Whats wrong with mesa tubes?

[label thief]

I see so many people wanting to upgrade to JJ tubes.. or another brand from mesa. what tone characteristics are missing from mesa tubes? are tthey bad? :[ i know some might like others better, but whats wrong with the stock tubes? im refering to the 6l6s

 

[camsna]

You already hit it on the head. Nothing's wrong with them. But some people like other options better.

 

[R_ADKINS80]

I don't know what it is, but I refuse to believe Mesa products are as "cookie cutter" as they say they are. I find my Triple Rec severely lacking in low end AND gain as compared to the 4 Rectos in my circle of guitar buddies. The only way I can get that massive girth and gain out of my amp is to run rediculously high gain rated tubes in it and run TAD 6L6GC-STR power tubes which have ludicrouse amounts of bass to them. Only then, was my amp able to sound like what I always heard Recto's sound like. I think my amp was finished on a friday around 5:30 pm.....someone had a bad day and needed to get to the local watering hole asap.

 

[Timbre Wolf]

whats wrong with the stock tubes?

Well, for one thing, they whack each tube while it is running. I wouldn't recommend that, as it can damage the tube and create problems.

By the way, I don't hammer my tubes, while playing, as my standard "real life rigours"

- Thom

 

[stokes]

whats wrong with the stock tubes?

Well, for one thing, they whack each tube while it is running. I wouldn't recommend that, as it can damage the tube and create problems.

By the way, I don't hammer my tubes, while playing, as my standard "real life rigours"

- Thom

And I am always amazed at how much better my amp can sound if I get hammered myself.

 

[MrMason]

It's funny I found this thread, because I was just going to create a new one based on what happened to me today:

I took one of the 12AX7s out of my Express 5:50 and replaced with an EH about a month ago. Last week my Carvin Legacy wasn't working right, and I figured out that it was a 12AX7, so today I finally got a chance to see which one it was. I replaced V1 with the Mesa branded tube that I took out of my Express, it didn't fix the problem so I was going to try V2. I went to pull the Mesa out of the tube socket, and the tube BROKE. It was a perfect break, like someone had taken a glass cutter and weakened it in that spot. And, no I didn't use extreme pressure and the tube was nice and cool when I took it out, I've done this dozens of times before. I had to take a pair of pliers and work on it for about 45 minutes (including the amount of time it took to open up my amp to retrieve a piece of the tube that broke off and fell inside the chassis). So, I'm thinking they banged on this tube too hard with that hammer :shock:

 

[stokes]

It's funny I found this thread, because I was just going to create a new one based on what happened to me today:

I took one of the 12AX7s out of my Express 5:50 and replaced with an EH about a month ago. Last week my Carvin Legacy wasn't working right, and I figured out that it was a 12AX7, so today I finally got a chance to see which one it was. I replaced V1 with the Mesa branded tube that I took out of my Express, it didn't fix the problem so I was going to try V2. I went to pull the Mesa out of the tube socket, and the tube BROKE. It was a perfect break, like someone had taken a glass cutter and weakened it in that spot. And, no I didn't use extreme pressure and the tube was nice and cool when I took it out, I've done this dozens of times before. I had to take a pair of pliers and work on it for about 45 minutes (including the amount of time it took to open up my amp to retrieve a piece of the tube that broke off and fell inside the chassis). So, I'm thinking they banged on this tube too hard with that hammer :shock:

More than likely due to crap quality of the tube.Heard of this happening to Russian preamp tubes before.