Any ideas for tubes I can use in my SWR 550x head? I'm looking to up-grade because I want more depth and my highs to come across a bit clearer.
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Tubes for a 550x??
- Thread starter animul
- Start date
The two tubes that sounded best in my SWR head were the Electro harmonix 12ax7 and the Tung Sol 12ax7. The JJ did not have as much gain, but made the amp really clean with bright highs. The Electro really brought out the mids. The Tung Sol was more musical overall with plenty of gain.
There is a local radio/amp repair shop that actually let me test drive tubes before I purchased them. I took my amp, cab, and bass with me to the shop. They were really cool, I took the top cover off my amp and tried out every 12ax7 tube they had in stock.
I highly recomend the Tung sol 12ax7, this tube really brought the amp to life. Also, it is important to remember that tubes do not have a sound all by themselves. They react with the circuits they are put into. If somone recomends a tube that sounded great in their Ampeg amp, it really doesn't help because you have an SWR product.
For instance, the JJ 12ax7 tubes sounded great in my SWR head, but sounded like crap in my SVT 4 pro.
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There is a local radio/amp repair shop that actually let me test drive tubes before I purchased them. I took my amp, cab, and bass with me to the shop. They were really cool, I took the top cover off my amp and tried out every 12ax7 tube they had in stock.
I highly recomend the Tung sol 12ax7, this tube really brought the amp to life. Also, it is important to remember that tubes do not have a sound all by themselves. They react with the circuits they are put into. If somone recomends a tube that sounded great in their Ampeg amp, it really doesn't help because you have an SWR product.
For instance, the JJ 12ax7 tubes sounded great in my SWR head, but sounded like crap in my SVT 4 pro.
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