eurotubes high gain

[guitardude05]

has anyone tried this tube combo from eurotubes in a mark iv? does it really give you 10% more gain? does he "hook it up" for the fixed bias in our mark iv's?

i think im about to order the full retube kit from here and was just wondering if there is maybe a better alternative to JJ's... but i guess ill have to let my own ears figure that out over time.

 

[JimAnsell]

jj's are consistantly the highest gain 12ax7 in production right now, so you'll have a bit more gain.
but you're already playing a super high gain amp.
its not going to matter much.

but i do like how they darkend up my mark III

 

[adrenaline junkie]

I don't think they're really any higher gain than a Chinese C9 but I've never left them in any amp very long at all. I really don't like the tone of them, dark, muffled, and plain sounding. I'll take EH's or C9's for new tubes every time.

 

[mikey383]

The JJ ECC803 is a fairly good Telefunken reproduction, but I'm not very fond of it in a high gain amp. I didn't like the tone in my Dually. JJs are a good hig gain tube, but they are a bit dark for me, where the Chinese C9 is too bright for me.

I like a C9 in the V1 spot, and JJs in the other positions. That seems to sound best IMO.

 

[Boogie Woogie Man]

I've used Eurotubes for years in my '76 Twin Reverb and recently completely revalved my Mk lll with them. Never noticed any sort of gain increase and I love the sound of them, seems to cut the ice pick without affecting the treble.

 

[Shep]

i really think you shouldn't bother with the high gain set just get the standards and you will be fine..there really isn't a big enough change in tone to warrant the extra money..

 

[Paul Secondino]

has anyone tried this tube combo from eurotubes in a mark iv? does it really give you 10% more gain? does he "hook it up" for the fixed bias in our mark iv's?

i think im about to order the full retube kit from here and was just wondering if there is maybe a better alternative to JJ's... but i guess ill have to let my own ears figure that out over time.

It's not a big deal as the Mark 4 has gobs of gain already.Where JJ tubes work really well is on a amp that has an abundance of presence. I think the JJ tubes are alright in my Mark 3 as it has a big treble response. In comparison, the Mark 4 is less peaky and can use a brighter tube no problem

 

[guitardude05]

wow i didnt know that JJ's darkened up the tone. im not sure if i would like that. would they be much different than stock mesa tubes? (mesa tubes seem to be way more expensive) :?

 

[Boogie Woogie Man]

I personally don't think they darken the tone at all, if anything they smooth out the highs rounding off the peaks.

 

[HalfDeaf]

In my mark iv, I've tried lots of different new production preamp tubes. I found the JJs have a unique tone that I do not care for, and do seem to darken the sound substantially. To my ear, the JJs seem to have less gain than the C9s (which I am currently running in V1). Tung Sols (which I use in V2 and V3) seem to have way more gain (the gain factor on one of the boxes is 110/105, which is more than the nominal 100). But you can get JJs selected for high gain as well.

Like the other posters have said - the mark iv has so much gain already that getting more gain is not necessarily a good thing. After much experimenting, I ended up choosing preamp tubes based on their tone, not gain factor. It was just coincidence that I ended up with high gain tubes. I use lower values on the gain and drive knobs to compensate for the high gain of the tubes.

Another thing to be wary of is your channel "master" levels. If I remember correctly, these are actually setting the gain on the back end of V2. With high gain preamp tubes, I found that I need very low master levels when playing loud to get optimal tone. Otherwise it seems that the signal going into the power section is just too large and the resulting power tube distortion sounds terrible.

 

[guitardude05]

well my i moved my amp back into my bedroom and im getting great tone. i guess the room plays a bigger role than i previously thought for guitar tone...

anyways, im thinking ill go with the doug's tubes preamp set. i dont think i need more gain, but i think the tubes in there now are kind of old and starting to deplete the gain maybe so i thought i needed more. as for power tubes, do they have as much of a factor on tone as the preamp tubes? dougstubes reccomends the standard str440s for hard rock or the JJ's for "straight metal".

 

[phyrexia]

I personally don't think they darken the tone at all, if anything they smooth out the highs rounding off the peaks.

smoothing out highs = less bright = darker? 8)

 

[Boogie Woogie Man]

I personally don't think they darken the tone at all, if anything they smooth out the highs rounding off the peaks.

smoothing out highs = less bright = darker? 8)

Erm. no !! I said smooth out the highs ROUNDING off the peaks. therefore, less spiky with the same treble, it does not mean darker.

 

[MrMarkIII]

I would think at those horrendous bedroom volumes you should replace all your tubes at least once every two weeks.

 

[guitardude05]

I would think at those horrendous bedroom volumes you should replace all your tubes at least once every two weeks.

well i play a lot louder than what you would consider "bedroom volumes" in my bedroom. and im 99% sure these preamp tubes have never been changed. the amp is at least 10 years old from what the original owner told me.

 

[ramalam]

I can't possibly use all the gain in my MKIIC+Simul, but I am not interested in trying to turn it into a Recto either. You can change to tone characteristics a lot in its lead channel by trying different tubes, primarily in V1 and V3 and that can be very worthwhile.