Telefunken 12AX7

[gitapik]

My brother's a serious audiophile. I helped him pack for a big move over the weekend. I'd told him that the 12AX7 that powered the Lead Drive on my Mark IIB (a GrooveTube) had crapped out on me and I was using an NEC that I'd found at a garage sale, for the time being.

He gave me two Telefunkens. Top shelf in the audiophile world. Nice gift to say the least.

So today I checked them out. I was pretty psyched.

I put one Telefunken, followed by the next, into the Lead drive socket.

I'm using single coil pups (standard ones on my G&L ASAT Classic...loving that guitar). I heard no real difference between the two Telefunkens (a red and red/green tip). They sounded good at all distortion levels.

Then I reinstalled the NEC I've been using the past week or so.

Lo and behold: I found that the signal tracking was better with the NEC in there. Especially as it degraded or continued into feedback. There was less noise. With both Telefunkens there was some crackling (besides the usual single pup noise in the one and three positions) as the signal continued or died, which wasn't there with the NEC. Though the Tele's were a tad warmer (not a lot), I preferred the crispness and edge that the NEC put out, as well.

Bottom line: I liked the 'meh' NEC over the top of the line Teles for my purposes, here.

So, I'm wondering: these Telefunkens are an audiophile's dream. Does that not translate when powering the dirt channel of an amp?

 

[Retu]

My brother's a serious audiophile. I helped him pack for a big move over the weekend. I'd told him that the 12AX7 that powered the Lead Drive on my Mark IIB (a GrooveTube) had crapped out on me and I was using an NEC that I'd found at a garage sale, for the time being.

He gave me two Telefunkens. Top shelf in the audiophile world. Nice gift to say the least.

So today I checked them out. I was pretty psyched.

I put one Telefunken, followed by the next, into the Lead drive socket.

I'm using single coil pups (standard ones on my G&L ASAT Classic...loving that guitar). I heard no real difference between the two Telefunkens (a red and red/green tip). They sounded good at all distortion levels.

Then I reinstalled the NEC I've been using the past week or so.

Lo and behold: I found that the signal tracking was better with the NEC in there. Especially as it degraded or continued into feedback. There was less noise. With both Telefunkens there was some crackling (besides the usual single pup noise in the one and three positions) as the signal continued or died, which wasn't there with the NEC. Though the Tele's were a tad warmer (not a lot), I preferred the crispness and edge that the NEC put out, as well.

Bottom line: I liked the 'meh' NEC over the top of the line Teles for my purposes, here.

So, I'm wondering: these Telefunkens are an audiophile's dream. Does that not translate when powering the dirt channel of an amp?

I have currently three Teles in my Mark IV and I absolutely love them in all places except V5 PI position. In my opinion,Tele ECC83's and Mullard 12 Ax7's are the best preamp tubes in the Mark series amps.

 

[gitapik]

Interesting. Maybe I should have the ones I've got tested.

 

[bgh]

EDIT: My bad. I must not have had enough coffee yet this morning. The tube that I put into my Nomad is NOT a Telefunken, it is a Tung-Sol. Sorry about that. Just in case someone is interested, I will leave the post and not delete it.

I have one in V1 of my Mark IV. Concerning tone, it did not seem to be a noticable improvement over the stock tube. But it ran fairly quiet, so I left it there.

I also put one (EDIT: A Tung Sol, not a Telefunken) in V1 of my Nomad 45. Here it made a big difference over the Mesa tube. Especially on the clean channel in "normal" mode. The sounds are more defined and more crisp. The channel seems to have a lot more body that it had with the Mesa tube. I definitely left it in. This was only this weekend that I did this, so I have not had a chance to mess much with the other two channels (to how different they are now).