JJ or Tung Sol 12AX7s in a Mark IV?

[holdsworth]

My Mark IVa combo is due for a retube and I was wondering how the JJ preamp tube kit from eurotubes would compliment my newly fitted Svetlana winged Cs? I've heard a lot of good things about the Tung Sols, but I don't want the hassle of sorting through a whole batch to find good ones; I'd much rather just buy them tested and numbered for each position (inverted in v4 ect) from bob at eurotubes.

I'm not really worried about the tone being darkened by the JJ preamps as the Mark IVa tone is more than bright enough to sustain, just as long as the JJs give a nice, smooth lead sound.

Are the Tung-sols as high-gain as the JJ pres? And is the high-gain JJ 12ax7 tube kit worth it, or am I better off buying the standards?

Cheers

 

[Flashpoint]

I own both the Tung Sol 12AX7 reissue and the JJ ECC83. The JJ's were too dark for my tastes. They killed my clean tones. I may as well have been playing out of a cheap Randall solid state. The Tung Sol sounds great in my V1 and V2 sockets.

I bought mine from Doug Preston @ Doug's Tubes. All of his tubes are tested. He can set you up with a complete set of JJs or Tung Sols. He writes the tubes rating right on the box. The Tung Sols that I ordered from him are just as high gain as the JJ "high gain" ECC83s. He will also mark the tube if it has balanced triodes (for your phase inverter).

Give Doug a call before you settle for the JJ's.

 

[holdsworth]

Thanks for the advice. I contacted Doug about retubing my MKIVs frontend and here's what I've decided on:

V1 - Tung-Sol reissue 12AX7
V2 - high gain JJ ECC83S
V3 - high gain JJ ECC83S
V4 - Shuguang 12AX7C9
V5 - balanced Shuguang 12AX7C9

...I'll let you know how they sound when I get them!

 

[Platypus]

Thanks for the advice. I contacted Doug about retubing my MKIVs frontend and here's what I've decided on:

V1 - Tung-Sol reissue 12AX7
V2 - high gain JJ ECC83S
V3 - high gain JJ ECC83S
V4 - Shuguang 12AX7C9
V5 - balanced Shuguang 12AX7C9

...I'll let you know how they sound when I get them!

I'm curious how you like this setup... btw killer name/avatar, Holdsworth slays.

 

[IK]

I'm curious (and pardon me if this sounds dumb) as to why lots of people on this list only use the new Tungsol 12AX7 in the V1 and opt for the JJs or Shuguangs in the other preamp slots...
What do those tubes provide in those positions that the tungsol (which almost everyone agrees is great) can't?

 

[Flashpoint]

I use the Tung Sol tubes in V1 and V2 of my Trident. V1 is both the input stage and the second gain stage, and V2 is the input stage for the Fat Clean and Fluid Drive modes as well as the 3rd gain stage for all other modes. In other words, those two tubes are responsible for a majority of the tone shaping.

In V3 and V4 I use a high gain rated JJ ECC83 just because that's what I had on hand. V5 is occupied by a high gain JJ ECC83 with balanced triodes.

To be honest, I haven't really experimented with different tubes in the V4 and V5 sockets. I swapped from the stock Mesa 12AX7s to the JJ's when I first bought them... but that's it. Because I didn't really notice much difference between the two, I simply left those sockets alone and did my experiments with V1-V3.