Re: best 12AX7 tube?
mrid said:
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+
