Rivera is sounding lifeless?

[rabies]

I re-tubed my S120 head with 4xJJE34L power tubes recently (at least I thought they're new tubes). And I have 5 Telefunken diamonds in the pre with one JJ ECC83 in the reverb position which I rarely use reverb (I have a G-Major).

The pinched harmonics are not "coming out as freely" is the best way I can describe it. And generally sounds dead-ish to my ears. I thought the NOS Telefunkens are rated to last 10,000 hrs or so?

So is it the preamp tubes or a kink in my instrument cable? I had the amp sitting on the cable on purpose at one point.

Any ideas? It's to the point where I don't feel like playing it anymore and I used to love it...

I recently installed new strings on my LP as well, so that typically improves the sound, so that's not it...

 

[fishyfishfish]

Put the old pre amp tubes back in. I got a grip of NOS pre's ( I went buck wild and bought a couple gray plates and a black plate with some old radio pulls and a tungsram) and my amp did the same thing on the gain channel, although the clean channel was everything that I thought it would be and more. I put the old $3.00 Chinese 12AX7s back in sept for the 1st position, did some rollling and found a tube for V1 that did it for me and saved the rest. JJ's in the power section can take some top end as well, but not as much as pre amp, BUT you already know that.
I also found out that a $60.00 tube can die just like a $3.00 tube, so at least for me I am done with NOS pre's for a while.
Vintage tubes are fun, but now I am kicking my own a## for spending that kind of money for what I got back. Sorry old guy rant.

 

[rabies]

Yes, I agree. the telefunken preamp tubes are supposed to last 10000 hrs! Well I had them in there for maybe a year or two?

I installed 3 JJ 12AX7's (short-plate) in V1-V3 (ch1/2 tone/gain triodes) and now it's back to life!