JJ 6l6Gc VS SED 6l6 VS JJKT88/66

[label thief]

im playing out of a mesa roadster head. pretty sick of the stock tubes. id like to try something different. looking for a full retube kit. which one of these would you recommend just to get a huge crunch. [john petrucci live at budokan is one of my favorites] with a nice liquidly smooth lead and a glass like clean. what differences and traits can i expect from these type of tubes? im pretty new at changing tubes. if i bought jjs i would probably just get the preamp tubes involved in the kit. which preamp tubes would suit well also? any info would be great

 

[MetalMike]

go to www.eurotubes.com he has all the i... on what different tubes will do to the sound

 

[label thief]

yeah ive read all the descriptions and stuff. but theres nothing but great things about the jj tubes on there for selling purposes probably.. so i just wanted some other peoples opinions

 

[MetalMike]

i have never used them i personally like the sound of the mesa tubes but alot of people say they make your tone really dark.

 

[MusicManJP6]

JJs - a bit less gain but more clarity and very quiet.
SEDs - adds some gain and 'girth'. Adds some dimension and character also.
KT77s - if the KT66/88s are anything like the KT77s then they are a unique tube for sure. Very mushy response and definitely an interesting mix b/w EL34s mids and 6L6 bottom end. Took away the crispness I was used to with 6L6s so I got rid of them.

All these observations were with my RoV combo.

The SEDs were my favorite.

 

[label thief]

awesome. i think im leaning towards the JJ Highgain Option. are the jj preamp tubes good? ive heard a lot of good things about the tung sols.

 

[label thief]

how do you guys feel like dougs recommendation?

he JJ's are nice and chunky, but tend to be to low in natural plate current to work optimally in non-adjustible bias amps. The SED's are a lot more refined in tone, much more articulate and have a nice breakup to them.

In the preamp, we like a mix of 12AX7's starting with the Tung-Sol reissue in V1. Then we do a high gain JJ ECC83S in V2, a Penta Labs in V3 and Shuguang C9 in V4 and a Sovtek LPS in V5.

Doug

 

[6L6C]

how do you guys feel like dougs recommendation?

Pretty dam good!
Have been using,
V1 Tung-Sol reissue 12AX7
V2 high gain JJ ECC83S
V3 Penta Labs/Shuguang 12AX7C
V4 Unlabled/Shuguang 12AX7C
V5 balanced Sovtek 12AX7LPS
(4) SED 6L6GC WINGED =C=

Had been using Mesa tubes for years but this setup just took my Mark IV to a different place. The nice thing with all the different tubes in the preamp section is by changing them around you can get some wildly different tones. I had mixed them up a bit and I came back to Doug’s recommendations worked the best for all three channels. Don’t get me wrong if you had a complete set of JJ’s in the preamp section and started mixing them you would get some different shades of tone also. Just maybe not as drastic as different manufactures.
As for JJ’s I have heard re-tubes that I did not like (dark) and I have heard some that I did. But like any of these tube companies some of their runs are better than others.
From my personal use, I would recommend SED’s in the power section.

 

[label thief]

word. i think i might give this a try just by hearing all of the good things about them. hopefully they make my amp sound huge.

 

[kylek]

Dougs tubes pre amp is AWESOME...

If i remember right he recommends either Winged C's or the Ruby GMSTR6l6GC's which i got, and they are pretty speet

 

[sehnsucht77]

i tried doug's suggestion for the tung-sol in V1 and the sovtek LPS in V6 on a tremoverb and the sound is great. much better than the stock mesa tubes I was using.

doug,
what can i expect with the following combination?

V2: JJ high gain ECC83s
V3 and V4: penta 12ax7
V5: ruby 12ax7C5

i plan to either go the SED 6L6 or the TAD 6L6GC matched quad for the power section.

 

[Tommy_G]

Interesting: my tube line-up in my Nomad 100 ended up being near identical to Doug's Recommendations.

Mesa's must just sound good this way. I've got a good set of NOS that haven't knocked this Newpro lineup out.