Anyone using NOS tubes in their preamp section?

[fireincairo]

I just swapped out a Peavey branded 12ax7 for a Sylvania 12at7 into V1 of my Peavey Butcher and it totally smoothed out the tones and gave me more headroom. Plenty of volume on tap, too.

I know a lot of people go for the SVT type grit, but I really just wanted to get as much smooth headroom as I could from this circuit, and this tube helped tremendously.

Who else is using NOS tubes to tweak the front end of their tube amp?

 

[fireincairo]

You oughtta give it a go.

 

[JimmyM]

I refuse to use non-NOS tubes anymore. Not for sound, but for reliability. I'm sick of buying new tubes that fail within a year.

 

[Zooberwerx]

I put a NOS Brimar in my Demeter HBP-1. Was it worth the dough? Not really.

Riis

 

[OneWayPunk]

I run a Mullard 12AX7 in my V1 postion and RCA's in all the other slots of my Hiwatt converted Sound City L200+

 

[fireincairo]

I put a NOS Brimar in my Demeter HBP-1. Was it worth the dough? Not really.

Riis

Yeah, it's not really fair to give up so soon. Some tubes will sound fantastic, others may not make much of a difference, still others may sound bad. If you gather up a stash of NOS tubes, you can really sample with a circuit and find the one(s) that really make a difference.

 

[fireincairo]

I run a Mullard 12AX7 in my V1 postion and RCA's in all the other slots of my Hiwatt converted Sound City L200+

I've got an old Mullard 12ax7. I've got it in my Fender Supersonic guitar combo, though. It really fattens up the gain channel and gives it a ton more character.

 

[fireincairo]

I refuse to use non-NOS tubes anymore. Not for sound, but for reliability. I'm sick of buying new tubes that fail within a year.

I tend to agree, but some dealers sort through their stuff better than others.

I suggest www.dougstubes.com for NOS or new production stuff. He checks the tubes before you buy them to assure decent performance. In the end, NOS will simply outlast new production because of the way they made them back then.

 

[Rufus]

I use 2 Brimar CV1985 NOS tubes in my modded Ampeg preamp. I compared RCA, Sovtek, Tung-Sol, Heintz and Kaufman, and NU (National Union) tubes, and the Brimars just happen to be the smoothest sounding, plus they are quiet in my preamp. I think if the Brimars fail on me, I'll just use what I have left from those other tubes. Lots of money! However, I love the sound of my preamp, so I feel like I'm getting what I paid for.

 

[fireincairo]

No doubt, NOS tubes can be very, very quiet and still yield some decent gain (if that's your thing). Many new production tubes are either gainy and noisey, or quiet and low gain.

 

[Banky]

I found a Telefunkin 12AX7 in the old Bogen hifi in my basement. I put in my Hughes & Kettner BassBase 400 and....WOW. It sounded like I restrung my bass or something. It was really cool. But it only lasted about a year. Probably the closest new tube was the EH 12AX7.

 

[donstrenz]

There are Sylvania tubes in my V4B preamp section. Got them at the drug store when most drug stores still had tube testers and tubes,, maybe 25-30yrs ago. They still work fine, I guess.

 

[K-Funk]

I use RCA and Mullard tubes in the preamp of my Mesa Bass 400, along with a GE 12AU7 in the driver position. HUGE improvement over the stock Mesa preamp tubes, which I think were rebranded Russian tubes.

PBG once mentioned that the 400+ was voiced to sound best with Chinese tubes. However, I tried this with my 400 and it sounded really bad. I then remembered that my amp was desiged in 1984, and originally shipped with American tubes. When I loaded it up with NOS preamp tubes, it was absolutely perfect!