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I have joined the Dark Side (well not really)

#221
So I'm back here trying to resurrect this topic and yes because I'm working on tweaking my newly acquired 400+. Maybe I should start a new thread? So after playing it and dealing with trying to tame this fire breathing dragon over the weekend I popped the top off it to find some interesting stuff.

was Preamp Tubes: EH 12AX7, Marshall (Chinese) 12AX7, JJ ECC83S, and oddly enough a EH 12AY7 in V4.

So of course I jerked them all out in favor of some real tubage that I just happen to have. :cool:

is Preamp Tubes: 1955 Mullard ECC83 long plate in V1, V2, V3 and 1955 Raytheon 5814A in V4.

I suspect this change should yield some interesting results.
I for one would not be of the school this amp would sound better full of Chinese tubes, not when I have some 50's Mullards laying around. The absolute best Mullard I ever heard was a short plate ECC83 from first year of production I forget the year. I would not have believed it had I not heard it myself there was magic mojo in that tube. This came from Danny Gork builder of Balls amps. He stuck that thing in V1 of my Balls M18 and kept swapping it out with my 1965 Mullard blind folded and would not tell me what it was. It was amazing to say the least. Sorry guys you cannot find much magic in the low quality metallurgy of Chinese tubes. Its not that it cannot be done its that it isn't done.

My sweet wife is taking a nap so I'm waiting to get to try the 400+ out with the new preamp tubes in it. Will post results later.
 
#222
Mine had all JJs in the pre and sounded amazing, so I'll be curious to hear your thoughts. FWIW, I spent a fair amount of time AB'ing some Amperex, GE, and Brimar tubes I had vs the JJs in each slot and ended up choosing the JJs again in the end for the gain and midrange presence. The Bugle Boys were my first choice soloed in the rehearsal room and definitely sounded the "sweetest", but just didn't cut in the band like the JJs.
 
#224
sunbeast said:
Mine had all JJs in the pre and sounded amazing, so I'll be curious to hear your thoughts. FWIW, I spent a fair amount of time AB'ing some Amperex, GE, and Brimar tubes I had vs the JJs in each slot and ended up choosing the JJs again in the end for the gain and midrange presence. The Bugle Boys were my first choice soloed in the rehearsal room and definitely sounded the "sweetest", but just didn't cut in the band like the JJs.
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Interesting, which JJ's are in yours, I would be curious to know? The JJ ECC83S is very warm and not bright at all. The JJ ECC803 has a lot of high end clarity. The ECC83S is a short plate and the ECC803 is a long plate. The yellow labeled JJ's are sold bulk to New Sensor without the ISO 9000 quality checks. Oddly enough out of all current production preamp tubes JJ's are my favorite. The rest of them me no like so much. The New Sensor Tungsol and EH 12ax7 are identicle in construction except one has a different getter than the other and they do sound different. The EH is warmer to my ears and the Tungsol is brighter. Both sound good but loose there good sound very quickly and become lifeless after a few weeks, not sure why. I have some other unusual preamp tubes as well I may try at some point. I have a couple Blackburn E813CC's I may try one in V1 or V3. I have some very nice Gold EI ECC83's that are really good tubes. I got the EI's about a year before the government shut down the plant.
 
#225
Munjibunga said:
No, posting in a thread started seven years ago by a member long-since banned has considerably more mojo than starting a new thread.
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Well I'm either really late to the party or way ahead of the curve since I posted in this thread in 2008 after having long since parted with both my 400 and 400+ way before this thread ever got started and now having a 400+ again after PBG is long gone. :woot:
 
#226
I no longer have the 400+ (sold it maybe 4-5 years ago and play a Mesa Prodigy now), but pretty sure I had the cheaper shorter JJs in there. I bought the tubes from a Lord Valve who at least claims to do some extra testing on them. Compared to the stock tubes, the JJs were clearer and more aggressive in the mids, both of which I found lacking from the Mesa tubes.
 
#227
Lord Valve gets all his current production tubes from New Sensor so you would have had the JJ's without the quality step from the factory. I have plenty of them that work great, they are sold in bulk.
 
#228
Red Planet said:
Lord Valve gets all his current production tubes from New Sensor so you would have had the JJ's without the quality step from the factory. I have plenty of them that work great, they are sold in bulk.
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Sounds right. He also recommended the Shuguang 6L6GCs at the time and I loved em over the stock power tubes and had no probs for years of heavy usage. Not sure if the quality on those is still up.
 
#229
So I finally got to try the new tubes for about 15 minutes yesterday (I have been so busy lately have not had much time for playing). The biggest difference I could hear is less grit in the mid control area and more flexibility with the channel 2 volume knob. The amp still has that almost uncontrollable massive low end that this kind of tube power creates. It's definitely going to take me a little while to find my sweet spot with this amp and I suspect this will not be officially shaped up until on the gig.
 
#232
My experience was that I was posting non-factual info like I knew what I was talking about, he called me out on it, I did some research, learned from it, apologized to PBG, & after that we got along great - he even went way out of his way to help me out with some preamp tube issues.
PBG = VDG - Very Decent Guy!
 
#233
Just read through this thread, turns out I have a couple of newer EH 12au7's lying around so I will try one this weekend. My current tubes (that came with it) are all Groove Tubes. I tested them on a tester and the power tubes are good, the preamp tubes are worn (or so I was told). I may replace the GT's with EH ax7's for grins and see what that results in.
 

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