Retubing the Recto!

[ibanez4life SZ!]

Hey guys!

I'm thinking about giving my recto a nice retube! I'm looking to remove some of the harshness from the tone...smooth it out a bit, while still keeping the huge recto agressivness!

I've had several suggestions for different stores:

Eurotubes: JJ's....what else?!?! :lol: They might be good, but I'm a bit worried about them being advertised as the perfect end-all to every amp

The Tube Store: Tung Sol Preamp tubes all the way through, with TAD 6L6s in the power section....he said that he recommends keeping the mesas recto tubes stock, as Mesa says it is safer (I've never heard this before)

Doug's Tubes: This seemed to be the most knowledgable response: Preamp: v1- Tung-Sol reissue 12ax7, in V2 a Sovek 12AX7LPS puts a little edge on things. Then 9th gen Shuguang 12AX7C's in V3-V4 and a balanced Sovtek LPS in V5 will seal the tone. In the poweramp, RUBY 6L6GCMSTR's, though he also recommended SED and Svetlana. For rectifies, he recommends the NOS JAN Philips 5U4GB's, and criticizes the JJ GZ34's as being barely different than a SS recitifer.....

So, what would you guys recommend? Should I follow any of these exactly?

Thanks a lot for all the help!

 

[kramerxxx]

Doug is the Man for tubes, nuff said.

I have about the same for preamp but I switch between the LPS in V2 with another Tung Sol.

Also I have tried both Different 6L6s and EL34 tubes in the Power amp. Ruby and SED 6L6's are great. JJ KT77's and JJ E34L's are good but my favorite are the Ruby EL34's.

 

[ibanez4life SZ!]

Thanks! I'm about to try JJ E34Ls! Pretty excited about these tubes!

 

[jackieTHEjokeman]

Groove Tubes. Check into their Chinese 9th generation.

 

[Russ]

Yeah that GT Chinese is the 9th generation Shuguang. That tube is really surprising. I would actually buy it as a GT tube just for the added screening even though it is a little more expensive than a standard Shuguang. At least as a GT you can always get a replacement should it go bad too quickly and have access to a replacement at most guitarshops.

 

[Dreads]

I've retubed my Marshall JCM-800 2210, Mesa Lonstar Classic[k]! and Soldano Overdrive pedal with tubes from DOUG and am quite happy with his recommendations.