I bought a Meatsmoke preamp during the end of year sale. What an awesome deal on this pre. I looked into replacing the tubes and wanted to pass on some stuff I got from Ben Verellen and Doug's Tubes. (He is a tube dealer on line with a very good rep IMO.)
First the preamp is a derivative of a Marshall amp. Second it uses a cathode follower design. I mention this because Doug will put in the description for some of his tubes to not use this tube in a cathode follower circuit. I am not a tube amp designer, so I cannot claim to understand what the issue is about, but I think it has something to do with the higher plate voltages. (Basically you are driving the tubes pretty hard and some tubes, such as the tung-sol don't really like that.) Anyway Doug recommended the Ruby 12AX7AC7 HG+ in V1 and the Ruby 7025SS HG in V2, (closer to the PSU.) I will be getting these tubes tomorrow. I am recording with them tomorrow night. So I hope to have a sample I can post.
