Preamp Tubes? - Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How?

[MartyStrat54]

Are you going to have any tubes for sale in the near future???

 

[Jae]

Are you going to have any tubes for sale in the near future???

hey Marty, that IS a good question. I think eventually I'll have a bunch of tubes lying around unused. For now though I am experimenting with as many tubes I can get my hands on.
I actually sold a couple of Mullard ECC83s to the manager at L&M amp repairs. I sold it to him for about $40 a pop, which I think was a good deal since he tested them out himself and the readings were good and liked the sound of it in his amp. I'm also selling him a couple of Telefunkens.

I was doing it as a friend since he helped me out alot in my quest for tone.

Oh boy, I have alot more tubes coming in. It sounds crazy, because I have about 30 more separate boxes of tubes to be delivered to my house. Of course most of each box will be singles or doubles. It was funny, the guy who usually delivers to mail to my house was wondering "What the heck is going on here?" He's been delivering alot of boxes of stuff to my house in the last few months. He told me he thought I was building bombs or something (lol). Well wait until he realizes that there are 30 more boxes to come. I think I'll have ALOT of stuff to post on this thread. I really hope you guys don't mind. If you do please tell me! I have gotten "tube crazy" in the last couple of months.

 

[Jae]

i was on ebay and found some tubes named Amperex. Are these any good?
It seems like these are going quite high and as high as the mullards and tele's.

I heard alot about these tubes.

 

[MartyStrat54]

i was on ebay and found some tubes named Amperex. Are these any good?
It seems like these are going quite high and as high as the mullards and tele's.

I heard alot about these tubes.

That's one of my favorites. Most were made in Holland. Amperex is also known as Bugle Boy. Anyway, a lot of people do not know that Philips had bought the name from an American company and they started using it on their new line of nine pin tubes and that was Amperex. You will want to try some of them out.

In two of my amps, I have a 7025 and a high gain Amperex. So yeah, I like them.

 

[solarburn]

Hey all. On my quest for tube hunting I had quite a few actually several tubes come in today. Here are some of them.

The two on the left are RCA blackplate 12ax7s. The two on the right are Eico Mullards.

I have to say that these RCAs have a very solid sound. It's very crisp and clean sounding with more even order harmonics to my ears. These Mullards are also great too, I put them in the V1 slot with the RCA in V2. The mullards had a more of a gritty sound with more crunch and dirt (good dirt).

Hope you enjoy the pic

This is TooB porn!

 

[Procter2812]

Well!!!

Got the Harma 7025!

At the moment iv got the Mullard in V1 and the 7025 in V2... sounds better.

Waiting for another couple of white label mullards to arrive so i can compare!

Alex

 

[thrawn86]

Here's a silly question for you gents. I've picked around at this thread for a while, and noticed that some of you have mismatched sets in the preamp section. Let's say I just want to beef up my 401.....a "little"; nothing over the top. Could I purchase just one or two tubes and replace them? Or will this still mess me up because the set has to bias properly, even if they're not all from the same mfg.? And which sockets would I use to do that if it's feasable?

 

[solarburn]

Here's a silly question for you gents. I've picked around at this thread for a while, and noticed that some of you have mismatched sets in the preamp section. Let's say I just want to beef up my 401.....a "little"; nothing over the top. Could I purchase just one or two tubes and replace them? Or will this still mess me up because the set has to bias properly, even if they're not all from the same mfg.? And which sockets would I use to do that if it's feasable?

You don't bias preamp tubes and yes you can mix 12AX7's up. The only thing you need to watch for are some preamp tubes may fail in certain slots due to not being stout enough to handle the voltages there. In my amp that slot is V3 and some examples of tubes I wouldn't put there would be a Tung Sol, Mullard RI or an Sovtec LPS. The voltages in that slot will likely kill those tubes in a short amount of time.

You want to beef it up with a couple of tubes fill V1 and V2 and you'll have that to a point. Medium gain in V1 and high gain in V2 or reverse that or put 2 high gain tubes in those slots. Depends on what you want...

So lets hear more of what you are looking for...

 

[Procter2812]

Iv been messing around with positions and im sticking with the Mullard in V1...
This Mullard is just awesome in V1... More gain less noise

The 7025 is a bit more harsh and noisy but works nicely in V2... better than the JJ in V2

Im so impressed with these Mullards... hands down the best iv tried!

Alex

 

[thrawn86]

You don't bias preamp tubes and yes you can mix 12AX7's up. The only thing you need to watch for are some preamp tubes may fail in certain slots due to not being stout enough to handle the voltages there. In my amp that slot is V3 and some examples of tubes I wouldn't put there would be a Tung Sol, Mullard RI or an Sovtec LPS. The voltages in that slot will likely kill those tubes in a short amount of time.

You want to beef it up with a couple of tubes fill V1 and V2 and you'll have that to a point. Medium gain in V1 and high gain in V2 or reverse that or put 2 high gain tubes in those slots. Depends on what you want...

So lets hear more of what you are looking for...

If by high gain you mean straight up metal, then no. I'd prefer an edgy, hard rock sound instead. My first tube amp was a Crate 5112, and it made some beautiful cleans, but the break up was muddy, and never enough. That's why I bought this amp, and I enjoy what I get, but just a little more would be great. Again, not looking to go over the top, just change it up a little.

 

[MartyStrat54]

If by high gain you mean straight up metal, then no. I'd prefer an edgy, hard rock sound instead. My first tube amp was a Crate 5112, and it made some beautiful cleans, but the break up was muddy, and never enough. That's why I bought this amp, and I enjoy what I get, but just a little more would be great. Again, not looking to go over the top, just change it up a little.

Well to be blunt, I own two 401's and have had a total of three. The original speaker isn't the greatest sounding, so I have replaced the speaker in both units. In addition, I have an American 7025 in V1 and a high gain in V2. This gives me control over the amp. I can get anything from crunchy to full blown metal. You need to realize that a 401 will sound so much better if you play it through a closed back cab. I have a 1961 JBL D123 in one of the amps and it produces a tight low end similar to a closed back. This speaker is an exception, because it has so much low end. The other speaker is an Eminence Red Fang alnico. It has more low end than the stock speaker and is more Celestion sounding in the mids.

So, you can make a tone change with different tubes in V1 and V2, or you can go farther and change out the speaker. Your 401 will sound much better.

 

[MartyStrat54]

Alright, I'm going to jump the gun a little here because I'm %99 sure I'm about to order an Ibanez RG-7321.
Also I will alternate with my six string RG-570. They should be very close in sound.

It will look like this:
Ibanez RG-7321/RG-570 > Digitech GSP-1101 > JCM-2000 DSL-100 > MC412A/Celestion G12E50 Rockets

The distortion I use is EXTREME metal.
On my clean tone sounds, I favor tones mimicking an acoustic guitar sound that can go very loud, if that makes sense. I play a lot of my "rock" tones with added gain for that dirty sound. If I were to try and place a comparison of how I want my rock tone, I'd say I want tones similar to Blind Melon.

I don't know why this reply posted late. I just happened to reread some of the posts and found it today.

Hey are you wanting advice on current production (CP) tubes, or are you wanting to take the plunge with New Old Stock (NOS) tubes?

For what you are wanting to do, I think you will have to go NOS. I say this because a CP 7025 isn't as clean and doesn't have the gain of an NOS 7025.

For you, I'm thinking a slightly hotter American 7025 in V1 with a Raytheon Black Plate in V2.

What are the pickup configurations on the Ibanez's? H-S-H? Let me know.

 

[Jae]

Hey all. Today was a good day. I received some cool tubes. The four I really liked were these telefunkens that were used in some medical equipment. They had blue dots on them and are supposed to be well balanced. I tried them out and wow! i'll post some pics for you all soon!

 

[superimposedmedia]

For you, I'm thinking a slightly hotter American 7025 in V1 with a Raytheon Black Plate in V2.

What are the pickup configurations on the Ibanez's? H-S-H? Let me know.

The RG-570 is H-S-H. The RG-7321 is setup in the same layout but without the single. Here's some pics.

Hopefully, I'll have the RG7321 ordered this weekend.

 

[MartyStrat54]

Iv been messing around with positions and im sticking with the Mullard in V1...
This Mullard is just awesome in V1... More gain less noise

The 7025 is a bit more harsh and noisy but works nicely in V2... better than the JJ in V2

Im so impressed with these Mullards... hands down the best iv tried!

Alex

Yeah, I was afraid of that. A good Mullard 12AX7 is better that an CP 7025. Now if you had a "real" 7025, then that would make your tube rolling even more interesting.

I'm glad you got the Mullards. Smart move.

 

[MartyStrat54]

Yeah, I was afraid of that. A good Mullard 12AX7 is better that an CP 7025. Now if you had a "real" 7025, then that would make your tube rolling even more interesting.

I'm glad you got the Mullards. Smart move.

1600 Joe

 

[MartyStrat54]

Alright, I'm going to jump the gun a little here because I'm %99 sure I'm about to order an Ibanez RG-7321.
Also I will alternate with my six string RG-570. They should be very close in sound.

It will look like this:
Ibanez RG-7321/RG-570 > Digitech GSP-1101 > JCM-2000 DSL-100 > MC412A/Celestion G12E50 Rockets

The distortion I use is EXTREME metal.
On my clean tone sounds, I favor tones mimicking an acoustic guitar sound that can go very loud, if that makes sense. I play a lot of my "rock" tones with added gain for that dirty sound. If I were to try and place a comparison of how I want my rock tone, I'd say I want tones similar to Blind Melon.

Well since you might be picking up a 7 string, I would have to say that you might want to go with a hotter medium gain Black Plate and a high gain Black Plate. This would bring out the bottom end that the 7 string will produce.

Plus a Black Plate can get as crunchy as any other tube out there, so you could go from a well rounded clean to a heavy crunch.

 

[thrawn86]

Well to be blunt, I own two 401's and have had a total of three. The original speaker isn't the greatest sounding, so I have replaced the speaker in both units. In addition, I have an American 7025 in V1 and a high gain in V2. This gives me control over the amp. I can get anything from crunchy to full blown metal. You need to realize that a 401 will sound so much better if you play it through a closed back cab. I have a 1961 JBL D123 in one of the amps and it produces a tight low end similar to a closed back. This speaker is an exception, because it has so much low end. The other speaker is an Eminence Red Fang alnico. It has more low end than the stock speaker and is more Celestion sounding in the mids.

So, you can make a tone change with different tubes in V1 and V2, or you can go farther and change out the speaker. Your 401 will sound much better.

That's just fine for me to have the versatility; I'm not opposed to having the abilityto play the high gain sound thru my amp. I could change the speaker, but that's mostly used for me and me alone, since I unplug the onboard speaker and use my 4x12 cab with any sort of gig. It does sound a lot better than my 100w goldback, so I just bypass it and run the cab only.

My question is what tube(s) in V1 or V2 do you suggest to do something similar to get that kind of control you speak of? I'd rather burn the dough on good tubes than on a speaker I'll only use to practice with......and half my practice time is late at night, so I go with my pedal/headphone combo.

 

[MartyStrat54]

Well the bread and butter combo is a 7025 in V1 and a high gain 12AX7 in V2.

This allows a very clean channel and also a mild to wild high gain sound.

If you are interested in a couple of tubes, send me a PM.

 

[solarburn]

If by high gain you mean straight up metal, then no. I'd prefer an edgy, hard rock sound instead. My first tube amp was a Crate 5112, and it made some beautiful cleans, but the break up was muddy, and never enough. That's why I bought this amp, and I enjoy what I get, but just a little more would be great. Again, not looking to go over the top, just change it up a little.

High gain to me is from hard rock on up of which I don't usually do the on up stuff hehe. Medium gain in V1 and a high gain tube in V2 will serve you well just like Marty stated.