Retube help please

[schecterplayer]

I am getting paid this week and I have decided it is about time to do a full retube on my Crate V1512 amp. It is rather noisy and rattles and screams (in the bad way) at higher volumes which is ruining the tone for me. I have never retubed an amp before so I am at a total loss. It has 3 12AX7s and 2 EL84s. I put a GT mullard copy in the V1 position a while back but other than that all of the other tubes are stock. What do you guys reccomend? The store I work at can get JJs, GTs, and Ruby Tubes and probobly more than that, thats just what I remember from flipping through the book. Something to slightly clean and smooth up the amp would be nice. Suggest away,

thanks

 

[schecterplayer]

Re: Retube help please

Just based on what I've heard im leaning towards Groove Tubes for pre and either JJs or Groove Tubes for power tubes. I wish I could just buy piles of tubes and switch them out to find the best but i've only got around $250 total and I would prefer not to spend more than I have to.

 

[Fresh_Start]

Re: Retube help please

Earlier this week I bought a variety of tubes from http://www.dougstubes.com/. Good info on his site, and a really helpful guy.

http://www.thetubestore.com./ also has lots of info and good service.

By "clean up and smooth the amp" do you mean you want later distortion? A 5751 in V1 is a common suggestion for lowering the gain some.

FWIW I ended up ordering a two matched sets of EL-84's for my Blues Jr. - Ei's and JJ's. No expert here... I'm waiting to find out what my ears hear in this dept.

Hope this helps and that the cavalry of experts will arrive shortly,

Chip

 

[B Bent]

Re: Retube help please

If your folks will let you use their CC go to www.thetubestore.com and order the Tung-Sol 12AX7s for the pre and then grab a pair of the matched TAD EL84s! Those will rock your world IMO!!!

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Retube help please

I'm pretty obsessive when it comes to tubes/amps, and in my opinion you don't need to spend more than $20. Just buy a couple JJ EL-84's (very good and ironically cheap).

You really don't need to change the pre tubes if you're using a GT M for the 1st position, and the rest are running fine. If you want to change those, just for reliability sake, most decent $8 12AX7's will be just fine...such as JJ's, Sovtek LPS, Shuguang 12AX7's. In that amp, you'll probably only notice a tonal difference if you try out different 1st position tubes. The GT M is a good one.

 

[schecterplayer]

Re: Retube help please

The only reason that I want to replace the other two preamp tubes is that the amp has gotten a bit microphonic, it rattles at high volumes, especially with bass notes. Thanks for the advice people. This will be way cheaper than I expected. I'll tell you guys how it works out once I get the tubes.

 

[gordon_39422]

Re: Retube help please

I have always used thetubestore in the past, but came across another source... www.eurotubes.com Bob emailed me back after my order to confirm my purchase.... At any rate, he has re-tube packages that are several dollars cheaper than piecing them together from the other sites I normally purchase... I just checked and he has a Standard retube kit and a Low-Gain kit for $42 each, and a Hi-Gain kit for $49... That includes 2 pre-amps for V1 & V2, 1 balanced preamp for V3, and a matched pair of EL-84's... All these tubes, are JJ's, by the way... The tubestore totalled $48 for the same tubes in the standard kit... I always like to shop around to save money, since it takes time to earn, I should take time when spending it...

Hope this helps,
Allen

 

[gordon_39422]

Re: Retube help please

By the way, GT doesn't "make" tubes... they purchase, re-label, and sell pre-existing tubes. I have heard horror stories about their QC allowing faulty tubes to slip throug... Can't confirm this... I CAN say that a pair of GT 6L6GC's where nearly $40 and a pair of JJ's from tubedepot.com was only $28... The funny thing is... The GT's that came with the amp were SOVTEK,s and the ones they gave when I bought the amp were JJ's... They just had the GT label stuck right on top of the other labelling!:smack:

 

[Metalman_666]

Re: Retube help please

Based on the common advice, I'd think you'd be safe to go with JJ tubes. Check out Eurotubes for info and pricing.