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Author Topic: Any tube collectors' views on what vintage tubes for a stock HRM amp?  (Read 30441 times)
mr fabulous
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« Reply #15 on: November 21, 2010, 01:50:39 PM »
HI MAV GUY

the topic on preamp tubes has been done to death here i reckon...

but for what its worth:

at present i am using:

V1: sovtec
V2: JJ (smoother and a little more compressed for overdrive)
V3: reissue mullard .. seems to dive Output stage harder

output tubes: winged C...... excellent tubes
« Last Edit: November 22, 2010, 01:43:25 AM by mr fabulous » Logged
212Mavguy
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« Reply #16 on: November 22, 2010, 01:34:54 AM »
Thank you!   Done to death???  Naaaah.  Not if we keep learning from each other...  Better to have more inputs...especially more on vintage power tubes.  Keep 'em coming! 
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Emiel
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« Reply #17 on: November 24, 2010, 03:42:37 PM »
Hi,

I just ordered a JJ High gain 12ax7 (for V2) and a pair of TAD 6L6WGC-STR tubes. In my amp are currently Tung-Sol 12ax7 and SED Winged C EL34's. I also have a couple of other 12ax7's ready to test, an old Philips 12ax7, a Ruby 12ax7 and a normal JJ 12ax7. As soon as I'll receive the JJ/TAD package I'll try them all and write my thoughts here.

Cheers Smiley
Emiel
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bluesfendermanblues
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« Reply #18 on: November 24, 2010, 06:27:42 PM »
Quote from: Emiel on November 24, 2010, 03:42:37 PM
Hi,

I just ordered a JJ High gain 12ax7 (for V2) and a pair of TAD 6L6WGC-STR tubes. In my amp are currently Tung-Sol 12ax7 and SED Winged C EL34's. I also have a couple of other 12ax7's ready to test, an old Philips 12ax7, a Ruby 12ax7 and a normal JJ 12ax7. As soon as I'll receive the JJ/TAD package I'll try them all and write my thoughts here.

Cheers Smiley
Emiel

Hmmm Winged C's (both EL34 and 6L6) are the best tubes for these amps. The Winged C 6L6 is very similar to the 70s Sylvania that Dumble used in his amps.
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brent
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« Reply #19 on: November 25, 2010, 09:50:56 PM »
Here's my .02.

V1 - Amperex 12ax7
V2 - Amperex 12ax7
V3 - Chinese 12ax7ac (TAD, Ruby, whatever).

Powertubes.

SED "Winged C" 6L6GC-STR
TAD 6L6GC-STR
JAN Phillips 6L6WGB (early breakup with these).

Other contenders..

V1 - Baldwin Japan 12ax7 long plates (find them usd on ebay, very musical and rich).  These sound better than the RCA 12ax7s I have..
V2 - JAN GE 12ax7wa

Others I've tried..  Ei - 12ax7(ecc83).  A little brittle.  Sovtek 12ax7 - OK not great in V1 - no way in V2 on the Sovtek.  GE 12ax7 grayplate good in V2. 

Phase inverter... only tube I've found that I care for is the Chinese 12ax7s.

Amperex (holland, short plate) is the hands down winner in both V1 and V2 in my book.  I have a D-style amp, but not a ceriatone.  YMMV
« Last Edit: November 25, 2010, 09:53:59 PM by brent » Logged
212Mavguy
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« Reply #20 on: November 26, 2010, 02:10:09 AM »
Excellent, Brent! 

I have some of those JAN Philips 6l6wgb's.  They sound great. 

Baldwin labeled Japanese 12ax7 longplates???  Are you sure that they were Japanese?   There were very few Japanese made longplate 12ax7's, ever.  Perhaps you are thinking about Raytheons or Sylvanias, they made the longplate Baldwin labeled organ tubes.  The only Japanese Baldwins I have ever seen have gray short plates, with blue printing, and yes, they are very smooth and musical.

Your  preference for Chinese 12ax7's for the PI is interesting, why is that?

And thanks again, very much. for your post!
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brent
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« Reply #21 on: November 26, 2010, 01:50:34 PM »
These are long plates, brown lettering, and have an 8 sided box with 12AX7 printed inside on them (just like RCAs but larger).  They also say Made in Japan on them.  I just searched eBay and only saw green print sylvanias.  But these are amazing tubes, and not very well known.  I stumbled upon them accidentally when I bought 4 ANOS RCA tubes from a reputable dealer and this was one of them.  The silkscreening had rubbed off quite a bit on the original one I purchased but after getting a bunch of the Baldwin tubes (yellow, green, and brown print), I found out they were MIJ.

These are my second favorite V1 tube.  I'd highly recommend trying one when they show up on eBay.

I don't know why the chinese sound best to me in the PI.  They just sound great and strong in there.  If I didn't have these two Amperex tubes, my second choice would be this Baldwin in V1 and a JAN GE 12ax7wa in V2.  JAN Phillips 12ax7wa sound nearly as good to my ears in V2 but slightly different.  They look identical in construction.
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brent
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« Reply #22 on: November 26, 2010, 02:18:29 PM »
How do you guys bias your output tubes, and what do you set them to typically?  I recently picked up a bias tester that plugs into my Fluke multimeter from amp-head.  You can buy these from weber unassembled.  But for the small amount more, I picked up an amp-head mV version.

I also tried a set of Tung-Sol NOS 5881s in my amp.  They sound good!!!  But I'm saving these for my tweed Bandmaster.
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citizen
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« Reply #23 on: November 28, 2010, 05:27:39 AM »
Sorry if this was mentioned already elsewhere but has anyone tried a NOS Brimar in V1? Do you think this would be 'nicer' than the JJ that's in there at present?

Or would it be better used in one of the other positions?

Thanks for any advice

Kieran
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212Mavguy
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« Reply #24 on: November 28, 2010, 07:37:26 AM »
Chances are significant that the Brimar would be more pleasing to many ears than any JJ.
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citizen
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« Reply #25 on: November 28, 2010, 11:50:54 AM »
Thanks- I will try it in there today.
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bluesfendermanblues
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« Reply #26 on: November 28, 2010, 01:49:39 PM »
Quote from: 212Mavguy on November 28, 2010, 07:37:26 AM
Chances are significant that the Brimar would be more pleasing to many ears than any JJ.

After building and tweaking 4 different versions of Dumble clone amps over the last 3 years, I have reached the conclusion that jj's (ECC83S) is THE tube for position V1 and V2 and Sovtek LPS is the winner in pos V3.

My experience is the you can indeed tweak your amp to sound good with almost any tube, by tweaking the PSU string. However, I don't like my amps to stray too much from the original designs, which makes it harder to find replacements.

I have a bunch of old ECC83 tubes - mullard, brimar, Siemens, Mazda, GE - which are great in Marshall or Fender amps, but kind of pale in a D-style amp.

The amps I have now are

#124 50w version, 6L6
Bluesmaster 100W, EL34
ODS 100w, Robben Ford version 6L6
HRM Skyliner, 50w
« Last Edit: November 28, 2010, 01:52:40 PM by bluesfendermanblues » Logged
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citizen
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« Reply #27 on: November 28, 2010, 02:54:34 PM »
That's interesting - the Brimar is currently in a Blackstar Artisan 15H and sounds really good in it. I also have a Brimar EF86 in the Blackstar's other preamp channel and it sounds pretty good.

I might just leave the JJ in there... decisions decisions. My amp is the Bluesmaster HRM 100- you reckon the Sovtek in V3 would be a good choice for this amp?
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212Mavguy
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« Reply #28 on: November 28, 2010, 03:25:06 PM »
Only way to find out is to just do it and listen!  Again, thanks to all who have posted here, some good stuff is happening!
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brent
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« Reply #29 on: November 29, 2010, 02:49:08 PM »
I've been playing around with tubes over the weekend.  My amp has the effects loop buffer built-in.  Having said that, I found the best results to have the same brand tube in the V1 and also in the effects loop buffer.  I put one of my Amperex tubes in V1 the other in the loop buffer.  Put my JAN GE 12AX7WA in V2.  Left the Chinese in the phase inverter and wow! 

Anyone with a C-lator have similar experience?

I also put the SED "Winged C" tubes back in and set the bias to ~28mV. 
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