Tubes

RocketSmasher

RocketSmasher

New member
I just bought some new tubes from The Tube Store. How are they to do business with? On-line transactions were easy enough and pricing seemed reasonable.

I've read some good things about the Electro Harmonix tubes. I just bout 5 12Ax7 and a matching pair of 6L6's. Anyone else use the EH tubes? Any comments on them?

Thanks,

RocketSmasher

 
In my somewhat limited experience, it really depends on the amp your dealing with. I have found that different amps are very picky about what sounds right and some just run decent with most properly operating tubes. I have used some EH 6L6's and el34's and in some amps they were fine and in some doo doo.

 
The only place I buy tubes from anymore, they are good to deal with, usually very fast to ship.

 
the eh preamp tubes seem to be well made and sound good in some applications. they work ok in a couple of positions on my rivera bm60 but they sound really bad in my modded pv c20. the first time i used them in the pv i thought the speaker was blown. it was real fuzzy and lacked character. you just have to try them in your amp i guess.

 
I only deal with Doug at www.Dougstubes.com these days unless he doesn't have what I'm looking for, which is rare. I just asked him a few weeks ago what tube would but the growl in a JCM800 and he recommended the new Ruby Tubes EL34's. Stronger Glass and plates than the previous version. I plugged them in, biased the amp and VOILA!!!!! It is now a screaming demon. /emoticons/default_wink.png

I had no qualms with the Tubes Store, KCA Tubes, Lord Valve etc., I just prefer to deal with Doug.

 
To the best of my knowledge (very limited lol!) there are really only 1 or 3 factory's actually producing tubes nowadays. All these tube merchant's are just grading them,matching them and putting their label on them. so...they are all dipping from the same well and tubes are really a crap shoot when it comes to how they are gonna sound in your amp cuz...a tube meter ain't got no speakers or amp type circuitry or the type of input that your guitar introduces to them..you could take 5 sets of the same tubes with the same "matched set" numbers from the same distributor and try each set in your amp and each will sound different!! /emoticons/default_wink.png

 
I went through them when I re-tubed my Mesa Bass 400+. I think I took out a second mortgage for that one, 16 tubes altogether - LOL. They were FAST (I think I had the tubes within two or three days), and the prices were reasonable.

 
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