Upgrading valves on a fallen angel

[Uk Ant]

Ok I'm not experienced in the ways of valve replacement but I was loking into getting some new vlaves for my all valves 60w Ashdown guitar amp.
It has four 12AX7's (with DC heaters) in the two pre-amps and two EL34's (fixed bias) in the power amp.
So has any one up graded their valves in one of these and does any one have any suggestions/tips?

 

[Uk Ant]

Re: Upgrading valves on a fallen angel

Ok, after a bit of advice from the Watford Valves forum I now have an idea of where to start.
I'm going to concentrate on the pre amp section first, buy a couple of sovtek and JJ-tesla valves and then try them in various positions.
I'll let you all know what the out come is.

 

[Lu_B]

Re: Upgrading valves on a fallen angel

I've just re-tubed my amp with JJ's and am amazed what a difference a set of tubes can make, I put off doing it for ages because I was confused by all the different types and conflicting opinions. In the end I plumped for JJ's as the description said gives fender cleans, so I paid my £29 and couldn't be happier.

 

[Uk Ant]

Re: Upgrading valves on a fallen angel

Well I've just ordered a JJ-Tesla and a Sovtek from Watford Valves so I'll have to see what they sound like when I get them

 

[Hoss]

Re: Upgrading valves on a fallen angel

i can vouch for JJ el84 and 6l6 but i've never heard their el34 tubes...let us know what you think?!

 

[Uk Ant]

Re: Upgrading valves on a fallen angel

i can vouch for JJ el84 and 6l6 but i've never heard their el34 tubes...let us know what you think?!

Well I'm concentrating on the pre-amps first so it's one of their ecc83's.
I'm not really sure what to expect out of this really.
In theory the sovtek should increase the gain cut from my dirty channel while the jj should warm up the clean channel and give it a bit more character.

Should get them next week so we'll see.

 

[Uk Ant]

Re: Upgrading valves on a fallen angel

Ok got two jj-tesla ecc83s valves from the lovely people at hot rox in nottingham.
First I tried them in the Rivera and suddenly it doesn't sound like a bag of over priced fizzy rubbish when cranked up. In fact it sounds really good.
Next I tried them in the Ashdown and the improvement was not as dramatic but still good. Settled on them in the clean channel as that was the one that needed the most improvement. Have put the cheap chinese valves from the ashdown in the dirty rivera channel which sounds a bit better than the original Sovtek ones but still not great. Sovteks are now in the Ashdown dirty channel and they have a little more bite than the chinese ones but don't sound fizzy. So I'm thinking of a couple of better sovteks for the dirty channel as it sounds quite compressed to start with so they might bring it to life a bit more.

All round good so far.