Orange TB500

[punisher911]

Any good recommendations for a tube change in these? Something that offers a little more clean headroom while still allowing the gain knob to be useful. I was looking at the JJs, but not sure what I should pick.

[rpsands]

I'm pretty sure you'll get more of an impact changing to different tubes than different brands of the same tube. I'd check with Orange and see if they support 12au7s or 12at7s.

[punisher911]

I've seen some posts on here that a few people had a change by switching brands as well. I was hoping someone had some specific experience.

[rpsands]

Just my opinion but I'm not much of a believer in that approach. Seems pretty random and everyone seems to say different stuff when tube rolling different manufacturers' versions of the same tube.

If you want to do it, the best bet is to buy a bunch of them and try it, then sell off the failures. It's going to be so much personal taste involved I'm not sure how much impressions would really help.

[RickenBoogie]

Yeah, if it's a 12AX7 in there, switching to another brand of the same is not going to give you more headroom, just a different, (maybe) flavor of the same thing. In order to change the actual amount of gain on tap, you'll need to swap out to another type of preamp tube, whatever the brand may be, IF the amp will support it.

[Primakurtz]

Try 12AT7 in the 1st spot (closest to the jack). I thought it made a positive difference.

[nordyboy]

My Terror came with JJ tubes in it.
I changed them for premium tested JJ tubes from Hotrox and thought the difference was quite marked.
The amp sounded a lot less rough and possibly a little deeper.
To my ears it made it a much nicer sounding amp.

[justBrian]

I just put in JAN 5751s in both spots. You wanna talk warm, smooth, round and buttery--it's really nice now. They really to out a lot of the grind. I can push both the master and gain way up before she starts to break up.
I ordered them from www.tubedepot.com I think they were about $34 each. Good investment for me.