best 12AX7 tube?

[Hawkman]

Re: best 12AX7 tube?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...092150220&rd=1


ARE THESE PEOPLE OUT OF THEIR FRIGGIN MINDS?????!!!!!!

Haha! It's pretty unbelievable that NOS treasures like that are able to fetch that much dough. My guess is that most of the bidders are hi-fi nuts - not guitarists. For hi-fi guys, it's not only important to have the Telefunken (the most highly coveted tube among hi-fiers), but to have one in that kind of shape with perfect lettering and original boxes. The tubes will likely end up in a Macintosh (or similar) amp where the tubes are visible - thus, the importance of good lettering. Must be a good way to impress the girls!

[mrid]

Re: best 12AX7 tube?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...092150220&rd=1


ARE THESE PEOPLE OUT OF THEIR FRIGGIN MINDS?????!!!!!!

"Them's crack prices!"

[PUCKBOY99]

Re: best 12AX7 tube?

"Them's crack prices!"

HELL, EVEN CRACK IS CHEAPER THAN THAT!!!


O.K., I've been playing for the better part of the morning...my fingers are spent!!!

I've been swapping tubes out in the UniValve & to my ears, I love the Svetlana EL34 w/a RFT ECC83 in the input & a Tesla JJ ECC83S in the driver. Super smooth clean w/both a Tele & an LP.....rocked out better on the LP than the Tele, but when I rolled off the gain & the tone a slight bit, the Tele was smokin' too!

I don't have a lot of pre-amp tubes right now...I tried the RFTs, JJs, Mesa Sovtek 12AX7As, & a couple of Pentas both together & mixed. I liked the RFT/JJ combo best...The Pentas were overall crap.

As for power tubes, I tried a number of different tubes: Svetlana EL34s, Sovtek EL34WXTs, Mesa 6L6GCs, GT 6L6Cs, JAN Phillips 6L6WGBs, Sovtek 5881WXTs, Tesla JJ EL84s, Sovtek EL84s, & an unk Russian 6L6.............

Overall, I liked the Svetlana w/the RFT/JJ combo....The Sovtek EL34WXT w/the Mesa Sovtek 12AX7As seriously rocked, but got pretty grainy pretty quickly. The Sovteks were a little better w/2 RFTs and not so bad w/2 JJs. And the unknown Russian 6L6 was pretty nice too....nice surprise!

All of the above 6L6s were nice clean, but varied dirty. The biggest disappointment may have been the JANs. I heard such good things about them....maybe I'm not using a proper preamp tube with them. I hear the EH brings them to life, but in general, I thought they were pretty bland. SO-so clean...so-so dirty. Did nothing for me really.

Anyway, I've rambled on for way too long ! I hope some of this was meaningful....I'm still searching & learning!!!

[mrid]

Re: best 12AX7 tube?

What about the 9th gen Chinese stuff...anybody? Shuguang 12AX7C, also relabeled by GT.

[Gearjoneser]

Re: best 12AX7 tube?

What about the 9th gen Chinese stuff...anybody? Shuguang 12AX7C, also relabeled by GT.

SO FUNNY YOU MENTIONED THE GT 12AX7C! Guess what? That's the tube
that won the shootout in my Bogner Ecstasy this weekend. I'm not kidding!

First, let me get to the GTM. It is one helluva tube, and definitely worth
the $23 a piece. It is equal to a Mullard, Telefunken, Brimar, or Amperex.
Aspen Pitman copied the Mullard to a T. I compared them by looking at them closely and by hearing them side by side. Forget NOS Mullards, the GT is here.
I would highly recommend that anyone with a Plexi, Plexi Reissue, JMP,
or JCM 800 jump on a set of these ASAP. You'll notice a bigger tonal difference than if you change your power tubes. Louder, tighter, smoother,
and growly as hell. Any midgain single channel amp like this will benefit greatly from that $70 investment. They'll last for years, so what the heck!
If you've got a clean amp and want to retain the high headroom clean, I'd
suggest the JJ over the GTM. The GTM adds gain.

As for my Bogner. It is a fine tuned machine similar to a Ferrari. Reinholdt Bogner built that amp around high quality Chinese tubes, for their tightness
and gain. Even the customer service guys told me that they always come back to the Chinese Shuguang 12AX7. After trying every pre tube I have
in all the primary gain stages of the Ecstasy, I realized that I must never doubt the knowledge of Mr. Bogner. Before getting these GTM's, I had
3 GT Chinese ($15 a piece) in my amp. I honestly couldn't imaging the tone being better than it was. It turned out I was right. Because it's a 3 channel
amp with the ability to do super highgain, the GT Chinese does it's job perfectly. I installed the GTM's and volume and gain increased, but didn't have as much tight clarity. Sounded great, but I needed to back it down to the chinese. NEVER underestimate the GT 12AX7C! It's a great tube.
I can't speak for other Chinese pres, but the GT is tops, probably because it's tested by GT to a tight tolerance, and was made in the Shuguang factory.

Right now, the amp sounds friggin unbelievable, and has 3 GT Chinese for the primary gain stages, 3 JJ's for the phase inv, FX loop, and Clean channel.
It has Tesla JJ EL-34's, biased to around 38mA. I didn't go for the E-34L's,
only because I didn't want any additional headroom added to a 120W amp.

So, my summary of the GT Mullard copy is that it's the perfect tube for
a mid to highgain amp, if you're looking for a fatter, growlier tone with a bit of
gain added to what you have now. No need to spend silly money on NOS pretubes. Aspen Pitman ain't no dummy. I'm either going to put them in my Jubilee, or hang onto them till I have another vintage Marshall. If you have
a plexi or JMP, or Mesa Dual Rec, you owe it to yourself to upgrade to these. Svetlana EL-34's in a Marshall, or Svetlana 6L6's in a Mesa,
and GTM pre's would absolutely smoke!! I have yet to hear them in a clean amp, but I'm sure it would lower the breakup point, if that's the sound you're after. A+

[Hawkman]

Re: best 12AX7 tube?

Like I've been trying to hint to you guys and now jonesy confirms....

The Chinese 12ax7 is a true diamond in the rough for many amps. I just picked up 15 more of them for $4.75 each on Ebay. For that price, and with the gain, output and tone they produce, it's a hard tube to beat!

[PUCKBOY99]

Re: best 12AX7 tube?

Like I've been trying to hint to you guys and now jonesy confirms....

The Chinese 12ax7 is a true diamond in the rough for many amps. I just picked up 15 more of them for $4.75 each on Ebay. For that price, and with the gain, output and tone they produce, it's a hard tube to beat!

Just bought 2........

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=14947&item=3809476800&rd=1

[That90'sGuy]

Re: best 12AX7 tube?

GJ always told me to think about chinese tubes in my high gain amp... I should have listened to him. The JJs do sound amazing, but I think I may have underestimated the chinese stuff. Nevertheless, thanks for the review GJ of the Mullard. I think I may buy one for the first gain stage. I've always wanted to hear what people were talking about with the complexity of the sound and the bottom end that only the Mullards offer, this is gonna be great to be able to get that for $23.

[Pandemonium]

Re: best 12AX7 tube?

Thanks for the review of the GTMs GJ.