for anyone who is firmiliar with JJ tubes

[muttonchopsrule]

i've been thinking of spending some hard-earned christmas money (after i get it, of course...) on a set of JJ power tubes for my mesa. is the improvement from the stock tubes as good as people say it is? and will it be possible to get a pair that i can swap out just as easily as with a pair of mesa tubes?

as for preamp tubes, i've heard of people getting the hi-gain 12AX7's and putting them in V1 and V2 to enhance the clean channel. what exactly are the effects of the hi-gain tubes on the cleans?

and by the way, i retubed my amp like 6 months ago, so my current tubes are absolutely fine...i'm just looking into this because it sounds like fun :6:

 

[Mike M.]

Re: for anyone who is firmiliar with JJ tubes

I might not be of much help here because I'm not at all familiar with Mesa's. I did however, put JJ's in my Peavey Classic 30. I was told that the power tubes (EL84's) were a bit darker in nature compared with other brands which was fine with me because I wanted to try and calm down some of the spike from the OD channel. Worked just as I wanted. I don't know how JJ's will work in Mesa's so hopefully someone here who does can help you further.

 

[FretFire]

Re: for anyone who is firmiliar with JJ tubes

I have a Mesa Rectoverb head and recently did a full retube on it with 12AX7 and 6L6 tubes, and they did make a HUGE difference over the stock Mesa tubes (which I hear are of low to average quality).

Mesas are fixed bias (and biased rather cold actually), so as long as you're putting in the same kind of tubes (6L6, EL34, etc.) they should just be plug and play. If you have any particular questions, you should call or email Bob at Eurotubes, he's a JJ distributor here in the states and loves talking about tubes and amps. He's a knowledgeable guy, and very good when it comes to answering questions, whether you buy from him or not. There's a great section on Mesa amps on his website too, it proved to be an interesting read.

Scroll down to the bottom of the main page for his contact information.

http://www.eurotubes.com

 

[DeadSkinSlayer3]

Re: for anyone who is firmiliar with JJ tubes

I personally hated JJ pre's, they darkened/deadened the tone, and halfed my gain! I prefer EH pre's for high-gain. After X-mas/B-day, I too will be ordering new power tubes, and I've chosen to go with JJ, as I've been told on many accounts they don't break up as easily, which I'm looking for.

 

[Duke of Metal]

Re: for anyone who is firmiliar with JJ tubes

I personally hated JJ pre's, they darkened/deadened the tone, and halfed my gain! I prefer EH pre's for high-gain. After X-mas/B-day, I too will be ordering new power tubes, and I've chosen to go with JJ, as I've been told on many accounts they don't break up as easily, which I'm looking for.

If you want them that way, then make sure you ask the tube vendor you order them from to have them tested for that. I am sure Bob and Doug can both do that for you.

Ask for a quad of power tubes with lots of clean headroom/late break up.

EDIT - regarding the JJ ECC83S preamp tubes.. I personally hated the off the shelf tubes, but when you get them highgain graded/balanced, they seem to sound like a totally different tube. To my ears, the Highgain Balanced JJ ECC83S sounds tigher, thicker and quieter then the Highgain Balanced EH12ax7.. but its a prefrence of sound/tone and its different for everybody.


Hope that helps,
Duke

 

[FretFire]

Re: for anyone who is firmiliar with JJ tubes

EDIT - regarding the JJ ECC83S preamp tubes.. I personally hated the off the shelf tubes, but when you get them highgain graded/balanced, they seem to sound like a totally different tube. To my ears, the Highgain Balanced JJ ECC83S sounds tigher, thicker and quieter then the Highgain Balanced EH12ax7.. but its a prefrence of sound/tone and its different for everybody.

I agree, I love the high gain ECC83S tubes from JJ (and the 6L6GC power tubes for that matter). I have them in my Mesa Rectoverb and they made a huge improvement when compared to the stock Mesa tubes. They did not affect the amount of gain on tap, but the drive channel is now thicker, tighter, and more punchy. The cleans are also fuller, and warmer on the top end. Great tubes IMO.

 

[BloodRose]

Re: for anyone who is firmiliar with JJ tubes

I got JJs from Bob at Eurotubes and he is great to deal with and the tubes really woke up my Peavy Classic 30 and gave my CArvin MTS a much smoother sound. Plus, the price is great! But he tries to actually match the tubes to what tone you are trying to achieve. Ill continue to give them my biz.

 

[Luke Duke]

Re: for anyone who is firmiliar with JJ tubes

I got JJs from Bob at Eurotubes and he is great to deal with and the tubes really woke up my Peavy Classic 30 and gave my CArvin MTS a much smoother sound. Plus, the price is great! But he tries to actually match the tubes to what tone you are trying to achieve. Ill continue to give them my biz.

+1

Bob set me up with some lower headroom el84's and they are great. I did have one of my tubes that cracked in half on the second day. But it was no fault of his on the USPS. I threw in an old jj and it STILL sounded great.

Luke

 

[Skarekrough]

Re: for anyone who is firmiliar with JJ tubes

I've dealt with Bob at Eurotubes twice. Both times he was friendly, knowledgable and asked me all the right questions about the sound I was looking to get out of my amps. The tubes showed up promptly, were well packaged and sounded great.

I'm planning on re-tubing a few amps in the next few months. Bob's my guy for it.

 

[muttonchopsrule]

Re: for anyone who is firmiliar with JJ tubes

I agree, I love the high gain ECC83S tubes from JJ (and the 6L6GC power tubes for that matter). I have them in my Mesa Rectoverb and they made a huge improvement when compared to the stock Mesa tubes. They did not affect the amount of gain on tap, but the drive channel is now thicker, tighter, and more punchy. The cleans are also fuller, and warmer on the top end. Great tubes IMO.

thanks man, good info there.

i have JJ's in my preamp right now that i got from bob at eurotubes a while back, and i would have to say that they are pretty neat.

FretFire, are all of your preamp tubes high gain ones, or just certain positions?

EDIT: i'm not looking for an advertisment for eurotubes...i've ordered from them before and will most likely continue to do so. i'm just exploring some of the options i have here.

 

[Guitarist]

Re: for anyone who is firmiliar with JJ tubes

I just ordered a pair of Groove Tube 6L6GE's for my Single Recto...should be in around Xmas time - I'll let you know how those go if you haven't made up your mind yet.

 

[FretFire]

Re: for anyone who is firmiliar with JJ tubes

FretFire, are all of your preamp tubes high gain ones, or just certain positions?

I got the high gain option full retube for a Mesa Single Rectifier, about which the site says the following:

"Desc : The deep thump of mathced pair of the JJ 6L6GC's along with 5 JJ ECC83S's, 3 hand picked high gain tubes for V1, V2 & V3 and balanced PI tube for V5. A nice combination for a deep low end with a crisp attack, a sparkling clean and a thick lead tone."

 

[muttonchopsrule]

Re: for anyone who is firmiliar with JJ tubes

I just ordered a pair of Groove Tube 6L6GE's for my Single Recto...should be in around Xmas time - I'll let you know how those go if you haven't made up your mind yet.

thanks man, sounds like a plan!

I got the high gain option full retube for a Mesa Single Rectifier, about which the site says the following:

"Desc : The deep thump of mathced pair of the JJ 6L6GC's along with 5 JJ ECC83S's, 3 hand picked high gain tubes for V1, V2 & V3 and balanced PI tube for V5. A nice combination for a deep low end with a crisp attack, a sparkling clean and a thick lead tone."

awesome, thanks a lot.

hopefully i'll have enough cash left over to try some of these bad boys out!

 

[Archer_of_Fish]

Re: for anyone who is firmiliar with JJ tubes

I personally hated JJ pre's, they darkened/deadened the tone, and halfed my gain! I prefer EH pre's for high-gain. After X-mas/B-day, I too will be ordering new power tubes, and I've chosen to go with JJ, as I've been told on many accounts they don't break up as easily, which I'm looking for.

Same here, I'm NOT a JJ fan in any way, shape or form.

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: for anyone who is firmiliar with JJ tubes

For a Mesa Rectifier, I'd probably go for JJ or Svetlana 6L6's and GT12AX7C's, which Reinhold Bogner suggests for his amps, and he's right. In the Ecstacy, I've tried a bunch of real good tubes, and the one's he suggested from the beginning were the ones that sounded the best....Shuguang 9th Gen. Chinese pre's. I get them from GT since they're all tested to be perfect. I'm sure they'd tighten up the tone of any Mesa Rec.

 

[mrid_part_deux]

Re: for anyone who is firmiliar with JJ tubes

I have heard that JJ very recently redesigned the ECC83-S and it no longer sounds as dark.

 

[Duke of Metal]

Re: for anyone who is firmiliar with JJ tubes

I have heard that JJ very recently redesigned the ECC83-S and it no longer sounds as dark.

Well.. JJ have the new JJ 12ax7, but I've talked to Doug from dougstubes.com and he said its not a highgain tube and might not be the best choice for Phase Invertor sockets in poweramps/power sections as the ones he got as a "test batch" didnt turn out to be very well balanced.


Duke