Groove Tube 12AX7M,Tell Me About Em?

[STRATDELUXER97]

, GROOVE TUBES MULLARD DESIGN PREMIUM GOLD SERIES

T-12AX7M-GT

The highly anticipated Groove Tube reissue of the original Mullard design has arrived. Aspen Pittman, the man behind Groove Tubes says , "The new 12AX7M is an exact reissue of the original Mullard 12AX7/ECC83 dual triode preamp tube, the ultimate vintage 12AX7 by which all others are judged."

I want to buy some great backup 12AX7s as I run low on my NOS stuff..How are these Mullard copies? Reliable? Great tone?

John

 

[Buckeyedog]

Re: Groove Tube 12AX7M,Tell Me About Em?

I've heard they are sort of "amp" picky. I have three and they didn't do much for my Budda. They have this little haze thing going on when clean. Like just this little fuzz or something. They sound ok, but not worth $26 ea. IMO. Of course I seem to be in the minority.....lot's of guys seem to love 'em. I'd sell you mine for $10 each shipped if you want to try them out. Although if you get newer one's, I hear the newer batches have been more reliable. Good Luck.

 

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: Groove Tube 12AX7M,Tell Me About Em?

I've heard they are sort of "amp" picky. I have three and they didn't do much for my Budda. They have this little haze thing going on when clean. Like just this little fuzz or something. They sound ok, but not worth $26 ea. IMO. Of course I seem to be in the minority.....lot's of guys seem to love 'em. I'd sell you mine for $10 each shipped if you want to try them out. Although if you get newer one's, I hear the newer batches have been more reliable. Good Luck.

Oh great...$26 for some fizzy "Purple Haze"....Let's see what others have to say? Thanks for posting.. :newangel:

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Groove Tube 12AX7M,Tell Me About Em?

I agree about them being picky with amps. I think they perform best in a nonmastervolume amp, where you're trying to get the preamp and poweramp to meld together for gain. I have 3 of them right now, and they sounded too gainy for my Bogner or Jubilee.....they already have gain, so it made them muddy.
They sound great in my Matchless Chieftain, though, so I left all 3 in there.
My favorite current tubes are GT12AX7C's and Sovtek 12AX7LPS, which are half as much.

 

[Scott_F]

Re: Groove Tube 12AX7M,Tell Me About Em?

I"ve run them in my old Bad Cat and they excelled there. I ran them in the two rock with the JJ 6L6 power tubes and they tamed the JJ's a bit. THen I put those TAD small bottle 6L6WGB into the Two Rock and the 12AX7M's were a kinda dull, dark tone. So, I put the 80's NOS Chinese 12AX7s that Two Rock ships standard back in and they worked great with the TAD power tubes.

They also sound really good in my 68 Pro Reverb.

 

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: Groove Tube 12AX7M,Tell Me About Em?

I'm using em in my Engl preamp, and they're great. Added a bit of depth that was lacking, imo.
In my Rivera I prefered the C (Chinese) version.

My favourite of the NOS tubes, for high gain at least, has proven to be 1970's Siemens 12AX7's. Smokin'!!!!

 

[Edgecrusher]

Re: Groove Tube 12AX7M,Tell Me About Em?

I have a set of 5 of these... They sounded pretty good... I say half way between modern 12ax7's and good nos 12ax7's... but i did have reliablitly problems with them in my MKIV... I had 2 die within 3 weeks and another went microphonic after a couple months... they were replaced under warranty and worked ok but I pulled em an put them on the shelf for now...

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Groove Tube 12AX7M,Tell Me About Em?

The word 'Chinese 12AX7' scares people, but honestly, the GT12AX7C is my favorite pre tube for modern amps. That's why Bogner, Two Rock, and Rivera use Chinese pres, not to mention a lot of other companies. The new 12AX7M seems like it would be better, but it's a bulky/gainy tube, so it's overkill in some amps. I think it would sound killer in the same type of amps that Mullards came in originally, like Plexi's and Vox types.

 

[Thames]

Re: Groove Tube 12AX7M,Tell Me About Em?

GJ is right about the Chinese ones.. lots of people really like them too, over the GT-M and other well known names.

BTW.. I just grabbed a quad of Siemens EL34 (NOS of course!) for my 1959SLP repro coming in next month ... thought I could share this

 

[kevlar3000]

Re: Groove Tube 12AX7M,Tell Me About Em?

Depends on the amp I have em in ( same for every tube I use) the have a warm open character that I love in V1 of my Plexi RI. Coupled with a 12At7 in V3 it sounds fantastic., in that amp I like it better than the old Amperex Bugle Boys I have in many of my amps. My Carlsbro likes JJs better than anything else I have fed it .... I could go on about all my different amps, but I find no black and white rules as to what does and does not work in my amps. I would snatch one up and try it, should be able to find them cheaper than list. I got mine for 18.00. Buy from a reliable source, I have heard failure is pretty high in some of em.

 

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: Groove Tube 12AX7M,Tell Me About Em?

Depends on the amp I have em in ( same for every tube I use) the have a warm open character that I love in V1 of my Plexi RI. Coupled with a 12At7 in V3 it sounds fantastic., in that amp I like it better than the old Amperex Bugle Boys I have in many of my amps. My Carlsbro likes JJs better than anything else I have fed it .... I could go on about all my different amps, but I find no black and white rules as to what does and does not work in my amps. I would snatch one up and try it, should be able to find them cheaper than list. I got mine for 18.00. Buy from a reliable source, I have heard failure is pretty high in some of em.

Thanks so much for posting with great info Kevlar!
Thanks to everyone else who was kind enough to post also...I Know what you all mean about certain tubes working only great in certain amps...My experimenting continues.. :newangel: :laugh2:

John

 

[That90'sGuy]

Re: Groove Tube 12AX7M,Tell Me About Em?

FWIW John, the 12ax7M did wonders for my amps. I like JJ's in my Fargen, but it does take out a bit of the gain, and Groove Tubes gets it all back in there. When I used to have the Hughes & Kettner Triamp, the tone was dull without the Mullard RI, so for some amps, the difference can be night and day.

 

[Sozos]

Re: Groove Tube 12AX7M,Tell Me About Em?

The 12AX7 tubes are preamplification tubes. They will rock like hell unless your preamp uses less than 3 of them. Wherever you see 3(or more)x12AX7 preamp you go for it. But prefer the british or american ones