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Shep

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Do you think if i replaced my chinese mesa preamp tubes in my mk ivA with 4 tung sol 12AX7 and a RFT ECC83 in V1 would be a good idea or waste of money?
does replacing the tubes with something different to mesa mean re biasing ?

and if i replace the output tubes with other than mesa brand tubes do i need to rebias? What brand are good for preamp and output ?


Thanks Tom

sorry for the millon questions....
 
Rebiasing is not required for pre amp tubes. I've tried a couple of the Tung Sol 12AX7's in my MK III's and I like them. They will be warmer sounding than the Chinese 12AX7's. Another tube I've gotten good results with is the Electro Harmonix 12AX7.
 
Hi Shep....as far as output tubes go and rebiasing....check this site https://ssl.eurotubes.com/cart/index.php?page=view_submenu&category_id=6&PHPSESSID=c95f1659c9ab1178e17f0c18e25f5360 as well as http://thetubestore.com/index.html Just let them know what amp you will be installing tubes to and they will match the tubes to the manufacturer's specifications.

Cheers. :wink:
 
If you are searching for tone then certainly the complement that you described would be great.

If you are primarily playing distorted high gain then it would be a waste of money because the flavor would not come through as much.

The RFT in V1 is still a good choice either way as it will still set the sound stage regardless of the amount of gain. After V1 it all depends on the amount of gain you expect to use. If you are going to cover it up in distortion, why bother with the Tung Sol? If you are really going for good tone then I would try at least a few brands until I found what I liked though. Personally I think that in these Fender based amps that the GE and RCA would be good choices. I have heard that Sylvanias sound good in Boogies. EH are popular too. I think the best thing though is if you experiment with each tube in each position. That way if you like a particluar tube buy them one at a time until you find what you like. If you end up not liking a particular tube in all positions you are not left holding a bag of them. Just remember to buy them as matched that way worst case scenario you can use it in the PI position that really has no effect on your preamp tone. That is until you know that you like at least one of a particular manufacturer's tube in at least one position. Subsequent tubes from the same manufacturer are less important to be matched because Boogies don't require matched preamp tubes. It is generally a good idea though to ensure that your PI is. You may want to step into telefunken, amperex, brimar, mullard, seimens, mazda, or some other manufacturer's tube for different flavor. The V1 is the most critical. V2 and later positions are for tone coloring. You want really musical tubes in there if your gain settings are low. Again, high gain will seriously cover most of why you buy an NOS tube for other than longer lasting and possibly higher gain mu. Used properly NOS tubes will make your amplifier sing something fierce and beautiful at the same time. Also high gain destroys preamp tubes faster so if you do intend to play high gain while having them in there swap them out if you can before you start playing hte high gain stuff to preserve the life. NOS can get expensive. It is much better to slay chinese and russian current production cheapos with high gain. Besides, modern high gain is built off of chinese and russian 12ax7 distortion characteristics. Good luck.
 
Also in the MarkIVa you will need to use a 12at7 in V4. The circuit design expects to see a 12at7 there. If not your reverb characteristic will change from what it is intended to be.

I have one myself (MarkIVa) and have an EH 12at7 in there and the reverb sounds fine. It disappears in the high gain stuff but then again why would you want it in high gain anyway?
 
From what I have been hearing you can have a 12ax7 in there it is just that the reverb will be amplified more and possible unusable in certain settings. I would be concerned about the reverb circuit though personally. I may try the 12ax7 in there myself. I figure worst case scenario the reverb circuit fries right? I don't use reverb most of the time anyway. It just doesn't sound right in med/high gain applications anyway. It would be nice to have a more prominent reverb in clean though.
 
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