sweet" if that means anything to anyone.

I would hold on to it if I were you, unless you really, really need 40 bucks, its value will only go up and one day you'll probably find an amp where it really shines.

I'll try it in my 5e3 soon.. it seems to be more sensitive to different tubes than the 18watt. the 18watt i really tell the difference between output tubes moreso than preamp tubes

well i think i'm starting to understand this tube now.. I put it in the V1 position of my TMB, along with an old sylvania lightning bolt grey plate in the phase invertor, and a new JJ 12ax7 in the TMB slot... and boy.. i know its a weird combo but this amp sounds like a completely different beast now.. it cleans right up with the volume control on the guitar and doesn't get muddy at all on the TMB side. The normal channel though sounds way too dark with the amperex in V1. I plan on adding a bright switch to the normal channel anyway though.