How JJ's effect tone?

MesaENGR412 · May 20, 2006

Hello my friends, I'm new on this site, and still relatively new to the whole tube amp scene. I have a Triple Recto and was wondering, since i've seen alot of people mention them, how JJ tubes affected the tone of your amps? Good or Bad, i just want some opinions. I play hard rock/Metal, but still use clean every once in a while....in case it mattered.
Thank you in advance, any info is much appreciated!

-AJH

Brewski · May 20, 2006

For me, the JJ's took a lot of the mud out of the tone. They sound great. I have them in both my F-50 and Road King. Some don't like using the JJ preamp tubes, but they work for me. Also, Bob at eurotubes is a pleasure to work with. Do a search on the forum for JJ's and/or Eurotubes, and you'll see threads that describe them.

TheRazMeister · May 23, 2006

I put JJ E-34L's in my ROV combo and they sounded fine..until they started crackling and popping a month into owning them...I put in a set of Mesa STR-454's 6L6's and the amp sounds wonderful.
Bob does seem to be very nice, but he advised me to put an El34 in with a 6L6 to test them....I'm not willing to fry a $1500 amp for a $15 tube...
(he assured me this wouldn't hurt the amp)

There are many that have had GREAT luck with the JJ's but in honesty, it's subjective and you need to try them out yourself. BUT...be careful of fooling yourself into believing that they're better until you do a direct comparison with other brands.

Brewski said:
For me, the JJ's took a lot of the mud out of the tone. They sound great. I have them in both my F-50 and Road King. Some don't like using the JJ preamp tubes, but they work for me. Also, Bob at eurotubes is a pleasure to work with. Do a search on the forum for JJ's and/or Eurotubes, and you'll see threads that describe them.

Jeff Courtney · May 26, 2006

I was skeptical of buying them at first...and at first I wasnt happy with them, but after a few hours of jamming at a loud voloume and breaking them in, I love them. My amp (road king) sounds much better then it did before, and in fact I was on the borderline of selling it because it wasnt sounded great...so I decided to give it a full re-tube to see if that would change my mind. I trusted JJ Tubes to do it and they did. My love for the Road King is now re-ignited and going strong. I highly Reccomend JJ Tubes, Bob at Eurotubes is awesome and he will tell you what you need.

Jeff

tiger roach · May 30, 2006

I recently changed my power tubes for JJ's. The difference is subtle, but the sound is a little nicer. I notice the difference on cleans the most: they seem fatter, clearer, more shimmery than before. Not a dramatic change though.

TheRazMeister · May 30, 2006

I've been recently developing a perspective on this topic (oh lucky you :lol: ).
My feelings are this;
JJ's don't cost any more than Mesa tubes (if anything they're less).
If they sounded "better" than Mesa would surely put them in their amps :wink:
If Mesa knows they sound better and they don't cost more AND they won't put them in their amps...shouldn't we be concerned about our beloved Boogie dudes?

My point is this. I honestly believe that Mesa is trying to get the best tone out of their amps as possible. I don't think that for a few pennies or even dollars, they would sacrifice an alleged significant upgrade to the amps sound. I believe they choose tubes based on a reasonable price to quality ratio..(no NOS Phillips for example).

Now that being said, YOUR ears may process the signal differently and JJ's may sound like a million dollars. To Randall Smith and his design team, my guess is that they think their Mesa tubes sound as good if not better.

tiger roach said:
I recently changed my power tubes for JJ's. The difference is subtle, but the sound is a little nicer. I notice the difference on cleans the most: they seem fatter, clearer, more shimmery than before. Not a dramatic change though.