Let's discuss current 12ax7 production
- Thread starter ~BURNY~
- Start date
Interesting coincidence.
I dont like JJ pres, and always swap them for tungsols or a tungsol/EH mix.
All my amps have a tungsol in V1.
I dont like JJ pres, and always swap them for tungsols or a tungsol/EH mix.
All my amps have a tungsol in V1.
drew_drummer
Dancefap
Yeah, I'm also steering clear from JJ's in the future. They seem too dark to me these days; not sure what it is. My Marshall currently has a range of Ruby's and EH.
I find the amount of different preamp and poweramp tubes is a bit overwhelming and I heard that tube production in general has gone down in quality. I'm curious to know how the new AMT solid state tubes sound. Sorry for not being more helpful.
- Apr 20, 2005
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Yes. It's like they are both dark and harsh at the same time. Hard to describe.
Ashgarth
Jordi Vaquero
sprack
Thread Killer
Like the JJ ECC803's and Tung Sols. Found a russian Sunrise brand 12ax7 which sounds nice in the VS8100.
JJ's can tame your monstrous tubehead. My amptech/maintainer (he is pro), swapped some broken EH tubes with JJ in my Triple XXX, he mostly does that when ppl don't ask for specific tubes. This guy ain't a metalhead. JJ's have less gain, and will make your sound more mellow (his words).
EffigyForgotten
New Metal Member
Hes wrong 
^^^
In my experience JJ's are higher gain than Tung Sol's and EH's, and darker/thicker sounding, so in a El34 tube configuration I think these tubes work best. In my Bugera 6260 I currently have 4 E34L's in the power section, and from eurotubes.com I got the retube set with all the preamp tubes, then switched the V1 tube to a Tung Sol, kind of similar to what a TS does soundwise, although not as obvious of a difference.
^^^In my experience JJ's are higher gain than Tung Sol's and EH's, and darker/thicker sounding, so in a El34 tube configuration I think these tubes work best. In my Bugera 6260 I currently have 4 E34L's in the power section, and from eurotubes.com I got the retube set with all the preamp tubes, then switched the V1 tube to a Tung Sol, kind of similar to what a TS does soundwise, although not as obvious of a difference.
bryan_kilco
Member
My last retube I picked up Ruby 6L6/EL34 combo for power and Doug's "Tone Kit" or whatever. I forget exactly which tubes where in what positions, but my amp was insanely louder than with the previous set of GT's.
slayercannibalsuffohead
Get a dog up ya!
Big fan of the JJ's here. Have them in everything bar the E570 (getting around to it soon) and haven't had a complaint yet. Perfectly fine for death metal tones. Tried a few EH's and couldn't wait to get them out quick enough, it was akin to turning your boost on/off, if ya know what I mean.
Love the JJ's in my XXX (el34's) and complimented the 6505+ and the 5150 beautifully. Thinking of going with TAD's for the Engl as well as the JJ's. Might do a comparison when they arrive.
Love the JJ's in my XXX (el34's) and complimented the 6505+ and the 5150 beautifully. Thinking of going with TAD's for the Engl as well as the JJ's. Might do a comparison when they arrive.
wishtheend
clip the apex
JJ's seem less-hyped in the highs, but feel a more focused low. Especially the 803s in cleans in my 2ch Dual Rec. I think I like Winged Cs power most, but the JJ pres are decent. The only one I feel gives the most impact is V1, and the Tungsols feel "boosted" if that makes sense. I don't feel the JJ lacks, but with any tube combo you have to setup your eqs/presets accordingly.
I always use JJ ecc83s in my ENGL Savage 120 (except V1 sometimes). Makes it sound less "metallic" to my ears, in a good way. Still brutal but somewhat more "rounded" of a tone.
In my VH4 i'd be afraid they might be too dark but I haven't actually tried yet.
In my VH4 i'd be afraid they might be too dark but I haven't actually tried yet.
TheWinterSnow
Den Mørke Natt
I have been a JJ user since 2009 and have no desire to change that any time soon. JJs are indeed darker and have a more focused low end, while not being as aggressive as say other tubes they definitely have more definition and to me, smooth clear tone is better than being as aggressive as possible. I really like what they have done for my 5150, if anything, they haven't tamed it enough. I may in the future experiment around with the gold pin variations as well as the ECC81, ECC803 or even 12DW7 in key positions to gain more note definition.
My amp settings are a little odd too with fairly high mids and low presence and I use an SD-1 with slightly odd settings as well, but then again my tastes differ drastically from the status quo around here, so YMMV.
My amp settings are a little odd too with fairly high mids and low presence and I use an SD-1 with slightly odd settings as well, but then again my tastes differ drastically from the status quo around here, so YMMV.
- Apr 20, 2005
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Did you compare them to Tung-sol?
I had to back off a bit of presence on my amp but the end result is much more "open" and less stiff to my ears. But it's really the sequence of bright super defined/dark/bright super defined that does the trick for me. If I move the second Tung-sol in V2, the sound collapse.
I had to back off a bit of presence on my amp but the end result is much more "open" and less stiff to my ears. But it's really the sequence of bright super defined/dark/bright super defined that does the trick for me. If I move the second Tung-sol in V2, the sound collapse.
TheWinterSnow
Den Mørke Natt
You know the only tubes I haven't played are Tung-Sol. I know that I like JJs miles ahead of Sovtek and Chinese tubes which when I compared made me feel queasy as to how nasty they sounded. The JJs were always more bold, solid, while being rich and much darker, taming that fizz the amp is known for. I would really need to try EH and Tung-sol in my amp and get a comparison but I haven't been in a rush because I like how my current setup tames the fizz.
As for the presence setting, even with the JJs I have my presence less than 7 and at lower volumes 0 to 7 has no sound change so more often than not I have it a 0. When at rehearsal and live I just put it on 7 because I know its more correct of a setting, but for the most part because I use non-audio ear plugs I can't hear a difference and I don't care to damage my hearing to try to listen for a difference when the post gain is around 3.5 which is where it is at during practice and live, our local venue sound guys like the amps loud. Obvious though you darken the amp when you begin to compress the the power section and saturate the transformer so it tames the high end and makes the feedback loop act differently. I can't hear subtle differences when the amp is that loud, it just sounds loud and I can hear the compression of tube sag going on.
The best test would be to record the amp at full volume to hear the differences at more realistic volumes between the tubes. My estimation is that even at equal levels of brightness when compensating the presence between JJs and say Tung-sol would be that the JJs would sound a bit more harsh just on the premise that they are darker in nature, putting more focus on what is going on in the 4KHz-6KHz area.
As for the presence setting, even with the JJs I have my presence less than 7 and at lower volumes 0 to 7 has no sound change so more often than not I have it a 0. When at rehearsal and live I just put it on 7 because I know its more correct of a setting, but for the most part because I use non-audio ear plugs I can't hear a difference and I don't care to damage my hearing to try to listen for a difference when the post gain is around 3.5 which is where it is at during practice and live, our local venue sound guys like the amps loud. Obvious though you darken the amp when you begin to compress the the power section and saturate the transformer so it tames the high end and makes the feedback loop act differently. I can't hear subtle differences when the amp is that loud, it just sounds loud and I can hear the compression of tube sag going on.
The best test would be to record the amp at full volume to hear the differences at more realistic volumes between the tubes. My estimation is that even at equal levels of brightness when compensating the presence between JJs and say Tung-sol would be that the JJs would sound a bit more harsh just on the premise that they are darker in nature, putting more focus on what is going on in the 4KHz-6KHz area.
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