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Recommend a bright, low-noise 12AX7

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  • #16
    Re: Recommend a bright, low-noise 12AX7

    The Sovtek 12AX7WA is the harsh one... worst preamp tube I've ever tried, by a mile. Harsh, grainy distortion.

    The LPS is just very detailed. In some amps, that's not good. In others, it's great.

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    • #17
      Re: Recommend a bright, low-noise 12AX7

      I don't have this individual brand experience at all -and I have lots of tubes -from Vintage ,Sylvanias, RCAS, and Mullards to Chinese, EHX/Sovtek/Svetlana/Tung Sol etc blah blah and post manufacturer classified and rated ones like Groove and RUby.

      my experience is that EVERY manufacturer has a range of tube results from noisy to quiet, to early break up to late etc etc -AND it's really more about trying many tube brands regardless of brand to get the tube sounds you really want -not aligning yourself with emotional attachment to one brand you believe is delivering the same anneal temperature, the same plate resistance, the same vacuum pressure, the same glass thickness etc etc -because it AINT happening.

      The variation is there in every brand until you compare metrics and match them or pick them for the qualities you prioritize.

      BTW -my father was a tube specifier for manufacturing ultra high end tubes in the 60s for diagnostic equipment needing consistency orders of magnitude better than guitar amplifiers -and he still concures with this notion (posted this in a different thread last year)
      Last edited by NegativeEase; 05-24-2020, 10:34 PM.
      “For me, when everything goes wrong – that’s when adventure starts.” Yvonne Chouinard

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      • #18
        Re: Recommend a bright, low-noise 12AX7

        yeah..tubes are different ..often even within the same model/brand.

        The Sovtek 12AX7WB's are pretty cool tubes. My Cicognani Brutus Live came with those installed and they sounded better than anything else I tried in that amp...really awesome. They're more gainy/darker/bassier than the WA's (& it's much smoother gain..)

        The WC's are the brightest of the lot, but also a lot smoother/richer sounding than the WA's which are often pretty harsh as LLL said...
        "Less is less, more is more...how can less be more?" ~Yngwie J Malmsteen

        I did it my way ~ Frank Sinatra

        Originally posted by Rodney Gene
        If you let your tone speak for itself you'll find alot less people join the conversation.


        Youtube

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        • #19
          Re: Recommend a bright, low-noise 12AX7

          The JJs I've used were bright...too bright for me. There wasn't much noise from them that I remember at all.
          Administrator of the SDUGF

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          • #20
            Recommend a bright, low-noise 12AX7

            Originally posted by Mincer View Post
            The JJs I've used were bright...too bright for me. There wasn't much noise from them that I remember at all.
            Funny....I have always heard JJ’s as dark.

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            • #21
              Re: Recommend a bright, low-noise 12AX7

              Originally posted by Gtrjunior View Post
              Funny....I have always heard JJ’s as dark.
              Same here, at least if we're talking about the ECC83 / 12AX7. They make my Jubilees sound pretty bland, but they're just what the doctor ordered in the Jet City 22H. OTOH I really like the JJ power tubes I've tried; EL-34s in the Jubes and 6V6s in the Egnater Tweaker.
              Originally posted by crusty philtrum
              And that's probably because most people with electric guitars seem more interested in their own performance rather than the effect on the listener ... in fact i don't think many people who own electric guitars even give a poop about the effect on a listener. Which is why many people play electric guitars but very very few of them are actually musicians.

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              • #22
                Re: Recommend a bright, low-noise 12AX7

                Originally posted by Gtrjunior View Post
                Funny....I have always heard JJ’s as dark.
                You guy are all proving my point

                See post #17.

                There is large standard deviation in guitar tube manufacturing because guitar tube are made with the lowest tier technique of traditional tube manufacturing.. because honestly -that's the way it's always been and all that is really required.
                “For me, when everything goes wrong – that’s when adventure starts.” Yvonne Chouinard

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                • #23
                  Re: Recommend a bright, low-noise 12AX7

                  FWIW - I grabbed a set of EH ‘gold’ series 12AX7 and a set of Genalex ‘gold’ series to a/b. Both sets were were remarkably quiet. The EH were definitely brighter and ‘livelier’ sounding and the Genalex were definitely darker and warmer sounding. Not ‘dull’ but noticeably less high end than the EH. If you’ve got a particularly bright, edgy amp you’d like to tame, try the Genalex. If you want to wake up a darker amp, the EH are a good bet.

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                  • #24
                    Re: Recommend a bright, low-noise 12AX7

                    The brightest tube with the lowest noise I've heard yet is the old Telefunkens. They're pricey, but sound amazing.
                    - Tom

                    Originally posted by Frankly
                    Some people make the wine. Some people drink the wine. And some people sniff the cork and wonder what might have been.
                    The Eagle never lost so much time as when he submitted to learn of the Crow.

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                    • #25
                      Re: Recommend a bright, low-noise 12AX7

                      Originally posted by Gtrjunior View Post
                      Funny....I have always heard JJ’s as dark.
                      Interesting. I thought their 6v6s were really bright, too, compared to EHs.
                      Administrator of the SDUGF

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                      • #26
                        Re: Recommend a bright, low-noise 12AX7

                        Originally posted by Mincer View Post
                        Interesting. I thought their 6v6s were really bright, too, compared to EHs.
                        Are we talking about the same tube(s)? I'm referring to the JJ 12AX7, and I'm pretty sure Gtrjunior is as well. I don't notice much difference between my JJ 6V6s and the Egnater OEM Sovteks, though I don't know if that's because of the amp or because I generally don't play it very loud.
                        Originally posted by crusty philtrum
                        And that's probably because most people with electric guitars seem more interested in their own performance rather than the effect on the listener ... in fact i don't think many people who own electric guitars even give a poop about the effect on a listener. Which is why many people play electric guitars but very very few of them are actually musicians.

                        Comment


                        • #27
                          Re: Recommend a bright, low-noise 12AX7

                          Yes, I’m referring to the 12ax7

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                          • #28
                            Re: Recommend a bright, low-noise 12AX7

                            JJ's ECC83s (the cheap ones) are good work mules. But sound bland and darkish... Their ECC803s sounds good tho, a bit less gain. Sorta Telefunken copy if I remember right. Love it in my metal panel clone. That said, I think JJ's best preamp tubes for the money are their ECC83MG tubes (medium gain)... I liked them quite a bit. More detail, and balanced. Great for tone stages.

                            B
                            FaceBook; SoundCloud; Barlo's Blues; Barlo Digitalized; Soundclick!;

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                            • #29
                              Re: Recommend a bright, low-noise 12AX7

                              The only way this thread actually has any factual empirical value -is people measuring plate resistance, valve temperatures, physical geometric differences, material differences, saturation/distortion point current values and other metrics of individual tubes across a set of like branded tubes and ascribing qualitatively the experience related to those values on a spectrum analyzer and then comparing to another brand while describing the same attributes on a scope and reporting back.. You have to test a large swath of tubes from a production run.

                              Otherwise this is a lot of emotional and individual tube experience that doesn't translate across an entire run or model of a tube type enough to predict the experience of someone else purchasing a tube and expecting a certain tonal quality. -So really not giving reliable information to the next guy.

                              let's see some science, or the answer is -buy a bunch of each brand and a bunch of different brands of 12AX7s and try them all to find what you like in combination with so many local permutations like pickups, guitar, amp circuit, fx, speaker, and tube brand.
                              Last edited by NegativeEase; 05-25-2020, 07:51 PM.
                              “For me, when everything goes wrong – that’s when adventure starts.” Yvonne Chouinard

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                              • #30
                                Re: Recommend a bright, low-noise 12AX7

                                Originally posted by dystrust View Post
                                Are we talking about the same tube(s)? I'm referring to the JJ 12AX7, and I'm pretty sure Gtrjunior is as well. I don't notice much difference between my JJ 6V6s and the Egnater OEM Sovteks, though I don't know if that's because of the amp or because I generally don't play it very loud.
                                Yeah, JJs 12AX7s were bright for me, too. Didn't like em.
                                Administrator of the SDUGF

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