12AX7 ?

[hamerican gigolo]

Hello,

I have a tube ? if i may. I have a BF Princeton clone. (Headstrong Lil' King).

I was looking for a good NOS/ANOS 12AX7 for the V1 position. I know the

RCA is the " holy grail ",but they are a little pricey. Are there others that

are under the radar that i should be aware of? Any help or recommendations

at all would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

[murkat]

My fav's~

jan's~ a great nos military tube, trustworthy, clean,

GE ~ clean, true to tone & amp charachter, rich.

RFT's~ warm, rich in gain, but not gainy.

TAD's "select" is a great new 12ax7 tube.

[JohnnyB]

Price range? One person's unacceptably expensive $50 tube is another guy's bargain.

I also like JAN tubes. I have a few Philips 1980's USA JAN 12AX7WA's (WA is mil-spec designation). They're smooth and creamy. JAN tubes, being ruggedized, are less vulnerable to vibration and the microphonics that can result. They also last a long time.

I also have a fondness for Sylvania NOS 12AX7s, both consumer grade and mil-spec. If you search around, you can find Sylvania NOS for $25 and mil-spec ones for $30 each.

[Jimbilly]

Sylvanias are the best bargain in my experience.

How much of a scrapper are you? Old console organs (with tubes) usually have at least a couple 12AX7s, the Baldwin Orgasonic can have 26 12AX7s, and 32 12AU7s, -quite a bit of heat comes off that back of those I imagine! (plus the pair of 6L6s and the 5U4).. If you're any good at hunting you can find all your tubes for free, people give away old organs. Keep the speakers, amp stuff, and some of the wiring is nice too. I have pulled good Mullards out of organs. Craigslist 'free' section can be good for organ hunting.

Ham Radio swap meets are great for tube hunting, especially for stuff that is a little under the radar (12AV7s, 12AZ7s, 12AY7s, slightly lower gain preamp tubes). Last time I went the the Ham swap, just a couple of years ago, I bought some nice Amperex Bugle Boys for $15 ea, The 12AV7s I found were $1 ea. 12AY7s came in '59 bassmans, so it's fair to try a slightly lower gain in a Fender clone. My trusted vintage fender guy says 12AV7s sound pretty much the same as 12AY7s in a Bassman.

[JohnnyB]

Sylvanias are the best bargain in my experience.

How much of a scrapper are you? Old console organs (with tubes) usually have at least a couple 12AX7s, the Baldwin Orgasonic can have 26 12AX7s, and 32 12AU7s, -quite a bit of heat comes off that back of those I imagine! (plus the pair of 6L6s and the 5U4).. If you're any good at hunting you can find all your tubes for free, people give away old organs. Keep the speakers, amp stuff, and some of the wiring is nice too. I have pulled good Mullards out of organs. Craigslist 'free' section can be good for organ hunting.

I loves me some Sylvanias. I bought a bo-teeky line stage preamp for my stereo in early October. I swapped out the NOS Raytheon 6X5 rectifier (NOS because they're long out of production) for a Sylvania JAN version, and swapped out the Electro-Harmonix 6SN7 preamp tubes for a pair of NOS Sylvanias from the '50s. I would have gone JAN there too, but they're running $180/matched pair and I got the consumer version for about $50/pair. This vendor also does organ and NOS supplies, and he had had a bunch of white box Sylvania-sourced 6SN7s made for Baldwin Organ. Unfortunately, when I got to him he was out of the Baldwin 6SN7s but he still has a bunch of Baldwin 12AX7s for $26 ea.

I've heard this from a couple of sources, that organ parts are selected off the line for low noise and microphonics. They're the next best thing to JAN. Concerning their speakers, Alpep told me the built-in speakers in Hammond and Baldwin organ consoles are also killer because they have to cover such a wide range of pitches, voicings, and amplitude. I still have a Hammond M3 in my garage that I need to pick apart. The tube amps from the Hammonds are also prized by restorationist audiophiles. They'll restore a pair, paint the chassis, and adapt them with the required switches, knobs, and I/O terminals for home stereo.

[hamerican gigolo]

Thanks for the replies. What's the difference between black plates vs. gray?

Long vs. short? Sonic or otherwise?

[Jimbilly]

Johnny; you would have liked to have shopped at Puget Sound Organ, he had a huge stockpile of tubes and parts, he had been in business for about 54 years, but he died about a year ago (Gale Jones, one of those cool old guys who invaded Iwo Jima at age 17). He charged me $15 ea for used 12AX7s regardless of brand, I bought a few rare ones from him, Mullard Master Series M10s, Black Plate red-tip RCAs, but then I got better at scrapping, and now I have enough for my needs for a long time. You would probably find good 6SN7s at the Ham radio swap, that is in Puyallup in March I think, and you could borrow my B&K tester for matching if you want. You don't want to know how many of those I've passed up for cheap, my B15N doesn't use many of those.

Yes, the speakers have been mostly very good in low wattage guitar amps, and some did come with Jensens that could also be found in guitar amps.

Lower end Hammonds seem to be the most common for free with tubes, and they commonly have EL84 and 6V6s for power tubes, the EL84s are usually european.

There's a Goodwill 'warehouse' type store nearby, and twice they let me scrap out organs they had in their store for about $10 (tubes, amp parts & speakers). Very nearly all of the tubes I've pulled out of organs have tested very good, all but about 2. I think most organs did not get played much or at very high volumes. Sometimes antique stores have used tubes too, but bring your tester, those are more likely to be dead.

[tomteriffic]

Pulled a Hammond A-100 apart recently and got a pile of 12aT's, AU's and a couple or three 12AX's out of the deal. All were RCA and appeared to be original to the organ, circa 1962. Only one tested bad. I also got EL-84's that were Amperex that still tested pretty good, if not as new.

The organ had a 2 x 12 configuration and the speakers were Rolas, again circa 1962., one optimized for top end, the other for low end. I saved the baffle board, grille cloth and the Hammond logo from between the keyboards, hoping to one day build an early 60's-style furniture cabinet (veneered, angled out screw-on legs with brass feet, etc.). Hasn't happened yet, though.

Old console-style stereos can be a good source as well. I once scavenged a set of RCA black plate 6V6's and then punished them in my Princeton for 25 years or so.