Just change it. A single 12AX7 is $10-20 depending on what you want.
They usually last for a LOT longer than power tubes do, but either way I'd retube anything I buy that has tubes of an unknown age in it.
Yeah, I think you are right and since I think I am gonna keep this, wouldnt hurt changing the tube
It is worth a shot but the results could be very mixed. Many of those just use the tube as a buffer or a parallel path starved plate design to just add harmonics. In those cases the difference would be even more subtle than tube changes already are. But for the price of a 12ax7, it is worth a shot. It has been a while since I have heard or even seen a Prophecy. Rocktron has definitely some of the better and actually practical designs.
Yes for the price, I think that´s the best to do since I dont know how many time this has it.
I've read a while back that the tube is used only by the clean settings. The gain settings are not affected at all by the tube.
Was what I read also but as they say above, wouldnt cost me a fortune to change it.
What do you think about the prophesy? any better than the line 6?
My first impression was not very good to say the truth but after some tweaking I got a much better sound. This will be always subjective but the pod isnt in the same league as rocktron.
The sounds that I got from pod hd300 were really shitty, california treadplate was the best amp for heavy stuff in the pod, but wasnt great either.
The thing with the pod in my opinion it´s the lack of balance in the equalization system. The sounds were too boomy or too thin, too honky or too bright, the things sounded too plastic and scratchy, even the low/mid gain tones and amps were not good at all.
Pod hd300 has the most dumb shit I saw in my life, you can just use 3 effects at the same time and they put the tube screamer in the section of the equalizers, I mean post equalizers, pedal equalizers.
In conclusion if you want to shape more your tone with a equalizer in the fx section, you cant add a tube screamer but if you need a screamer to give some tighness you cant use a equalizer. For fuck sake, why wouldnt they put the tube screamer with other modelation shit or with reverbs and delays? Was really a dick move.
Anyway, probably in pod 400/500 you are not limited in this case because they allow more effects in simultaneous but I dont have sure about it.
About the pod I will give the benefit of the doubt because I heard very good sounds from people at home with their rigs in youtube, so the problem might be the rig I am using and it´s not working with it. I have a rocktron poweramp and 2x12 harley benton vintage and with this rig, sounds like shit to be honest.
Back to prophecy, what made me trade is that the old prophecy is the same as the new prophecy II. Only the name and the color changes but the rest is the same. The prophecy costs 1300 euros in thomman. Yeah I know it´s crazy.
Anyway, for what I read before acquire the prophecy was that the best thing here is the 3 equalizers that you have and it´s true. 3 if we forget the main eq like the amps have, the bass/mid/treble/presence, after this one you got a pre eq, a post eq and a global eq. Between this you can eq this shit into oblivion, and achieve almost any tone but it´s a bit painfull!lol Not because it´s hard to understand and to tweak but because it takes a lot of time to get there.
The first tones I got with this were not good but after tweaking this shit for some time, I got a really good ones. The cab simulation as I read in the internet is not very good, but this is also very old. You have for main sounds, 4 channels, one for heavy stuff. The effects are very good, even the harmonizer sounds very good. Now with some patience and time you can tweak something that crushes every pod sound and the low/mid gain tones from prophecy are clearly better than pod ones.
Of course this will come as something subjective, I am quite sure that are people that prefers a pod any day of the week without thinking twice.
