Different Tube Brands (1 Viewer)

Umfufu

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I was asking Martin Nolan (the guy who repairs amps for Musicmaker) if I needed to replace a dodgy tube in my Mesa Subway with a Mesa brand tube.

He said that actually there's no real difference between one tube & another & that a lot them are made in the same place (Russia) but just have different logos printed on them.

If you read online, though, you'd think that putting a set JJ Tesla's into your Marshall transforms it into a suoeramp!

Is it just that by the time most people put these high end tubes in, it's because their old ones were fucked so even if they replaced them with energy saving light bulbs it was going to sound better or is there really something special about the JJ Tesla's?
 
Well there would be a difference between some of them, soft, medium, hard etc. but I can imagine that a lot of them are the same. I put Mesa Boogie ones in both my Marshall's but I'd imagine that nobody here would be able to tell you the difference seeing as we only change our valve's every 3-10 years.

I can imagine that biasing and the set up is more important than the type of tubes you pick. You can off set the bias so that the tubes are driven harder and break up easier, but this wears them out quicker.
 
Ever tried the JJ Tesla tubes?

I'm convinced 98% of the talk about tone is horseshit.
You'd really need to hear 2 of the same amp, side by side, with different tubes in them to really compare.

I've even heard people say that if you put certain types of tubes in a Mesa, it'll sound like a Marshall.

I personally like to play so loud that tone doesn't come into it.

:D
 
There is a lot of hype surrounding some "brands" of Valves. Some manufacturers of amps use cheap Chinese or Russian valves, put their own Logo on them and charge you a lot more for the priveledge.

BUT their is a big difference in sound between different makes of valves. Not Good or Bad Just different and you can change the sound of many amps quite a bit by using different valves. If you try a different valve in the same amp, using the same guitar under exactly the same conditions one valve position [ output valves in pairs or quads] at a time you the Musician will hear the difference straight away! Sometimes the difference is huge[small bottle 6L6 instead of standard 6L6] sometimes it is more subtle. Which particular preamp valve position you are changing the valve in also plays a part.

When I have been asked to sort out an amp that works but the guitarist is unhappy with the sound, the problem has almost always been because a Tech, has put in one or more very cheap and cheerful preamp valves.
 
Im running 4x Sovtek 6l6 5881wxt's and 3x sovtek 12ax7eh's in my sovtek mig100.

I couldnt adjust the master on my amp last weekend at a gig in the stables. (thanks mark for bailing us out) Turns out the pair of 12ax7's in my amp were blown. Not a kick out of em. Replaced them and amp sounds great again.

Is this weird though, for a pair to blow together?
 
The two preamp tubes on the left blew.

DSC04889.JPG


I always have the volume pot at 10. Then i use the master pot to get my overdriven sound. In this instance there was hardly any response out of the master pot.

DSC04871.JPG


When i got home i opened her up and noticed that the two preamp tubes on the left were'nt lighting up. Put in new ones and hey presto! Twas fine.
 

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