Recommend me some good tubes (quick please)

[Neeradj]

Hey guys,
Some of you know the story, my VHT Ultralead is in desperate aid of new poweramp tubes. Thinking about having the whole thing done (pre and power amp tubes). Right now it has four VHT 12ax7 tubes and one 12au7 in the preamp, and four original VHT KT88s in the poweramp section. What I want is the clean to be the most beautiful (clean) it can, and the rhythm and lead channels "high gain" to shine with a clear thick sound. I'm sure the preamp tubes are ok, but I want to get the best sound I can out of this amp, and according to Puckboy and GJ the Sovtek 12ax7lps smoke in high gain amps. As for KT88, I have no idea what to order. I've heard about SED and JJ being on top, but I'm not sure yet. Can't really decide on a budget since the difference is just 1 buck a tube

I really have to order them this weekend or beginning next week, because I need to decide whether I should trade back my Marshall 2x12 at the musicstore. If it doesn't sound good with this head I'll be able to make my decision

Thanks again guys

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Recommend me some good tubes (quick please)

Yeah, those Sovtek 12AX7LPS (only those!), Groove Tube 12AX7C's, or JJ ECC803S are the 3 current production tubes that are every bit as good as the expensive NOS pre tubes. I'm not sure who sells the best KT-88's, but I'm sure a bit of research will lead you to the good ones.

If your Marshall 2-12 is 1936 cab.....yeah, those aren't so hot. You may as well sell it, and find another matching Bogner cab, so you can run both.

[PUCKBOY99]

Re: Recommend me some good tubes (quick please)

The only KT88s I have experience with were EHs....I don't think they're overly expensive either & they were good; the usual HUGE clean tone with a slight bit of sizzle when pushed.

I hear the Valve Arts are good too, but I have a thing about Chinese crap in my amps!

[Neeradj]

Re: Recommend me some good tubes (quick please)

I did quite a bit of research on the KT88s actually, but it only confused me more

The cab I have is a limited edition run, but since it came with wrong speakers, after a bit of going back and forth about it the store owner agreed to take it back for store credit. They have the best prices on Bogner cabs there though, so yeah maybe a 2x12 or another 1x12 might be in order.

I kind of have a weird thing about chinese tubes as well PB99 .

I heard JJs have a very dark sound, so I'm not sure if they would be suitable for this amp, since it already has a very thick sound. I wouldn't want it to go muddy.