Tubes for a Marshall JCM 900 Dually?

[mrfunnyman]

Alright, so as some of you guys on here know, last week I scored off CL a Marshall JCM 900 4102 Dual Reverb 2x12 combo. It is currently setup with TungSol 5881's and Groove tube ECC83's in V1 thru V3. Glassman recommend's chinese tubes in this amp, I was wondering if you JCM 900 user's had any input on the tubes to throw in this amp to make it really shine thru.

 

[Chickenwings]

Re: Tubes for a Marshall JCM 900 Dually?

I like either a full set of EH 12ax7/EL34s for midrange snarl and fatness, or a full set of tung sols if you want a little more harmonic content and high end. I always used EH tubes back when i was gigging a dually. Another great combination is EH in the pre and JJs in the power section for a little more headroom and bottom. All 3 combinations will sound killer.
However - glassman definitely knows amps inside and out so whatever he recommends im sure will be spot on. I have not tried the chinese tubes in mine.

 

[mrfunnyman]

Re: Tubes for a Marshall JCM 900 Dually?

What about Shuguang's? Does anyone know anything about those tubes?

 

[The JEM Ghost]

Re: Tubes for a Marshall JCM 900 Dually?

What about Shuguang's? Does anyone know anything about those tubes?

The Shuguangs are probably the ones that Glassman refers to as Chinese tubes. You will find these tubes relabeled as a lot of other brands including Groove Tubes, Ruby Tubes, Mesa Boogie, TAD, and many more.
Certain makes of the Shuguang 12AX7 you'll also find refered to as 8th generation, 9th generation (and earlier generations), some call certain versions "The Silver Dragon" etc... (in short, a lot of confusion is around about the Shuguangs)

They are definitely not bad tubes, to me they are quite gainy, and they combined that high gain with an open sound with a lot of brilliance, cut and presence, kind of keeping an open sound even at high gain settings (therefor they are off course loved by a lot of metal players and players of harder genres who want clarity in their sound).

 

[John E Rokker]

Re: Tubes for a Marshall JCM 900 Dually?

SED winged =C= 's for the power section -unless you are going strickly for classic rock then Svetlana's. the preamp section can be swapped around to fit your taste. but EH do a great job as well as tungsols and svetlana's. I don't recommend JJ's due to there overly compressed and dark nature. these amps are not meant to be darkened and do not take to it too well.

 

[Jeff_H]

Re: Tubes for a Marshall JCM 900 Dually?

I'd put =C='s (EL-34) for the output stage, get a Tung Sol 12AX'7 for V1 and a mix of chinese, EH and JJ's for the rest of the pre-amp stages and experiment. I have played a couple of 900's, and I remember them being on the bright side of things, so some JJ tubes might help smooth out some of the highs if yours happens to be too bright.

The other output tube I would recommend is a pair of these......worth the $$.

http://www.kcanostubes.com/content/nos-siemens-el34-singles-pairs-quartets

 

[mrfunnyman]

Re: Tubes for a Marshall JCM 900 Dually?

Ok some of you guys are recommending EL34's for the Power tubes, this amp is currently tube w/ 5881's, so basically what you guys are saying is that I need to replace the power tubes aswell right?

 

[The JEM Ghost]

Re: Tubes for a Marshall JCM 900 Dually?

I would leave the power tubes with the TungSol 5881 that are currently in it, unless they need renewal.
I would try to find my personal pre-amp tubes before anything else, getting some different ones (Tung-Sol, Electro Harmonix, JJECC83S, Shuguang for example) and swap them around the pre-amp positions to see what you like best. Remember it is absolutely no shame to have different brands of pre-amp tubes in every single slot! In my experience mixing different pre-amp tubes in one single pre-amp often gives the best results, that way you can tailor the sound a bit too your needs.

BTW: what is the sound you are after from how your amp is at the moment? Do you want it warmer? Brighter? More/less bass response?

 

[Chickenwings]

Re: Tubes for a Marshall JCM 900 Dually?

Ok some of you guys are recommending EL34's for the Power tubes, this amp is currently tube w/ 5881's, so basically what you guys are saying is that I need to replace the power tubes aswell right?

yes you need to change the power tubes. They are the ones that wear out quickest. If your amp is second hand you can be pretty sure its ready for a re-tube and biasing. If you get new power tubes and it turns out the old set were still good, then you have a spare set for gigs...
and yeah - get el 34s.
nothing wrong with mixing tube brands, but heres what id do if i had another jcm900 dually magically reappear as my main amp (i used a dually for hundreds of gigs in the early 90s - and although i mainly play a clean fender amp now, i have a jcm900 MKIII also which i love):
Id keep it simple, and use EH for all slots. They sound great period. Chunky and agressive. From there, over time as you decide you want to tailor your sound a bit more to brighter or darker or whatever you have a good point of reference so when the EH power tubes need replacing you can go for something like a tungsol for more clarity, or a jj for more bottom.

 

[Bludave]

Re: Tubes for a Marshall JCM 900 Dually?

Alright, so as some of you guys on here know, last week I scored off CL a Marshall JCM 900 4102 Dual Reverb 2x12 combo. It is currently setup with TungSol 5881's and Groove tube ECC83's in V1 thru V3. Glassman recommend's chinese tubes in this amp, I was wondering if you JCM 900 user's had any input on the tubes to throw in this amp to make it really shine thru.

I have a 50W combo, but mine is an early model & has EL 34's in it. I used Svetlana power tubes and EH pres. I had it all retube last Summer. It sounds great but I really don't use it too much right now. Once I start gigging I will most likely use it but with rehearsals I have been using my Deluxe Reverb due to the small space and at home I use a bigger amp. I used the Marshall for many years gigging at least 2 to 3X per month. It works good, very dependable and sounds very consistent from room to room.