JJ's or GT pre amp tubes for Stiletto Ace

[Dr GearHead]

I have narrowed down my choice of pre-amp tubes for my Stiletto Ace to either

JJecc83 golds or Grove Tube GT12ax7-c (or a combination)

I am going to start with positions V1 - V3 and see how it goes from there, I am looking to tame some of the brightness or the amp and warm it up a bit.

Looking for opinions on the tubes above, I play mostly on fluid drive but I really like the fat clean and don't want to ruin it.

I am probably going to order some STR450's and a celestion G12-65 at the same time.

cheers

 

[MusicManJP6]

I ran GT 12ax7c's in my Mark IV and Peavey XXX. They sound good, but not much different than the stock Mesa tubes in the Mark IV. The JJ's are going to give you the most noticeable tone difference and they are the quieter of the two as well. I just ordered batch of JJ's 12ax7's for my F-30. I already have the JJ power tubes. Not a real noticeably difference from the power tubes alone - the preamp is where the real tone comes from.

 

[fishyfishfish]

I agree, and the JJ Golds are the warmest of the JJ bunch.

 

[joey_truelove]

I agree, and the JJ Golds are the warmest of the JJ bunch.

The JJs should be middier and twangier than the GTs though.

 

[hfisher3380]

I've had nice results with a JAN-Philips 5751 in V1, Tung-Sol 12ax7 in V2 and wing =c= EL34 power tubes. Of all the combos I've tried this seems to have been the best in taming the at-times shrill highs of my ace. Not hearing a huge difference with subbing out the stock tubes in V3-V5.

Just gigged it for the first time over the weekend and sounded friggin' sweet! Like a Marshall on 'roids. Played everything from '60s era Stones/Beatles to '70s Cheap Trick to '80s REM/DuranDuran to '90s Pumpkins/Nirvana/AIC to 00's WhiteStripes/Killers and sounded great!

 

[Dr GearHead]

cool, I've got 2 STR450's and 4 JJ golds on order.

Thanks for the help

 

[joey_truelove]

cool, I've got 2 STR450's and 4 JJ golds on order.

Thanks for the help

Good luck with your purchase - and let's hear how it turns out, yeah?

 

[Dr GearHead]

will do,

I must admit I am pretty nervous about performing the change, having never changed a tube before. The pre-amp tubes look awkward to get to.

 

[fbomb]

youll be fine, changing tubes is really easy,youll see once you try

 

[Dr GearHead]

I got the pre-amp tubes installed yesterday, they sent me the wrong power amp ones so I will have to wait till after the weekend before I can report on those.

I was s**ting bricks changing the pre-amp tubes, had dry mouth and everything. Seems a bit daft now I have done it once I realise it's not a massive deal but Mesa's are big money here in the UK and there was no one to bail me out if I screwed it up.
I had to take off the cooling fan to get to the V3 & 4 tubes but that wasn't a big deal, the covers were a bit difficult to get back on because it's pretty tight in the combo. I was so nervous turning it back on but it all seems to be working ok.

It seems to have done the trick, couldn't really crank the amp as the kids were in bed but the brightness seems to have been tamed.