How do modern Mesa preamp tubes compare?

[user 6002]

How do they compare to the other companies' tubes? I'm talking about the non-low end pre-amp tubes.

 

[fishyfishfish]

IMO, they are pretty good, I have done some experimenting from other vendors, and I have to say that it is just a matter of personal taste. Stop the tone chase and play your guitar!!

 

[Rocky]

Unless you are buying NOS there are only a few factories out there, all of these makers are relabeling the same tubes.

People waste SO much time tweaking tubes for a small tone gain that only they can hear. The best day of my life as a player was when I stopped the tone chase and just started playing and began leading my tone around (as opposed to being led around by my tone)

 

[Murphy Slaw]

Ditto. I'm gigging weekly with a Blue Angel with 7 year old (stock Mesa)tubes. I picked up some JJ EL84 spares, and Fender 6V6 spares locally cause I'm a spare freak. Later I called Mesa and ordered the 4; EL84's, and the 2; 6V6's and put them in the spare box. My spare 12ax7's are all nos, (a few 5751's, 7025) as is my spare GZ34 rectifier.

In over 30 years of gigging with tubes amps I've never in my life had an amp biased. Nobody knew about it until the internet. There were tube testers in drug stores up till the mid 70's. You'd test em', replace the bad one and rock on. So did the Beatles. And Keef. Matched tubes? Ha!

The mis match perhaps will give you a different tone. :roll:

I say if they work and sound good. They're good.

Best of luck.

 

[SixVeeSix]

IMO the Mesa tubes are very well tested. My dad was a total packrat and had hundreds of tubes of all types stashed. I followed in his footsteps and kept any decent tube out of my amps for the last 35 years. I cherry picked when Dad passed on and have also added to my stash by plundering thrift store organs, tape recorders etc. So I have a pretty nice stash of preamp tubes on hand.

I will swap them out to change the gain but 2 or 3 experiments and I am good to go for a long time. You cannot assume any sort of results without trying. I recently found I vastly preferred the tone of an Electro-Harmonix 12ax7EH to that of an RCA 7025 in pristine condition. The EH was smoother and sweeter sounding to my ear. Tube weirdos might froth at the mouth at this sort of statement but it is MY tone I care about and their opinion means nothing. Really, put a nice set of tubes in your amp and go.

You will do better trying different speakers, at least they make a real difference. Finally, grow your own tone!! Play acoustic as much as possible, try to make that sound like you. I just won the audition for the only Motown Tribute band from Seattle to Vancouver and my tube amps were not sorted out so I took my Korg multi-effects pedal and a Peavey bass head and and played my *** off. In the context of the band it sounded great and I got the gig. That head goes to every gig, if a tube fails I can plug the speaker in, switch my inputs and be back up in 30 seconds. Way better than silence!!!

 

[srf399]

Groove tubes came out in the 70's advertising matched sets . We'd never heard of them... yet every boutique manufacturer now is trying to get their amps to sound like the old ones that didn't use matched tubes LMAO

 

[R_ADKINS80]

I had to ditch every last mesa tube in my brand new triple in order to beef it up enough to call it a boogie. lots of peaky mids and ice picky treble.....seriously lacking low end.

 

[ANIMATED SUSPENSION]

Unless you are buying NOS there are only a few factories out there, all of these makers are relabeling the same tubes.

People waste SO much time tweaking tubes for a small tone gain that only they can hear. The best day of my life as a player was when I stopped the tone chase and just started playing and began leading my tone around (as opposed to being led around by my tone)

+1

You can get more of a difference tweaking the controls, my Boogies have M/B tubes in them and they sound wonderful !!

 

[nathan28]

I've used mesa tubes, Electro Harmonix tubes and JJ tubes in my roadking II and they all sounded and responded different. Why some people say you dont hear the difference with tubes is well beyond me. Granted, tubes arent going to make your mesa sound like a marshall, but with the right tubes you can make it sound more like one.

 

[ANIMATED SUSPENSION]

I've used mesa tubes, Electro Harmonix tubes and JJ tubes in my roadking II and they all sounded and responded different. Why some people say you dont hear the difference with tubes is well beyond me. Granted, tubes arent going to make your mesa sound like a marshall, but with the right tubes you can make it sound more like one.

Why will the right tubes make it sound more like a Marshall ? And why on earth would you want it to ?? :shock:
BTW the Russian 2 Boogie 12ax7 is an EH tube. I'd love to know which tubes can make as much difference as turning the tone controls or gains from 0 to 10 though !?!?!?! All my guitars sound great through my amps, I don't use EQ pedals, if I want a bit more or less bite I tweak the treble control. It's what it's there for !

 

[212Mavguy]

Getting back to the original question, the Mesa branded preamp tubes compare very well to other new production labels, they have less quality control problems per number of units due to their testing procedures.

Mesa has used quite a few different types of 12ax7's over the years, I have seen vintage Siemens and Sylvania short plate 12ax7's with the Mesa label. I can think of at least five different constructions of a Mesa labeled 12ax7 type tube, and I'm sure that other board members know of more.

As far as the other posts here, some great points have been made, I like sixvee's comments about how speakers have more effect than tubes, +1, also the idea of grow your own tone is huge. Also about the importance of having a backup amp ready to go and being able to get it going in less than 30 seconds! Obviously the voice of experience.

ANIMATED SUSPENSION'S comments are valid, they express what works well for him. Understanding an amp's controls very well is necessary before anyone's getting the best sound out of any set of tubes.

Shredd6 shared the necessity of using carefully selected tubes to revoice an amp to greater personal satisfaction, creating a tube based tonal foundation for his personal tones. I do the same thing to my amps.

Murph says most practically that if someting works good and sounds good it's good...who in his right mind would disagreee with that? He also made the important point about keeping spares on hand.

Rocky's point about stopping chasing tone and instead leading it around is huge, knowledge necessary to lead that tone effectively came after lots of experiences in the chase, I'm sure.

And Fishy, you are right, too. Stop the tone chase and play your guitar!

I'll do that, but after I finish voicing my amp... with the tubes and speakers my ears like best...for my own grown tone. :wink:

 

[nwoforlif]

I would agree with Shredd6 completely and utterly. I was about to sell my DR after a year of screwing with it. No setting was satisfactory. After carefully listening to Shredds advice I got rid of the mud on my DR with a simple tube change.

Now they will bury me with the amp unless I pass it down to a son or daughter. I will NEVER sell my DR. The idiot I bought it of off did not know how to tweak this amp or what he owned. Good for me because I got the amp dirt cheap because I complained about the mud. I heard he bought himself a IIc and spent a small fortune on it last time I talked to him.

Thank God for persistent people like me and Shredd. I didn't want to give in to the mud. I wanted to annihilate it!!! We both did!!! And not with a stupid pedal.

NWOFORLIF

 

[konstantine RK]

I am taking my RK1 in the shop for some new pre amp tubes. I need my mids to be a bit more on the low side of midrange and the treble cut down some. This way I can decrease the bass and not lose that darker tone I am after.

It gets old when you play onstage and you have to turn down the bass level and turn up the high ends and klanky mids to appease the mic.

Wish me luck

 

[boola]

The thing to remember is that there are only a few factories in the world producing tubes and so Mesa tubes are exactly the same as a lot of other manufactures. The only difference can be in quality control and transconductance parameters. I'd say Mesa tubes are as good as anything out there but you can get as good for less money.