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BEST TUBES ?

#21
There can be a tonal difference between tubes with the same brand name. I bought 3 old Telefunkens to try in my Shuttle. They all sounded great to my ears, much thicker and better definition than the standard Ruby tube. But one of the 3 sounded better than the other 2, and there was a subtle difference between those as well. Choosing a tube can be very subjective.
 
#22
Please excuse my inattentiveness to the thread that I had started TBer Zooberwerx. I have not opened her up yet. I have been researching the tube information gathered on this thread,and have been looking for a place locally to have mine tested. Tung-sol looks like the winner, but it's such a crap-shoot. Finding a place to test tubes, or buying a tester is not out of the question for me because I crave that thick, fat, buttery, tube warmth that I have only found with my DEMETER HBP preamp that I use mostly on slower songs or ballads. I stole the chops from the bass solo on "TOTO's 99" and incorporated it into the end of a country/western song by "GARTH BROOKS, THE DANCE", and it requires a nice fat warmth that is too fast for me to be played on my Pedulla Pentabuzz with very much accuracy at my skill level. It is much easier played on a fretted bass. If this tube replacement does'nt warm up the sound, I will sell my 201. You guys have opened up a whole new world of curiosity for a topic that I knew nothing of. Gee thanks guys! That's what I get for thinking I knew it all. SHEEEEEEEEEEEET.LOL
 
#23
Here's my 2 cents worth ... my experience in current 12ax7 preamp tubes is start with the reissue Tung-Sol ...it's pretty good ...one really has to experiment with the NOS 12ax7 tubes ...on thing you might want to do is try some 5751 preamp tubes ...they'll give you about 70% of the gain of a 12ax7 and it may give you the sound you want ...there is a pretty good supply od NOS 5751 Sylvania's on ebay ...
 
#24
You know jastacey, you remind me of a good doctor who knows what medication to prescribe for his ailing patients. As the TUBE DEPOT describes the 5751 tube as 70% output with creamy tone. That just about hits the nail on the head brother. Many thanks Bass DR. jastacey, for an excellent prescription. Looked them up on ebay, and most seem to come from overseas. Have you found that to be true?
 
#26
I'd do an E-bay search " 5751 tube " and you'll get about 50 tubes ...the thing about some tubes, is they made most of them, up to about 1986 and they made 80% of them for the government, and those tubes are labeled JAN 5751, JAN 12ax7, etc. what the JAN means is " joint army-navy " ...you'll spend about 15-30 for a good NOS tube ...I prefer Sylvania tube and then RCA for the American brands ...the only way to really find out what works is to spend some cash and plug and play ...also some brands of tube take some time to open up. meaning they have to burn in " any where fron 2-8 hours "
 
#27
pedulla-2007 said:
Please excuse my inattentiveness to the thread that I had started TBer Zooberwerx. I have not opened her up yet. I have been researching the tube information gathered on this thread,and have been looking for a place locally to have mine tested. Tung-sol looks like the winner, but it's such a crap-shoot. Finding a place to test tubes, or buying a tester is not out of the question for me because I crave that thick, fat, buttery, tube warmth that I have only found with my DEMETER HBP preamp that I use mostly on slower songs or ballads. I stole the chops from the bass solo on "TOTO's 99" and incorporated it into the end of a country/western song by "GARTH BROOKS, THE DANCE", and it requires a nice fat warmth that is too fast for me to be played on my Pedulla Pentabuzz with very much accuracy at my skill level. It is much easier played on a fretted bass. If this tube replacement does'nt warm up the sound, I will sell my 201. You guys have opened up a whole new world of curiosity for a topic that I knew nothing of. Gee thanks guys! That's what I get for thinking I knew it all. SHEEEEEEEEEEEET.LOL
Click to expand...

No apology necessary. The 201 is a killer pre and, IIRC, it has the Jensen (or is it the Jetsons?) transformer. Tell ya what I'm gonna do: I have 7 used tubes sitting on my computer table. Can't vouch for how they'll sound but you're welcome to try them out. Here's what I've got:

*Electro-Harmonix 12AX7 EH (Russian) 2 of 'em

*Groove Tubes 12AU7

*Sovtek 12AX7 WB

*Sovtek 12AX7 LPS

*Sovtek 12AX7 WA (?..hard to read)

*No-name Chinese 12AU7 A

Riis
 

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