Preamp Tubes for High Gain. Shootout Results.

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Preamp Tubes for High Gain. Shootout Results.

Cool. I'm glad my recommendation worked out great in your amp. I have a feeling these tubes would work well in a clean amp as well, just because they keep the preamp tight and focused. They might help to give the feeling that the clean headroom is lowered, since the preamp is pushing it harder.

I'm becoming less and less of a believer in New Old Stock tubes. Of course, old RCA, Phillips, Telefunken, and Amperex tubes are great, but who wants to pay $70 per tube??? If I put those tubes up against a new Tungsol, GT, or Sovtek LPS, I can't even hear a minute difference......and I'm really splitting hairs when I listen and play!

[XSSIVE]

Re: Preamp Tubes for High Gain. Shootout Results.

i'll keep this in mind for the engl when it needs tubes and may try some of those Sovteks in the near future in the ultra plus (it has all JJs now). good info, thanks for the review!!

-Mike

[El Dorado]

Re: Preamp Tubes for High Gain. Shootout Results.

I recently changed the pre's in my rectoverb from the original mesas to the chinese 12ax7c's, relying on your recommendation from pryor posts Joneser. They really are great. They tightened up the distortion channel quite a bit, and palm mutes are chunky as hell. They are rediculously good for the money I paid (although even if I had unlimited gear money I would buy them anyway). I couldn't be happier. Thanks A lot Joneser.

[Gearjoneser]

Tonight, I did a preamp tube shootout, just to see what pre tubes are the KING of high gain. The test amp was my extremely good sounding 50W Marshall Jubilee on Jubilee 4-12 w/Vin 30's and Tesla JJ E-34L's (10% higher output than EL-34's)

I actually lined up my whole collection of preamp tubes and started popping them in one after the next in the 1st position. The other 2 are GT12AX7C's.
I listened to the amp's gain from 3 to 10, and listened for thickness, tightness, and sustain on chords and high notes.

First of all, preamp tubes are very difficult to hear all the differences, sometimes there was almost no discernable difference.

I won't bore you with the details of all of them I tried, like the Russian 12AX7A, EI's, EI Gold Elites, Sovtek WXT, JJ ECC83, Electroharmonix, and some Various no-name ones pulled from old amps. All of them sounded good, but I'll narrow it down to the high gain killers for you.

Mullard 12AX7/7025 Made in Britain NOS. Pretty damn good, but just a tiny bit of mush at highest gain settings....gain on 10 fairly loud.

GT12AX7M (Mullard copy) A tiny bit fatter than NOS Mullard, but again, just a bit indistinct and sloppy when gain is on 10. Sounds better on vintage type amps.

Tungsol 12AX7 Current Production. Nice rich tone, tight, and great gain, but the sustain would drop out just a little. Still a great tube well worth buying, but let's move on. Keep in mind, I'm splitting hairs....it's a phenomenal tube.

GT12AX7C or any unlabeled Chinese 12AX7 Shuguang 9th Generation.
Now, we're getting into the top rung on the ladder! These are extremely tight on the palm mutes and have excellent sustain for low and high notes!
These are what come stock in Bogners and Two Rock's I believe. I use them in my Ecstasy and they sound great! The only drawback is that the overall tone is just a tiny bit narrow in order to give you that super high gain. You get great chunk and sustain, but you may need to back your treble down 1 notch because of it's bite. Killer tube!

Telefunken Hand Selected German NOS. What can I say, it's the most legendary 12AX7 there is! Sweet smooth and sustaining with tight low end chunk even with the gain backed down to 7. With gain on 10, it stays clear and tight, just like the Chinese 12AX7, but it's a tiny bit warmer and sweeter.
The drawback? Expensive as hell! Why spend the money when you can get the prior tube or the next one on my list.....the high gain amp winner!!!

The SOVTEK 12AX7 LPS!!! Sweet, smooth, sustaining, the right amount of aggression and low end palm muted chunk at all gain levels. Trust me, I went back and forth about 6 times, shutting off the amp, and swapping tubes between the 12AX7C, the Telefunken, and the Sovtek LPS. It came down to a battle between the Telefunken and the LPS, because it was THAT close.

In summary, if you own a highgain amp like a modern Marshall, Jubilee, Mesa Rectifier, Stilletto, ENGL, Peavey JSX, 5150, Soldano, or other similar amp, it's not a bad idea to swap out your pre tubes for either the GT12AX7C @$14, or the Sovtek 12AX7LPS @$12. The 1st position will make a difference, but you may as well get a set of 3 if you haven't changed them in several years.