Favorite Tubes for High-Gain?

[Guitarist]

Re: Favorite Tubes for High-Gain?

Between the GT 12AX7C's and M's....The C's have night highgain, retain clarity, and are my favorite tube for amps built for gain. The M's are real fat and super gainy, but may be overkill in some amps. I'd put those in a single channel Marshall to beef it up.

For 6L6's, definitely get winged C logo Svetlana or GT6L6GC, the expensive ones.
Don't ever buy GT6L6C's. chinese pres sound great, chinese power tubes SUCK!

All I know is that if I had a Mesa Single Rec, I'd get Svetlana 6L6's and pay $14 a piece for GT12AX7C's. IMO, that's about as good as you can get for a Rectifier.
If you want to warm up the amp and tame the gain, use Tesla JJ preamp tubes.

Recommending one of the Groove Tube Powertubes? The 6L6GC? Are you talking about the USA made 6L6GE? I don't see those 6L6GCs on revolutionguitar.com ...

[Dirtyking]

Re: Favorite Tubes for High-Gain?

I just re-tubed my head. For the pre section I put a Phillips 12at7 in the V1 slot and 4 chinese 12ax7's in the remaining 4. For the power tube section I got 4 GT 6L6GC's ( cost an arm but worth it).

My tech said the 12at7 would back off the gain a little (my heads a gain monster) and open the amp up. He was right. The Cleans are unreal. I never knew it could sound so good. As for my 2nd channel, its a friggin beast with massive headroom and an unholy growl.

[Guitarist]

Re: Favorite Tubes for High-Gain?

I just re-tubed my head. For the pre section I put a Phillips 12at7 in the V1 slot and 4 chinese 12ax7's in the remaining 4. For the power tube section I got 4 GT 6L6GC's ( cost an arm but worth it).

My tech said the 12at7 would back off the gain a little (my heads a gain monster) and open the amp up. He was right. The Cleans are unreal. I never knew it could sound so good. As for my 2nd channel, its a friggin beast with massive headroom and an unholy growl.

Cool news...those GT 6L6GC's...where can I see them/order them? Link please.

Thank you.

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Favorite Tubes for High-Gain?

I meant 6L6GE. Those, Svets, and JJ's are my top choices for current tubes.
Amp companies usually use regular midline tubes. From some of these tube distributors that get mentioned here, you can buy real nice tubes for your amp. If your current stock tubes are worn, you'll notice a big difference when you pop the new ones in. If you have midline stock tubes that are good, and put in high end tubes, you'll just notice the amp's response tighten up a bit.