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JJ Tubes?
- Thread starter unclejam
- Start date
They are just tubes. Not NOS, being made today in Slovakia I think. Probably just fine for anything bass amp related, better than the cheap Chinese stuff. For high end stuff(tube mic pres and such) some people prefer NOS stuff from GE or something, I don't think you'd notice too much of a difference with a bass rig.
New Old Stock. tubes made back in the day that have not been used. Most of the companies that made really nice tubes in the US and Western Europe haven't actually made tubes for decades. NOS tubes tend to be expensive.
As far as modern made tubes go (EHX, Sovtek, Svetlana, etc) JJs are probably the brand that I see most often recommended in the guitar world. I'd imagine their reputation for being a high quality musical tube would hold up equally in the bass world.
Yeah, by 'just fine' I didn't mean to imply that they were mediocre at all. JJ's are a good solid tube that do what they are supposed to do, I just feel that once you get beyond a certain minimum standard of quality the differences are not as great as some people make them out to be. A lot of stuff sold today comes with tubes below this threshold, the JJ's are fine. In fact, switching to JJ's made an almost useless mic pre I have at home(ART pro MPA) in to something useful.
They are not "just tubes", this is too dismissive a statement on a key aspect of tone in tube amps. I have tried most brands in several tube amps and the JJ are consistently the preferred option for tone. Their quality control is excellent, and I must disagree with projectMalamute - you can notice a considerable difference between tube brands in a good bass rig. I suggest you do a search on this forum and you will find some very strong and informed opinions on "just tubes".
Bass
the Head(soon to be heads) is the Peavey AlphaBass and im going to see if i can get 2 Peavey 215's(old schools with the black widows)
the Head(soon to be heads) is the Peavey AlphaBass and im going to see if i can get 2 Peavey 215's(old schools with the black widows)
For the 12A*7s, it would be worth your time to seek out some old US-made tubes. Try GE, RCA, or Sylvania, and they don't need to be NOS, used is fine. Get a handful and keep the ones that sound good. For a 6L6, I think the SED (aka "Winged C" brand) brown-base 6L6GC is the best.
i've got my Orange head's Preamp (2 12AX7's, 1 12AT7) tubed with JJ's and I like them. They are in fact Fat and Thick sounding.
Sweeet ill think ill bite unless some brings something of importance to the tables as to why i should not
If you pony up for new power tubes, I'm using the same head with JJ KT88's in the power section and it really awakens the beast that is the AD200B.
will Kt88 fit inside a Alphabass? im under the impreesion that they have the same base as a 6L6GC
right on brother. i've wanted to do the switch, but cash is short right now (just bought an 65 Ampeg B-15N). But I really want to do that in the future.
What tubes do you have in your pre?
Y'know, after measuring a huge number of tubes over the years, and conducting a ton of sighted, unsighted and ABX tests, no one has consistently picked which tube is which in comparisons. I build guitar and harp amps using tubes as well as hifi amps, and find similar results with all types. Geetarists tell me about all the tube differences, but again, no one has ever picked the difference between two in-spec tubes of the same type in the same cct. Power tubes are even less likely, once you wrap 20dB+ of negative feedback around them.
FTR, my own personal testing often inolves the use of the highest resolution listening rig I've ever heard; SS, tube and hybrid drivers and STAX electrostatic headphones.
Not that much. Because I've been playing with guitar and harp amps I spent a bit of time investigating that too.
For hifi, I just work on stage linearity without NFB.
Tubes are also quite consistent sample to sample and batch to batch compared with, say JFETs.
