Power tubes: JJ, Tung Sol, EHX, or NOS?

[Buzz Fretwear (Ignatius)]

I have a Jetta arriving tomorrow. I'm a long time member here, having owned in the past a Maz Jr, Maz Sr, Mazerati, Stang Ray, and Z28 (not all at once, like some of you  ). I strayed away to other brands in recent years. It's good to be back (or I hope it will be!).

So I've read a bunch of threads and I see that Doc solved "Tube Rattlegate" with his MacGyver solution. With that outta the way, what power tubes work best in the Jetta? Are there appreciable sonic differences between JJ and Tung Sol? Looks like EHX will work too but they're bigger bottles and I'm not sure they will work with Doc's tube retainer fix (which I plan to do). And what about NOS? They're out there, but not many.

I plan to buy a spare set so I'm interested to hear your opinions if you've tried multiple brands. Which did you prefer and why?

[DRZ]

Stay away from the EHX.
Initial design used the JJ, I loved their tone , but had severe rattle issues ( pre MacGiver fix ).
Moved over to the Tung Sol at first no rattle not as sweet as the JJ but lack of rattle was the ticket.
Then after multiple sets of Tung Sol's the rattle created into them to.
I needed a fix and solved the problem, I now went back to the JJ's

Z

[Buzz Fretwear (Ignatius)]

Jan 24, 2023 17:39:07 GMT -7 DRZ said:

Stay away from the EHX.
Initial design used the JJ, I loved their tone , but had severe rattle issues ( pre MacGiver fix ).
Moved over to the Tung Sol at first no rattle not as sweet as the JJ but lack of rattle was the ticket.
Then after multiple sets of Tung Sol's the rattle created into them to.
I needed a fix and solved the problem, I now went back to the JJ's

Z

Great info, will grab some JJs.

And this is why I'm glad to be back in Z land. I post a question and I get an answer from the big chief himself.

Thanks Doc!

[Jack]

What is the MacGiver fix for tube rattle in the Jetta? (A forum search turned up empty.)

I love my Jetta but have yet to find a set of 7591s that are either microphonic or develop some kind of rattle. Tung Sol, JJ, EVH, some are less problematic, some more. If there's a solution I'd love to find it.

Thanks,
Jack

[Jack]

Sorry, I posted this before I saw this thread: ztalk.proboards.com/thread/88295/tubes-jetta

And here's the video Doc created showing how to eliminate tube rattle step-by-step: 

It seems simple and easy with just a few inexpensive parts, which are listed with the video description. Note the safety tips about draining the filter caps before performing the mod. Stay alive folks!