amp bods- tube advice please

stewart · Post by **stewart** » Sun May 22, 2011 11:19 am

i'm going to get some new toobes for my hot rod deluxe; problem is i don't really know what i'm doing. someone tell me what to buy.

i'm going to have it serviced (it's a bit noisy and the reverb tank does strange things since young johnniespring went headfirst into it) so biasing or whatever can be done then. i'm not into m@J@ NOS shit, so don't suggest something that costs Â£$6847686868.

help me, shrtccscasle!

Post by **Doog** » Sun May 22, 2011 11:36 am

The 'JJ' brand of toobz get my thumbs up; they don't cost the earth, last plenty long and sound decent enough.

If you're keen on keeping the amp sounding as similar as possible, you could always just go with whatever you've got in there at the moment; presumably Groove Tubes if you've had the amp from new and never retubed it?

stewart · Post by **stewart** » Sun May 22, 2011 11:39 am

cool, i'll ch-ch-chc-hc-ch-check 'em out. i've got Â£100 set aside for tubes and service, so they don't have to be rock bottom cheepz, just sensible.

George · Post by **George** » Sun May 22, 2011 2:02 pm

I hear winged Sveltna C's sound top notch in the Fender Hot Rods. I have Tung Sol 12AX7 preamp tubes and I love them.

laterallateral · Post by **laterallateral** » Sun May 22, 2011 2:05 pm

I've recently bought a set of Tung Sol EL34Bs for the YBA and sofar, I'm pretty satisfied with them, they definitely sound better than the EHX that were in there before ever did.

johnnyseven · Post by **johnnyseven** » Sun May 22, 2011 4:20 pm

I've had good experiences with both Tung Sol tubes and JJ's. Check out the Eurotubes website, they have suggested retube packs for HRD's - http://ssl.eurotubes.com/cart/index.ph ... gory_id=32 - you don't have to buy from them though, you can get from HotRox in Notts - they've always been pretty good for me.

Simon · Post by **Simon** » Sun May 22, 2011 4:59 pm

Tung Sol get my vote. Sound great in comparison to the stock one's I had in my Rocker 30. HotRox are the boys for Tubes and that.

George · Post by **George** » Sun May 22, 2011 5:02 pm

Oh, I also have Tung Sol output tubes - 5881s which are stumpy 6L6's rated for 25W not 30W. I love them, a little darker and mid rangey with earlier breakup. Apparently Keith Richards uses 5881s (at the risk of sounding like a fanboi, I actually got them because they'd fit in my tiny combo amp).

Sloan · Post by **Sloan** » Sun May 22, 2011 11:52 pm

tungsol preamp whatever power.

ekwatts · Post by **ekwatts** » Mon May 23, 2011 2:18 am

Brilliantly timed thread, I think one of the valves on my Classic 30 has become microphonic, not bad for what I suspect is a set of tubes pushing 10 years old at least (original valves on a Classic with no tube guard).

Aren't Tungsol and JJ tubes just EHX tubes? What's the difference?

(Actually, don't EHX make over a half of all the vacuum tubes still produced today?)

Post by **Mike** » Mon May 23, 2011 7:27 am

Not really. EHX make a lot of tubes, so do other factories in China and elsewhere. Some of them are made in the same factories under different brandnames but that's not unique to tube manufacture.

I would always go with one of the big boys;

Svetlana, Tung Sol, JJ, EHX.

Groove Tubes are expensive rebrands - avoid.

HotRox are my retailer of choice for valves.

stewart · Post by **stewart** » Mon May 23, 2011 6:43 pm

good info, thanks laddies.

johnnyseven · Post by **johnnyseven** » Mon May 23, 2011 7:00 pm

ekwatts wrote:Aren't JJ tubes just EHX tubes? What's the difference?

They're made in Eastern Europe somewhere, they're their own company and nothing to do with EHX. All the info you need about them is on the Eurotubes website.

benecol · Post by **benecol** » Mon May 23, 2011 7:26 pm

Mike wrote:HotRox are my retailer of choice for valves.

This. Contact Hotrox, tell them what amp you've got, and buy the valves they recommend.