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Post by dei305 on May 24, 2006 4:46:52 GMT -7
I am curious about the older Mullard "made in Britain" RCA, GE, Sylvannia, etc., GZ34's. Are they that much better than a new JJ or Sovtek GZ34? I have a MAZ 38 and soon to be a MAZ Jr. Thanks! Rick
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SG123
Full Member
Posts: 221
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Post by SG123 on May 25, 2006 7:55:54 GMT -7
A Mullard GZ34 might be the last rectifier tube you ever need to buy for your amplifier. Seriously, they seem to last forever. I've worked on blackface Fender amps from the 1960's that still have their original Mullard GZ34 working just fine.
At one time, the Sovtek and Chinese were the only new production GZ34 available. I have personally had mechanical rattle problems with the Sovtek and heard many reliability issues with the Chinese versions. The JJ GZ34, IMO, are the best new ones currently out there.
As far as performance in the short term, you probably won't notice much difference, if any, between any of them. Only time will tell if the JJ will last and last like the Mullard does.
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Post by dei305 on May 25, 2006 12:45:46 GMT -7
SG, Thanks for your input. Does the Mullard perform better, i.e tone, than the JJ? Rick
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Post by bustertheboy on May 25, 2006 14:27:00 GMT -7
i've used a mullard gz37, which drops the volume about 20v in a vibrolux and it was beautiful and built for life i think there are threads elsewhere here wher people compare mazdas and other rectifiers if it's anything like other tubes, nos always perform better and certainly are longer lasting and closer to original specs i know a rectifier is only supposed to change AC to DC, but i think there might be a bit more magic to it than that- ask myles directly, or even dr z
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Post by mikekca on May 31, 2006 4:52:23 GMT -7
SG, Thanks for your input. Does the Mullard perform better, i.e tone, than the JJ? Rick What's "better"? You must realize that there's no consensus on what good tone is...otherwise there would be only one type of amp available instead of 2000. Lot's of my customers feel that Mullards and other NOS 5AR4s sound better than Sovteks. One reason is that most Russian and other new production rectifiers aren't really what their labels say they are, similar, but not the same. On thing's for sure, a NOS rectifier will sound a lot better (for 20 or 30 years) after your Sovtek dies after 1 or 2 years.
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Post by johnnyl on May 31, 2006 10:17:37 GMT -7
I had an old Mullard made RCA GZ34 in my SRZ and it worked very well. I could immediately tell a difference when I replaced the Sovtek that was in there originally.
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Post by dei305 on Jun 6, 2006 8:22:02 GMT -7
Well I got my Maz 38 back from Doc Z's surgery. I have a Sovtec GZ34 in the amp. The V1 per Doc's replacement is a E-H12AX7EH. The amp simply stated sounds awesome! So, for grins, I replaced the Sovtec with an older Mullard (from a Fender amp). The Maz tone was still there, however, the over feel was much "stiffer". I swapped the tubes back and bingo! The creamy response is back. I had similar results to the older Mullard with a newer JJ GZ34. So, this Maz keeps the sovtec. Bottom line is, Doc Z knows what works best to keep his amps sounding the best. Rick
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