Retube advice for a Mesa Preamp

[tonefreak25]

I am looking to retube my pre and am really hoping to get some suggestions from those of you who have, or have had one and have had success with a retube. I am thinking about a blend of: JJ's, Ruby's and tung sols. Not trying to get super pricey, but would spring for the right combination.

Thanks for all the help.

 

[tonefreak25]

Bump

11 views and no ideas?? Come on guys,

 

[Bobby Marshall]

One of my Studio Preamps has a Tung Sol in V1 and all Mesa tubes (same as ruby, I believe) in the rest.

The TS quieted the usual hiss. Sounds great.

 

[tonefreak25]

Hey, thanks much for the input, I think I may go a similar route but substitute the mesa tubes with some JJ's.

 

[tonefreak25]

Nice, I had actually thought about doing the "clean sweep" with JJ's as well. I have used that approach with my power amp in the past and had good results. I was just thinking about tweaking things a bit more. Thanks much for the help

 

[thunda1216]

I have a heartbreaker head - tried JJ preamp tubes and the only spot they sounded OK was in the V3 positions - tube driver. I found some NOS Sylvania 7025's for V1 positions, a couple of Baldwin organ 12AX7's for the V2 positions and it sounds real sweet.

The JJ's were bland sounding, no tone, kinda flat sounding.

ty

 

[MrMarkIII]

Bump

11 views and no ideas?? Come on guys,

There's already hundreds of posts with as many opinions.
It's a bit like asking what color shoes you should buy.

By the by, the "driver" tube in a Heartbreaker is V5, not V3.

 

[thunda1216]

yeah - I was viewing it as having 2 V1's, 2 V2's, and 2 V3's, so my V3 would be your V5

ty

 

[MrMarkIII]

yeah - I was viewing it as having 2 V1's, 2 V2's, and 2 V3's, so my V3 would be your V5

ty

WTF?!? There's only one V1, one V2, one V3, etc. Each tube is a dual triode, which means there are two sides or two amplifiers within each tube, but there is only one tube in any amp that is called "V1".
Looking at a schematic will show you "V1a", "V1b", but this is one tube.
In a Heartbreaker, looking at the tubes from the rear of the chassis, the pre-amp tubes are V1 thru V7, from right to left.
V1 is the tube closest to the input jack. V7 is the furthest.
There's no "so my V3 would be your V5".
It's not a matter of perspective.
See page 15 of the manual for the tube tasking chart.
Hope this helps.

 

[tonefreak25]

True, and appreciated. But it never hurts to see what has been discover, tried, tested more recently.

Bump

11 views and no ideas?? Come on guys,

There's already hundreds of posts with as many opinions.
It's a bit like asking what color shoes you should buy.

By the by, the "driver" tube in a Heartbreaker is V5, not V3.