I Sold My Triple Recto

[C.O.A.]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=005&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWN%3AIT&viewitem=&item=150110173924&rd=1&rd=1

yeah, i got tired of the sound and i have wanted an ENGL Fireball for about a year now so i went ahead and bought one of em.

it was pretty much a trade lol. i sold my recto for $900 and the fireball cost me $899, so i saved a dollar lol.

oh and i had a question about tubes. the guy that bought my amp was telling me that groove tubes suck and that they don't sound nearly as good as mesa tubes. is that true?

 

[andrew_1990]

Engl make great amps man. You wont be dissapointed. But for me nothing compares to mesa.

 

[Elpelotero]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=005&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWN%3AIT&viewitem=&item=150110173924&rd=1&rd=1

yeah, i got tired of the sound and i have wanted an ENGL Fireball for about a year now so i went ahead and bought one of em.

it was pretty much a trade lol. i sold my recto for $900 and the fireball cost me $899, so i saved a dollar lol.

oh and i had a question about tubes. the guy that bought my amp was telling me that groove tubes suck and that they don't sound nearly as good as mesa tubes. is that true?

everyone has opinions.

 

[Russ]

oh and i had a question about tubes. the guy that bought my amp was telling me that groove tubes suck and that they don't sound nearly as good as mesa tubes. is that true?

That is funny because GT and Mesa both screen some of the same tubes. GT has a larger selection and they offer some tubes that put Mesa's to shame. Take for example the Reissue Mullard 12ax7's. They clearly have better tone than a Sovtek. Though Mesa does go about putting dampening on their newer SPAX7, I don't care for its tone as much as any GT Russian tube for the price difference. GT offers high gain preamp tubes and sets also. GT also offers matched phase inverters that Mesa doesn't believe in. You tell me who sucks. I think it all depends upon the tubes you buy. GT offers many tubes. Maybe it was your friend's selection that sucked. You can't very well blame GT for his selection. To me it sounds more like he sucks because he can't pick out good tubes. If you have ever taken the time to see what GT offers you would see that they clearly offer more than Mesa. I don't think Mesa has offered Tungsram in the past nor do they offer JJ's currently. GT offers just about every tube that is decent. They usually reject a tube type or particular batch if there isn't enough passing tubes to make it worth it so sometimes you find that they will not offer a particular tube or it will come short on supply for a while. The other side of the coin is that GT only screens as many as they can like any other screener and that people buy them up and run the supply down too.

Also if it was power tubes that he was talking about you have to know what hardness you want or you might take away power tube saturation or add it to what you had in mind thus giving you a bad idea of what they can sound like. Your GT hardness relates to the Mesa color codes. I believe it is 4-6 that get you where Mesa tubes are at with 4 being the quickest to distort and 6 taking a little longer and having more headroom.

Some can't afford the extra couple dollars for a GT tube so they get a bad rep too. Mesa tubes are about the same though. Some people would rather deal with Bob or Doug or another tube vendor but the convenience to walk into a store and get what you want is what makes GT so attractive to me. Most music shops carry GT. Not all music shops carry Mesa tubes.

I really don't think your friend could tell the difference between GT's or Mesa's unless maybe there was a different tube type or manufacturer used. As elpelotero said, "everyone has opinions." Some would like to be limited more even if it is their own ignorance driving their criteria.

One last note: I bought a half dozen SPAX7 tubes and compared them to the same # of GT 12ax7's and found that though the SPAX7 is supposed to be a superior tube that is above their typical premium tube as far as selectability goes including further screening. I found that the Mesa tubes tested poorly. All but one didn't test as new on both sides of the dual triode. A couple even tested barely good. The GT tubes all tested as new on both sides of the dual triodes and were even relatively closely matched though not even selected for being matched. What does this say? It says I bought a half dozen new would be premium tubes to get one that tested new from Mesa and every tube I bought from GT tested new ever. I have never had problems with GT's in the past other than the typical wearing out or going microphonic in time.