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Post by sniffyduke on Jan 23, 2009 22:41:15 GMT -7
I have drawers full of nos tubes. My mazerati came with grove tubes.
I also own a Matchless Clubman. My tube swaping in the clubman taught me a big leason. sometimes NOS tubes can make it worse. I had in V1 a mullard v2 a gec gold lion, raytheon pi, mullard rec and 2 siemens el34. I had a prob with the effects loop and sent it in for repair. Machless said the rec and ef86 were ok but the siemens and mullard were taking away its tone.
I was concidering just putting 4 jjel84s 1 jj12ax7 in pi and a Raytheon black plate in V1 and a shino in the rec.
What do you guys think from your expieriences?
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Post by cementedman on Jan 23, 2009 23:02:06 GMT -7
the most consistent draw from a tube vendor( and this aint a plug, i have bought from myles at groove tubes,matched etc, and mike at kca, and doug at dougs tubes,) is ol bob from eurotubes, just get some matched and balanced 12ax7s phase inverters, and no worries. in over ten years i have only had some dissapointments with jj's rectifier tubes,, but nothing else,, tell him yer amp and it is a done deal,,
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Post by sniffyduke on Jan 24, 2009 0:49:42 GMT -7
thanks
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Post by zdogma on Jan 24, 2009 5:51:57 GMT -7
I have drawers full of nos tubes. My mazerati came with grove tubes. I also own a Matchless Clubman. My tube swaping in the clubman taught me a big leason. sometimes NOS tubes can make it worse. I had in V1 a mullard v2 a gec gold lion, raytheon pi, mullard rec and 2 siemens el34. I had a prob with the effects loop and sent it in for repair. Machless said the rec and ef86 were ok but the siemens and mullard were taking away its tone. I was concidering just putting 4 jjel84s 1 jj12ax7 in pi and a Raytheon black plate in V1 and a shino in the rec. What do you guys think from your expieriences? Those sound fine, if you can get a NOS rectifier its worthwhile for durability, but it doesn't have a huge impact on tone. Mine came stock with Chinese 12AX7's, they sounded good and weren't microphonic. I found that a long plate rectifer sounds really nice in the GT, but you have to make sure you get one that isn't prone to microphonics, the gain level on this amp causes havoc with even a slightly microphonic tube. I ended up using either a 12AX7LPS or NOS 5751 in the PI. I like them in the PI position of almost every Z amp I've tried. I found the NOS tubes in the PI added a bit too much gain. The JJ 12AX7 is decent, but not my favorite. In V1 I have a NOS amperex, its a medium plate tube, and almost no microphonic tendency at all. Again, I tried a few different ones to find one that really worked well in this amp. My EL84's are JJ's and they work well.
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Post by wilhelm on Jan 24, 2009 9:49:58 GMT -7
I´ve tried different NOS tubes in my GT, 5751´s and 12AX7´s. My experience was that the Dr. made it right with the tubes the amp came with. I changed the rectifier tube and now use a NOS Philips/Sylvania (mislabeled) from KCA not for the tone but for long life. I´m happy with the sound. I have 4 NOS EL84´s but didn´t try them. I think it´s all personal taste. The basic sound from the GT is so nice and it´s the first amp I can play without pedals - that´s what I was looking for years although sometimes I use a analog delay at home.
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Post by Telemanic on Jan 24, 2009 15:55:17 GMT -7
Yep, gotta agree there. The Doc's amps more than most any ive ever owned, are VERY hard to improve upon tube wise. And I've always been kind of a NOS tube snob, ha! Seriously tho sniffyduke, if there's one thing my drawers full o' nos stuff has taught me is that name and reputation along with style, design etc. are almost meaningless without doing exactly what youve done, ..... and thats just try it! And about a bunch of others. I think if anyone has the right equipment, ie high voltage testing of not only output, but gain as well, then marking each tube w/ a sharpie would be well ahead of the game. It's usually one of those areas where a tube falls short if it doesnt sound good. I think then you can go ahead and factor in the INHERENT or UNIQUE / CLASSIC sounds of your best tubes. Ya know, .... like how a "good" Tele has that characteristic recessed midrange, whereas say a good Mullard has the BIG warm mids. My faves usually end up being a strong Amperex, kind of a nice balance of all freq's. OH, but of course then theres the AMP thing!!! Like we need one more variable to screw wit huh? - Roll on my friend
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Post by sniffyduke on Jan 24, 2009 20:35:16 GMT -7
Yep, gotta agree there. The Doc's amps more than most any ive ever owned, are VERY hard to improve upon tube wise. And I've always been kind of a NOS tube snob, ha! Seriously tho sniffyduke, if there's one thing my drawers full o' nos stuff has taught me is that name and reputation along with style, design etc. are almost meaningless without doing exactly what youve done, ..... and thats just try it! And about a bunch of others. I think if anyone has the right equipment, ie high voltage testing of not only output, but gain as well, then marking each tube w/ a sharpie would be well ahead of the game. It's usually one of those areas where a tube falls short if it doesnt sound good. I think then you can go ahead and factor in the INHERENT or UNIQUE / CLASSIC sounds of your best tubes. Ya know, .... like how a "good" Tele has that characteristic recessed midrange, whereas say a good Mullard has the BIG warm mids. My faves usually end up being a strong Amperex, kind of a nice balance of all freq's. OH, but of course then theres the AMP thing!!! Like we need one more variable to screw wit huh? - Roll on my friend Your right. So you like the Amprex? What type of Amprex? I'd like to try one. I am not screving with any other tubes from now on except V1 and the Rec. Like I said I switched out a pair of JJEl34s for some NOS Siemens and my CLUBMAN seemed to go from 35 watts to 100. Completely unmanagable. As for V1 i'm not a fan of Mullards. I think they would sound good in an amp like a JCM800. BUT MY FAV TUBE FOR V1 is my Raytheon Black Plate. Very smooth It loves telecasters (single coils). But Ill try an amprex in the mazerati.
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Post by zdogma on Jan 24, 2009 20:40:44 GMT -7
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Post by Telemanic on Jan 27, 2009 1:30:34 GMT -7
Hey bud, sorry took so long to get back on. Umm, well yep, exactly ...... what i guess i was so ineptly tryin to say: different tubes for different amps and purposes. Of course as always this is just my opinion, but FWIW, .... for instance first ya gotta factor whether or not ANY of the 12ax7's are considered "up to spec" meaning at least 1.2/1.6 or better output/gain. If not there used to some degree or were never right to begin with. OK, so for those of us that dont have those kind of testers the numbers are academic right? But the point to take from all of that is the same. For each amp i have that i feel there is something i need to tweak or change i first try to most accurately identify EXACTLY what it is that is bugging me or what i "think" i want to hear. This can be deceptively tricky and takes, .... uh well took me years to develope, and ya can get yourself into a wild goose chase PDQ! So when you figure out that the amp is a little too edgy or gainy then you look for a v1 or depending on the amp sometimes v2 that is a little defficient in the gain spec, but could also be cause of the output of that tube as well. I know sounds like im talkin circles but it really is so dependent on the amps design is the point im trying to get to with a bit of tech to go with it is If your amp tends to be bright-ish and hard to tame the sizzle then i look for a v1 of older plate structure, long plate, black etc. But they can Mullard or So that mullard that doesnt sound good in the Maz may either be well out of spec on one side or the other ( they're actually 2 tubes in one glass bottle) or it simply is not electrically what the rest of the circuit is tuned for by way of voltage, coupling caps etc. ready to stop reading? ha! i know it. Listen, my 65' Vibrolux Reverb pretty much only likes NOS GE's RCA's, Raytheon etc. to sound like it was designed. But a "good " mullard can be used to effect a certain goal, and i guess thats what i want to leave ya with is just that. Before taking endless hours chassing your tail, know what you want to change and then, which tube does that in that amp. The tube that sounds like crap may be an amazing tube in another position or amp altogether. I have spec'd so many of my tubes that i consider them like a painters palet, ya just have to assemble a palet for EACH amp circuit or you'llgo crazy. THat's basically what guys like Myles do. He can put together a set of spec'd tubes to tailer your amp. If you have a large enough collection to allow for lesser tubes you can kind of blindly come up with the same approach with just a bunch of trial and error, AND importantly mark your tubes w a sharpie. The rectifier is a subtle tone thing, really more of a feel. Mullard, Amperex, often are the same with different paint logos, so be sure to look for codes and or plate design if it matters to you, many tubes of any purpose may say Amperex but made by Mullard or visa versa. Mullard and amperex are usually to feel a little stiffer than the russian or chinese, again a feel thing, but they WILL last probably the life of your amp! I have old mullard GZ34" and Amperex Bugle boy GZ34's. The Mazeratigt, doc designed with a know set of tube specs and therfore tweaked volts amps etc. to complenet. Siemens "older" EL34's were great tubes in Marshalls ard have a characteristic sound again a littlr lightet in ths mids and a little more open sdind, but even any ole USA recto will do ya pree5ing well too, orry man gots to go to bed, Later bro
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Post by Telemanic on Jan 27, 2009 11:05:14 GMT -7
Jeez, .. either my keybawd was screwin wit me last night or i was fallin asleep typing, Ha! Sorry for a bit of a ramble off there Sniffmiester! To really answer your question, ... yeah i pretty much dig 60's Heerleen Holland made amperex 12ax7's. Even up to the Globe logo, but somewhere around 70'-71' or so they went to this solid getter disk with litle perforations around the perimiter. Still great tubes but of the ones ive tried , they just dont have the same mojo happinin. Gettin ridiculous expensive tho now at the big dealers you can trust...... and man ya gotta be so careful on ebay, as i'm quite sure you know. Lotta mis-reps out there! Rock on Bro
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