Re: thoughts on the new Mullard Groove tube pre amp tube
Great tubes, but I think they work best at taking an amp with almost enough gain and pushing it to where it should be, gainwise. They also fatten up a preamp section, moreso than other gainy 12AX7's. GT is really kicking ass nowadays! Sure, a lot of their tubes are not made by them, and re-labeled, but a few aren't. GT has extremely strict testing guidelines. Many of the tubes they buy are tossed away, or sold to other distributors, I've heard. That's what you're paying for....the best of the batches. For amps made for high gain, I still like the GT12AX7C the best, which actually sounded better in my Bogner than the M. I think the M's would sound best in JCM's, DSL's, Mesas, and Hughes and Kettners, but Bogners and Diezels are so finely tuned for gain around the Chinese pre, that that's what sounds best in them.
Todd, at revolutionguitar.com is a friend of mine, and he tosses free tubes at me occasionally to see what I think of them. Tomorrow, I should have another great gainy pre tube that many have forgotten about...Tungsol. It'll be here tomorrow, and I'm going to test it in my Ecstasy and Jubilee, to see how it's different from the GT12AX7C and Sovtek 12AX7LPS. I'll keep you posted, because I know that Tungsols were among the very best 12AX7s ever made.