Ruby El34 Bht & Jj 6ca7 With Clips

[RickyLee]

I have been needing to put some new EL34's in my JVM 410H for some time now. I have had this amp for almost a year now and it still has the OEM 2007 Wing C EL34's it left the Marshall factory with.

I know Adrian here is really digging the Ruby EL34 BHT's. I have always thought the Ruby EL34 BSTR's are a great tube as well, and are one of the cheaper ones for the wallet these days as well. I sure would like to hear from any and all running either of these power valves/tubes, BHT's, JJ 6CA7's and then even the BSTR's that I already have in quite a few amps..

Now as for the JJ 6CA7's, I am really GAS ing to try a quad of these. I experimented with a pair in my SL-X many many years ago and I have a couple duets stashed away. I do not want to pull any power tubes out of my stash at this time, so figured i would just buy a new quad. Plus I need a matched quad anyway.

And then, I am thinking my '98 DSL100 is in need of a fresh quad of EL34's as well. My plan is to possibly buy a quad of each I have mentioned, then audition both in each of those amps, then swap them and audition again.

My GAS for the JJ 6CA7's is due to remembering that they made my SL-X really come alive big time. Never went back to trying those 6CA7's and the SL-X has been stored away. I due plan on getting that SL-X out here real soon lol.

 

[charveldan]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Tung-Sol-F...UMAAOxyyFhTd85w:sc:USPSFirstClass!63139!US!-1

This is all you need to know ...

 

[matttornado]

I used to use JJ 6ca7s in my 100 watt superlead. They sounded great but didn't last too long & often when I would purchase a new quad, one or two of the tubes would short after a few weeks. For the past 5 or so years I been using nothing but Ruby BSTR EL34s and they sound great with very little quality issues.

 

[Mitchell Pearrow]

I have been using ruby el34’s for almost 2 years, my spare set is another set of ruby’s as well, mine are in one of my 40c’s, I like them, and I can AB 2 40c’s , I cant pick up much of a difference between the two, ymmv

 

[Mitchell Pearrow]

I want to try a pair in the origin, and see if I hear much of a difference there, also want to try some mullards,

 

[RickyLee]

Well, I went ahead and ordered a quad of the JJ 6CA7's as well as a quad of the Ruby EL34 BHT's. I plan on trying both of those in each amp for a bit, the DSL100 and the JVM 410H.

My DSL100 has a choke and then this past week I did the first mild mod to it. I lowered the first gain stage cathode bypass cap from 4.7uF down to .82uF. I was considering both .68uF and 1uF and that is how I ended up with the oddball value lol.

I am liking the crispier and more cleaner crunch voicing on both Green Crunch and Red Lead channels. But the Green Clean mode is what ends up suffering when you do this mod.

 

[jmp45]

I've been running JJ 6ca7s for years without any issues. I favored sylvania 6ca7s in my super lead in the early 70s. They sounded fantastic in that amp but they lasted about 6 months for a quad. Curious about your take on JJs. I'll be watch this thread.

 

[RickyLee]

I've been running JJ 6ca7s for years without any issues. I favored sylvania 6ca7s in my super lead in the early 70s. They sounded fantastic in that amp but they lasted about 6 months for a quad. Curious about your take on JJs. I'll be watch this thread.

I have been GAS'ing for a good quad of the JJ 6CA7's for several years now. I found them to be so colorful, sizzling in a good way, and then the midrange crunch was elastic and chewy. This was with a pair in my SL-X 2500 after trying JJ KT77's in that SL-X and not digging them at all. This was many years ago. I had another pair of JJ 6CA7's and stashed them away.

I had also tried EH 6CA7's in my '88 2205 and they were almost the same type outcome as the JJ's. Oddly, the EH 6CA7 pair got stashed away and never tried those tubes since. Don't ask me why, as I am a strange Cat that way. I was considering for future recording projects somewhat you could say lol. I also did that with lots of other tubes: RFT EL34, Winged C EL34 (which I have a good stash of) and GT KT66. With these 6CA7's I am hoping it is not "they were made better back then when they first came out" type of situation. That was many years ago when they were a new offering . . . .

 

[paul-e-mann]

I have been GAS'ing for a good quad of the JJ 6CA7's for several years now. I found them to be so colorful, sizzling in a good way, and then the midrange crunch was elastic and chewy. This was with a pair in my SL-X 2500 after trying JJ KT77's in that SL-X and not digging them at all. This was many years ago. I had another pair of JJ 6CA7's and stashed them away.

I had also tried EH 6CA7's in my '88 2205 and they were almost the same type outcome as the JJ's. Oddly, the EH 6CA7 pair got stashed away and never tried those tubes since. Don't ask me why, as I am a strange Cat that way. I was considering for future recording projects somewhat you could say lol. I also did that with lots of other tubes: RFT EL34, Winged C EL34 (which I have a good stash of) and GT KT66. With these 6CA7's I am hoping it is not "they were made better back then when they first came out" type of situation. That was many years ago when they were a new offering . . . .

I have a pair of Ruby EL34 BHT's in my Orange, they are very crunchy, I actually just removed them and stored them away since Im getting rid of the amp, I put a pair of TAD EL34's in it I dont like to go away with the amp. I'm surprised you like JJ tubes, I dont like them at all, too dark sounding and not open sounding.

 

[RickyLee]

I have a pair of Ruby EL34 BHT's in my Orange, they are very crunchy, I actually just removed them and stored them away since Im getting rid of the amp, I put a pair of TAD EL34's in it I dont like to go away with the amp. I'm surprised you like JJ tubes, I dont like them at all, too dark sounding and not open sounding.

Well, that was many years ago so we will see how I like these JJ's now lol.

I think the JJ 6L6 and 6V6 and their EL84 are good sounding tubes. I have had the E34L many times and ended up going away from those pretty much.

I do remember having a pair of older JJ standard EL34 in one amp that was just amazing. Totally blew the E34L out of the water.

The JJ KT77 I just can't seem to like, but have only tried them in a few amps many years ago.

I have some JJ KT88's that are massive sounding with great tonal nuance as well.

At this point, I am still trippin' on how good my '98 DSL100 sounds in pretty much stock form. I have been trying to keep it 100% stock until I get my heavily modified '05 DSL100 back out of storage. But at this point, it has a choke now and then I lowered that first stage cathode bypass cap a bit. Not to invasive of mods, but it is not 100% now. But man does it ever sound badass. It is a freak from the factory for sure. And it is running some old Svetlana EL34's.

 

[RickyLee]

I want to try a pair in the origin, and see if I hear much of a difference there, also want to try some mullards,

The old British Mullards?

Do you have the Ruby BSTR or BHT?

 

[Mitchell Pearrow]

They are the bstr’s whatever the current production, reissue Mullard’s are! I am still a little ignorant on all the C.P. Tubes

 

[Mitchell Pearrow]

Here in MO VAL Joe who runs CJ’s music is where I purchased all my spares from, sovteck ruby’s, groove tubes, all 12ax7’s then had the local GC order me up a pair of matched sets of the ruby’s (el34’s)

 

[paul-e-mann]

Well, that was many years ago so we will see how I like these JJ's now lol.

I think the JJ 6L6 and 6V6 and their EL84 are good sounding tubes. I have had the E34L many times and ended up going away from those pretty much.

I do remember having a pair of older JJ standard EL34 in one amp that was just amazing. Totally blew the E34L out of the water.

The JJ KT77 I just can't seem to like, but have only tried them in a few amps many years ago.

I have some JJ KT88's that are massive sounding with great tonal nuance as well.

At this point, I am still trippin' on how good my '98 DSL100 sounds in pretty much stock form. I have been trying to keep it 100% stock until I get my heavily modified '05 DSL100 back out of storage. But at this point, it has a choke now and then I lowered that first stage cathode bypass cap a bit. Not to invasive of mods, but it is not 100% now. But man does it ever sound badass. It is a freak from the factory for sure. And it is running some old Svetlana EL34's.

I guess it depends on the amp and JJ's, I hate the E34L in anything, KT77 was good in the old DSL50 I had but not good in anything else, EL34 again I didn't like. Chinese tubes (probably all made by Shuguang, Ruby, etc.) are superior to the Slovak stuff (JJ...) in my opinion, I've had great success with Chinese tubes in any amp, I've totally written off JJ unless I come across an application that requires a dark tube.

Interesting though, the new DSL and Origin line come with JJ power tubes and sounded best with them over any other tubes I tried, leads me to believe they are tuning these new amps to sound best with JJ.

 

[RickyLee]

Got my JJ 6CA7's and my Ruby EL34 BHT's. I have to say there is no darkness of tone on these JJ 6CA7's. I shortly ran both sets in both my '98 DSL 100 and my '07 JVM 410H. The tubes actually sound very similar. Probably has something to do with the amp models.

The Rubys bias up/run a bit hotter at 10mA hotter per tube. Which means they need more negative voltage on the control grids (pin 5 bias supply voltage).

I heard a slight hotter signal, or more volume. Very minimal really. And I would say a bit cleaner and bolder power amp with the Ruby EL34 BHT. I am figuring that could translate partially from the higher bias difference?

The JJ 6CA7 was more prominent in its tonal character and in tonal change while in the DSL and in a very good way. The JJ 6CA7 had a sweet sizzle in the mids/upper mids and had a more complex coloring to the tone. More of that chewy elastic feel like I remember hearing all those years ago.

But these changes are very subtle. It does not come across to my ears like many other people claim they hear in tube swaps. Everyone hears it differently for sure.

The DSL100 had Svetlana EL34's and they are actually still very healthy and sound fantastic. I found my notes on the dates I installed them as that was back when I bought two quads of the Svets for around $90 in 2013 from Musicians Friend. What a price for sure. The JVM has its original factory Wing C EL34's from 2007. And they actually still sound awesome. I have no idea how many hours are on them from the previous owner of my JVM 410H. So they need to be pulled for now as I don't want to push my luck.

The Ruby EL34 BHT is a big bottle valve/tube. Not as big as the JJ 6CA7 though. And as I looked at the Ruby BHT I thought it looked exactly like the Ruby EL34 BSTR, so I had to compare them. The BHT and BSTR have different holes in the plates and then the BHT looks to have bigger heat sink fins on top. Getters look the same and the physical structure looks to be the same otherwise. So now I need to find out what the specs are on each. If anyone already knows this info, please post it here.

I am going to leave the BHT's in the JVM as I am figuring they might be higher rated for voltage and/or screens. And these Svetlana EL34;s are staying in the DSL100 for now as they just sound badass. The 6CA7's might end up in either my next project amp or might try them in my 2555 Jubilee Clone or my first build, the hot rodded 2204 amp.

 

[ampmadscientist]

I couldn't be bothered wasting any more time on Ruby tubes.
It's a customer service / ethics issue, and I would rather buy tubes from just about anywhere else.

The problem isn't the tube itself, it's when defects need to be returned and replaced with good ones.
In that respect I consider Ruby a laughable failure.
Which is why I will never buy or recommend Ruby tubes to anybody.

 

[RickyLee]

For anyone that is interested, here are some short clips of both the '98 DSL100 Lead 1 and '07 JVM 410H OD1 Orange with these new power tubes. Just short clips noodling on power chords recorded with my S5 phone, the amps in my kitchen. Plugged straight in with my Super Strat bridge humbucker and playing through the 1936 2X12 Heritage Greenback M20/Eminence Reignmaker FDM attenuator speaker.

This first one is the DSL 100 Lead 1 with the new JJ 6CA7's. Gain was almost at 6.

 

[RickyLee]

Here is the DSL100 Lead 1 Gain 6 with new Ruby EL34 BHT's.

 

[RickyLee]

Here is the JVM 410H OD1 Orange. Starts off with the original factory Wing C EL34's from 2007. Then I run it with the new JJ 6CA7's and then the new Ruby EL34 BHT's.

 

[RickyLee]

This clip starts with the DSL 100 Lead 1 running the old Svetlana EL34's. I made this clip earlier today and I am only running two power tubes in 50W mode with impedance adjusted and I lowered the plate voltage about 30VDC.

I then run the JVM 410H OD1 Orange with the new Ruby EL34 BHT's running two power tubes in 50W mode with impedance adjusted and I lowered the plate voltage about 30VDC.