After playing the amp a while, I thought it still had too much gain. I was getting a lot of fizzy sounds out of my speaker. After talking to an amp tech friend of mine, I tried the following: (not counting EF86) V1:5751  V2:12AT7 V3:12AX7 This combo works well for me. The fizziness and weird ghost notes are gone. I might have the amp modded a little to take some of the gain out, but putting the lower gain tubes in the TMB channel helped a lot.

Update...put a 5751 tube in the phase inverter slot and really like the results. Now the amp has the "right" amount of breakup for my tastes. Still cleans up when turning down volume on the guitar.

Got my amp last Wednesday...great service, Nik! The amp seems like it really slams the power amp, so, on Steve Jaggers' advice, I'm going to try a 5751 in the phase inverter slot. I was used to and liked the gain of a Marshall 2061X that I had and am getting used to the higher gain of this amp. I want to hear the notes when I solo with a band, instead of over-distorted mush. Steve also reminded me to use my guitar's volume knob. I've been doing that...this amp cleans up great when you back the volume down. One suggestion I'd make for you other EF86 TMB owners is a NOS EF86 tube. I got a Dario Miniwatt EF86 from Mike at KOS New Old Stock Tubes and it's a great tube. A little more gain and a lot more chime than the EH EF86. Should last a lot longer, too. All in all, I really like the amp. Graet tone & value!

Got one on order...will post thoughts on it after it arrives. Seems like a great amp, excited about it.