My GT12ax7 Mullard is going in the trash

[JumpMarine]

What a POS! I had suspected that it had some problems quite a while ago when I had it in my Silvertone, but blew it off to the age of the amp. It them made it's way into my Vox for a while and it started having some wierd issues that I attributed to our funky power fluctuations in the area. It finally made it's way into my Peavey and I've been playing hard from about 3:45 until just about 7pm when I finally gave up when the microphonic ring got too loud. Switched over to Youngpup's Super Reverb and kept on going for another 45 minutes. Just got home and started pulling tubes for known good ones and narrowed it down to the GT. What a waste of $20 this tube was! I popped one of my old JJ's in and it all went away. My JJ's have been going strong for a couple of years now in a few different amps without and ounce of trouble. I won't be buying any GT's any more.

[Jeff_H]

Re: My GT12ax7 Mullard is going in the trash

Hmmm, I've had GREAT luck with the GT's..even stopped using my NOS in favor of them. Wonder if quality is slipping?

[JumpMarine]

Re: My GT12ax7 Mullard is going in the trash

Who knows, could just be lemon....I did get it at GC after all....lol! And I know that I am being far to abrupt to condem the whole line with the one experience. Who knows might try them again, but for now the JJ's are just fine.

[Curly]

Re: My GT12ax7 Mullard is going in the trash

I did read they had some issues, which surprised me - when they first came out I had read that the standards were very high, and that they were throwing out anything that didn't pass the test.

[KLINKDETROIT]

Re: My GT12ax7 Mullard is going in the trash

I have bought about 10 of them and 2 went bad with one of them breaking right between my fingers while removing it. Both were michrophonic and howled and crackeled terribly but the other 8 were great. Go figure.

[kmcguitars]

Re: My GT12ax7 Mullard is going in the trash

I've heard mixed reviews on them. Seems the 40 something and up guys(Who are very familiar with what the originals sounded like) Hated them. The 30 something and under crowd Luv' em. But all agreed they had some QC issue's.
My last old stock Mullard just went micro phonic on me. But according to a time line chart I saw going by the labeling on the tube...It appears to have been made sometime around 1963. Not a bad run. And notice I didn't say N.O.S. I got it used.

[marvar]

Re: My GT12ax7 Mullard is going in the trash

If you email GT- they will replace it for you- I had two that were bad out of the box- they were happy to replace them for me, since then, no problems

[Buckeyedog]

Re: My GT12ax7 Mullard is going in the trash

Good riddance. I got 3 of them and they all make funky weird noises and sound kind of muffled in my Budda and PV. I do hear they are better sounding in older NMV amps, but I know I"ll never spend the $$ for another GT product. Extremely disappointed in them. The new Tung Sol's kick their tail.

[75lespaul]

Re: My GT12ax7 Mullard is going in the trash

Mine crapped out in about a month. Didn't know they'd replace it. I wouldn't trust one anymore though since hearing of all the quality issues. Got a JJ in my Valvetronix now and it just hums and actually sounds better than the GT. Got my eye on a few old RCA tubes as well like stratdeluxer97 suggested, but the JJ tube sound fantastic.

[The Golden Boy]

Re: My GT12ax7 Mullard is going in the trash

Not that I've been keeping up with them, the things I've "heard" about the GT "Mullards" have been good. I'm not a big fan of GT, and I was kind of looking to hear bad stuff about them so I could justify not having to buy a set to try.

[kevlar3000]

Re: My GT12ax7 Mullard is going in the trash

I got one right when they came out. It has held up nicely and sounds nice. I bought it from a good source and that may make a difference. Heard of issues with them, but so far so good with me.

[Curly]

Re: My GT12ax7 Mullard is going in the trash

there was such high praise for the GT Ms when they came out, preceded by a fair amount of hype
I ordered a few and found them a bit bland in V1 of my Blues Jr, especially compared to an NOS GE tube.

I don't think that's a fair trial, though, but I just haven't tried them in my other amps yet.

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: My GT12ax7 Mullard is going in the trash

The Mullards that New Sensor is making are better than the GT version, imo.

[PUCKBOY99]

Re: My GT12ax7 Mullard is going in the trash

My local Mom & Pop shop....people I trust with all repairs, set-ups & whatever...refused to carry them. They said way too many microphonic tubes were getting through & it wasn't worth their effort.

With that, I'll stick to the old Mullards I have & NOS RFTs....no need for the others

[Gearjoneser]

Re: My GT12ax7 Mullard is going in the trash

I haven't had any issues, but I've heard that there were problems with the first batch, then they sorted it out, and others are perfectly fine. I dunno, I still like the C's a lot more. They have the same kinda gain, but they're tighter and more focused. The M's can be a little muddy in some amps, especially amps made for highgain. I think my favorite new pre tubes are the GT-C, Sovtek LPS, and JJ ECC803S.