ear-opening tube experience

[daveg62]

I've just had an eye-opening, or maybe I should say ear-opening experience with my mark III blue stripe. I happened to find an old amperex 12ax7 tube while looking through some old junk I have around. I think remember pulling this out of my old musicman HD130 amp when I re-tubed it probably 20 years ago. I quickly looked on ebay and saw these tubes selling for quite a bit of money so I figured I'd try it and see what it sounds like in my Mesa. Well this morning I had some time so I warmed up my amp and played it for about a half an hour, shut it down and pulled the sovtek 12ax7/lps out of v5 and put the amperex in. OMG! It's like a different amp, and I'm not kidding. The highs have just been totally smoothed out, distortion on R2 and lead channel are much more pleasing. I honestly didn't expect such a difference. I swapped tubes back just to make sure I was hearing this and sure enough the jagged highs were back, smoothness gone. I tried a different sovtek lps with the same result.
So I guess this is what all the hype is about vintage tubes. I never realized it until today. I'm now thinking of trying something vintage in the V1 slot. Maybe a Mullard or JAN Phillips? Any suggestions?
The amperex is staying where it is, I'm just blown away by how good it sounds there.

 

[dodger916]

Amperex are some of my favorites for early Mark amps. I have them in both my Mark IIs. I like the brightness of Mark IIs, and I find the Amperex compliments the high end without dimming it, like Mullards tend to do. Try a vintage Tung Sol in V1 or V2.

 

[daveg62]

couldn't help myself and picked out a mullard IEC 12AX7 on ebay to try in the v1 slot. It might be just the ticket though, the high end I've always had trouble taming with this amp. Will report back when I get it.... still amazed by the amperex!

 

[dodger916]

If the Mullard is too dark (as it was for me), try a vintage American tube. Tung Sol is my favorite, but Sylvania, RCA, GE also work great.

 

[swbo101]

I have also found the Mullard to be a bit dark. If it is, I found it worked well in the PI slot.

 

[Facelift]

I currently have a Tungsol in V2, RFT in V3, and another RFT in V5. RFT is IMO the best thing that ever happened to my blue stripe. a JJ will also give good results in V5.

 

[dodger916]

I have also found the Mullard to be a bit dark. If it is, I found it worked well in the PI slot.

+1. I run a NOS Mullard 12AT7WA CV4024 there. It didn't decrease that gain much, but certainly smoothed it. They're readily available; Doug's Tubes sells them.

 

[VoodooChild24]

I put some new tungsol on my IIC+ and I really liked what I heard. It's really aggressive tone wise.
I'm gonna put some on my JMP as well.

 

[daveg62]

I got the NOS Mullard today and it's in v1. Not quite the big difference as the amperex but I think I like it. I'll have to try it for awhile and then swap around in some other spots. the differences are not as huge as when I first discovered the amperex. I tried some other different tubes in v5 and still the amperex rules there. Overall my amp is sounding very good right now.

update, wow after swapping and playing countless times this is what I ended up with at least for now. Tomorrow I need to play more and tweak less :idea:
v1 tungsol 12ax7 re-issue
v2 JJ 12ax7
v3 Mullard IG3 12ax7 nos
v4 Mesa 12ax7
v5 Amperex 12ax7 nos

spent quite a bit of time with Penta 12ax7, Sovtek lps, in different slots also.

 

[swbo101]

update, wow after swapping and playing countless times this is what I ended up with at least for now. Tomorrow I need to play more and tweak less :idea:
v1 tungsol 12ax7 re-issue
v2 JJ 12ax7
v3 Mullard IG3 12ax7 nos
v4 Mesa 12ax7
v5 Amperex 12ax7 nos

spent quite a bit of time with Penta 12ax7, Sovtek lps, in different slots also.

I also use a tungsol 12ax7 re-issue in the V1 slot. Have been doing that for about a year now. That's an excellent RI tube for that spot.

 

[daveg62]

I guess you could say I've been bitten by the bug, as I have been reading, researching and looking for deals on nos tubes the past couple of weeks. I am finding out it really takes some effort and time to figure out what sounds best and suits your style when it comes to swaping preamp tubes. Never realized what a difference it makes with this amp by trying different tube combination's. The same tube makes a huge difference depending on which slot you put it in. I have to say that I think all of the nos tubes I have bought sound quite a bit smoother than the current issued tubes that I have been using. I'm pretty much sold on sticking with nos from now on. I was surprised as hell that the gold labeled Sylvania 12AT7WA I bought for very cheap sounds amazing as a PI tube. I wasn't even gonna try an AT in that spot thinking it would kill my overdrive but what it did was give me more use-able overdrives on all channels and really make my bb preamp much more useful as a boost. I love it!
So far I think I've invested a little over $100 in the new tubes you see in my sig, well worth it IMO. The one's I'm still using that I haven't bought recently are the Amperex and the mesa sp12ax7. I don't use the reverb on the amp so the v4 spot isn't really that important for me.
I have one more tube coming - a GE JG-5751WA. The tubes I've bought so far I am extremely happy with. I have a feeling the 5751 will be the icing on the cake, I just have to figure out where it fits in. It was going to be the PI tube but me likey the Sylvania AT

 

[daveg62]

Well after using the amp for a few days I began wondering if having the AT tube in the PI slot maybe I was missing something, maybe too much of a gain reduction?
So this morning I tried a bunch of 12ax7's in there, tungsol re-issue, lps, jj, mesa, penta, chinese, all new production types.
I kinda liked the tung-sol the best with maybe the jj or lps next.
So then I put the nos sylvania 12AT7WA in the PI and there simply is no comparison. There is a small amount of gain reduction with the AT tube but the top end just opens up and more than makes up for it. Chords sound much clearer and articulate. The 12ax7's seem to make the amp sound a little more aggressive and smeared where the 12at7 seems to create a much more open tone. Kinda hard to describe, just thought I would share my findings.

 

[Facelift]

This is what you need for V3 or V5. RFT ecc83

 

[dodger916]

Well after using the amp for a few days I began wondering if having the AT tube in the PI slot maybe I was missing something, maybe too much of a gain reduction?
So this morning I tried a bunch of 12ax7's in there, tungsol re-issue, lps, jj, mesa, penta, chinese, all new production types.
I kinda liked the tung-sol the best with maybe the jj or lps next.
So then I put the nos sylvania 12AT7WA in the PI and there simply is no comparison. There is a small amount of gain reduction with the AT tube but the top end just opens up and more than makes up for it. Chords sound much clearer and articulate. The 12ax7's seem to make the amp sound a little more aggressive and smeared where the 12at7 seems to create a much more open tone. Kinda hard to describe, just thought I would share my findings.

+1.

 

[daveg62]

This is what you need for V3 or V5. RFT ecc83

I bought two of these after reading all the glowing reviews. Tried them in different spots w/ different combinations of others. I concluded that two were too much for my amp. Didn't sound good at all as a matter of fact. Using one was much better. V3 does seem like the spot it works best.
I kinda liked my mullard in v3 better but I dropped it and broke the tip off ..:shock: ..

 

[ripit007]

I have one more tube coming - a GE JG-5751WA. The tubes I've bought so far I am extremely happy with. I have a feeling the 5751 will be the icing on the cake, I just have to figure out where it fits in.

Try it in V2. As per Doug's (Doug's Tubes) recommendation, it really smoothed things out.

 

[daveg62]

Yeah, it's already earned it's spot there!

I feel like I've found the perfect combination for this amp. 12ax7 in v1, 5751 in v2, 12ax7 in v3, and 12at7 in v5. I'm not a metal player and I think for someone wanting to tame down the mark III and improve the tone this is a good combination for this amp.

 

[zodiac272]

Sounds like you are having fun! nice... have you tried a 5751 in the PI slot? For me, they work great there. They have a little more gain than 12AT7, have some good bass and are very musical.

scott

 

[daveg62]

Sounds like you are having fun! nice... have you tried a 5751 in the PI slot? For me, they work great there. They have a little more gain than 12AT7, have some good bass and are very musical.

scott

I have and the Sylvania 12AT7wa still sounds more open and I do not notice any noticeable reduction in gain with that tube. I've tried every tube I own in the PI slot and this one sounds the best to me.

 

[groentenman]

I run 2 mullard made philips/miniwatt tubes in V1 and V2 of my green stripe mark III. The tubes really smooth out the harsh high end of the mark III though i notice a bit of a drop in volume the the miniwatt in V2.

Has anyone ever tried running KT66 tubes instead of the 6L6 tubes in a mark?(i have the simul class)