Suggest tubes?

SickenedEmotions99 · Post by **SickenedEmotions99** » Thu Mar 06, 2008 5:45 pm

Yo. Can anyone suggest to me some nice 12AX7's? I wanna replace the ones in my Mesa/Boogie... right now it's got a mismatched set in there (1 died from the original set I put in like, 2 or 3 years ago... so I replaced it temporarily with one of the original ones I got with it). I want something that'll clean up my sound a bit, and I still know nothing about different kinds of tubes. I honestly can't even remember what's in it right now... I think the remaining 3 are JJ/Tesla, and the replacement is a Groove Tubes.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks guys!

Post by **Mike** » Thu Mar 06, 2008 5:49 pm

1. You don't need to match preamp tubes, personally I don't really believe in matching power tubes either.
2. Groove Tubes are just rebranded and marked up other brands.

You could try some lower gain preamp tubes like 12AU7, 12AT7 or the 12DW7 which is half 12AU7 and half 12AX7.

However preamp tubes aren't really going to make that much different in the "cleanness" on your sound. Why don't you sell the Mesa/Boogie (what do you have?) and get a more suitable amplifier?

Post by **dots** » Thu Mar 06, 2008 6:32 pm

yeah, your best bet is to get a few of each type of preamp tube and just mix 'em up in different positions until you get the sound you want (if your amp is capable of producing that). when i had the prosonic, i spent a while tinkering with all kinds of configurations until i could get a truly clean tone. the drawback was i lost a little bit of volume, but meh.

SickenedEmotions99 · Post by **SickenedEmotions99** » Fri Mar 07, 2008 3:01 am

It's not that I'm not satisfied with the tone I get from the Mesa. (It's a Studio Preamp, by the way. I run it with a mid level BBE Sonic Maximizer and a Crown XLS200 Power Amp) I'd just like to try something different. I'd leave it as is, honestly, if I wasn't sure the other 3 tubes wouldn't die on me sometime soon. They're probably on their way out, since the one died a few weeks ago. (I don't know if it makes any difference... but I believe it was the 4th in the line? All the way to the right when you're looking at the amp face. I doubt it, but maybe some crap out quicker? Whatever...)

Anyway, I could try out some other ones. I'll do a bit more research and try to decide what to do.

mickie08 · Post by **mickie08** » Fri Mar 07, 2008 3:39 am

www.eurotubes.com. Guy in Oregon. Talk to him and tell him what you got and what you are looking for and he will help you out. I believe Dots has ordered from him before.

Personally I like JJ's

astro · Post by **astro** » Fri Mar 07, 2008 4:30 am

mickie08 wrote:www.eurotubes.com. Guy in Oregon. Talk to him and tell him what you got and what you are looking for and he will help you out. I believe Dots has ordered from him before.

Personally I like JJ's

I've ordered several JJ tubes from eurotubes.com before. Those guys are a class act, excellent customer service. And the JJ's absolutely rock, I have a full set in my Concert II, and it sounds sweeeeeeet for cleans.

SickenedEmotions99 · Post by **SickenedEmotions99** » Fri Mar 07, 2008 1:49 pm

Awesome! Thanks alot!