Sovtek EL34WXT Tubes - Any Good??

  • Thread starter rmroza
  • Start date
  • This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links like Ebay, Amazon, and others.

rmroza

Active Member
Joined
Jun 9, 2010
Messages
552
Reaction score
211
Location
Detroit, MI
A buddy has a quad matched set of Sovetek EL34WXT and wants to put them in an amp. I want to know if they are any good and tone-wise??
 

charveldan

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 31, 2010
Messages
8,248
Reaction score
5,173
Location
Somewhere with a Friedman Marshall & Les Paul.
tsel34quad.jpg



Tungsol EL-34B is better.
 

Joshabr1

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 2, 2013
Messages
1,466
Reaction score
691
Location
Ky
Agree with Dan. The tung sol and shaugung are top of the heap for cp el34s
 

rmroza

Active Member
Joined
Jun 9, 2010
Messages
552
Reaction score
211
Location
Detroit, MI
Hey guys, thanks for the link(s). Agreed. Shunguang rock with high gain and bite. I see Dan suggested Tung-Sol and I have heard good things about the Siemens and also the JJ E34Ls are supposed to be good and fat bottom!

However, the question was whether these vintage 15YO NOS Sovtek's were worth a shit as my buddy has had them lying around and supposed to be hi gain and it's apparent he's one of those...they must be Russian and Chineses are junk, etc.

I had read they were thin and brittle and not very good and from this chart, at least the tubes shown, they are basically bottom of the barrell, in comparison!

I can try them and A-B them throwing in a set of Chinese or JJ/Tesla's or whatever and let him understand it...but it's not looking good at least that these aren't "the" tubes to go to.

Thanks for everyone's input.
 

rmroza

Active Member
Joined
Jun 9, 2010
Messages
552
Reaction score
211
Location
Detroit, MI
Wow, looking at that chart again, as least when the comparison was doing, I see the JJ E34L's did not rank very well! Maybe that changed over time.
 

matttornado

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 14, 2012
Messages
1,897
Reaction score
1,509
I didn't think Sovtek made EL34s anymore. I haven't seen them in years. I used to use them back in the 90s with my JCM800 & then with my 1959 superlead & they were great back then. Sounded good and last a decent amount of time considering how I was punishing them.

hmmmm......I'll have to do some research & see if I can find them.
 

SG~GUY

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 27, 2010
Messages
3,533
Reaction score
1,891
put them in and tell us if there any good






A buddy has a quad matched set of Sovetek EL34WXT and wants to put them in an amp. I want to know if they are any good and tone-wise??
 

rmroza

Active Member
Joined
Jun 9, 2010
Messages
552
Reaction score
211
Location
Detroit, MI
I don't think I'll be able to.

I'm still finishing up on his amp, but initially during biasing phase, I was getting a huge variance. I swapped tubes side-to-side and the variance shifted suggesting tubes (though they were SUPPOSED to be "matched"). I put in a matched set of E34L's....BOOM within .7mA! With the Sovtek's they were within 9.0mA!!!! However, my customer and buddy does not want JJ's...soo he provided a set of EL34EH that are around 1.9mA and close, so will be using these...IF they sound worth a crap, but should be ok.
 

VanR

Active Member
Joined
Jul 20, 2010
Messages
140
Reaction score
56
Location
Arizona
I'd just put them in and rock them. If you have them just laying around. Why stress it?
 

Latest posts



Top