Which pre-amp tubes for Stiletto Ace?

[SoCalSteve]

I was getting alot of crackling noise that became greater as I went from fat clean (no noise) up to fluid drive. I replaced V1 with a JJ I had on hand and the crackling went away.

I think I may just do a whole retube of the preamps. What's the consensus her on tubes for the Ace. Keep in mind that I want to keep the gain levels the same as they are now with a nice clean channel.

Thanks.

 

[cant play pool with a rop]

For my Ace head I put NOS Tesla Ecc83 in V1, V2 and one balanced in phase inverter. I also put NOS Tesla EL34s for power tubes in. Sounds excellent! Great chimey cleans and clear punch. They're pricie but well worth it. The Tung Sols work great also in V1,V2 and in my opinion better than JJs or GT and are a few bucks more than JJs and cheaper than GTs.

 

[Sludgenutz]

Sorry Steve, not an Ace here... ...but least a solid vote for the Tung-Sols!

I like the Tung-Sol preamp tubes. I found the JJ ECC83 to be focused in the mids and the EH 12AX7 to be really "toppy" and tight with a lot of in-your-ear presence. The Tung-Sol's seem really balanced from top to bottom...with more good/clean bass, and more "open" tone than either the JJ's or EH's. I also put a "balanced output" Tungsol in the phase inverter position. Some say that it doesn't make a big deal to switch out tubes in the PI, but on my Mesa it made a big difference.

I ran a whole set of Tung-Sols, but I settled on them for the V1, and V5 (PI), as the EH's sounded good enough in V2 and V3. V4 is an AT7 reverb on my Mesa. I'm using two Tung-Sols and two EH's which give me an identical set sitting on the shelf for a full preamp retube in the future.

 

[SoCalSteve]

Hey Ray, good to hear from you! Did you get your Tung-Sol's online or from a retailer?

 

[Sludgenutz]

I went on a binge last fall, and sent three orders to Tube Depot. All three orders were very prompt (a day before scheduled).

 

[parsky1]

how do the tung-sols compare to the stock mesas?

 

[Sludgenutz]

how do the tung-sols compare to the stock mesas?

The stock Mesa preamp tubes are reliable/inexpensive Sovteks. EH's are also built by Sovtek, but the are much brighter than other Sovtek offerings (like Mesas re-brand), which are considered "darker". Tube Depot, as well as other tube sellers give overviews of tube tones that are worth reading before buying.

 

[SoCalSteve]

Sorry Steve, not an Ace here... ...but least a solid vote for the Tung-Sols!

I like the Tung-Sol preamp tubes. I found the JJ ECC83 to be focused in the mids and the EH 12AX7 to be really "toppy" and tight with a lot of in-your-ear presence. The Tung-Sol's seem really balanced from top to bottom...with more good/clean bass, and more "open" tone than either the JJ's or EH's. I also put a "balanced output" Tungsol in the phase inverter position. Some say that it doesn't make a big deal to switch out tubes in the PI, but on my Mesa it made a big difference.

I ran a whole set of Tung-Sols, but I settled on them for the V1, and V5 (PI), as the EH's sounded good enough in V2 and V3. V4 is an AT7 reverb on my Mesa. I'm using two Tung-Sols and two EH's which give me an identical set sitting on the shelf for a full preamp retube in the future.

Hey Ray, I decided to get 3 Tung-Sol's (V1 and V2 are both inputs stages for the different modes) and for V5, the PI slot. Since the EH's are on sale for $7.95 at the Tube Depot I got 1 for the FX loop and the leftover gain stage slot. The PI slot was debatable but I decided to go for the TS due to glowing reviews by ypurself and others putting one in their PI slot.

 

[cant play pool with a rop]

Hey Steve, did you get the Cannabas Rex yet?

 

[SoCalSteve]

Yeah, I did...........it's frequency response is too flat for rock. I can see why Eminence recommends it for jazz and blues - it's really got a great clean/light OD raspy tone to it but just doesn't have that midrange grind that I love so much.

I traded for a Governor which is supposedly voiced similar to the Vintage 30 but with a smoother top end. I've gotta say though, I just played the amp with the V30 back in it and it sounds great. If the Governor doesn't do it I'm just keeping the Vintage 30 and try to hammer away at it to break it in more, probably should have just saved myself all this trouble in the first place.

Another thing I found is that setting all the eq's on the amp at noon and just varying the gain to your liking really sounds great through all the modes - just set and forget.

The tubes should arrive Monday (I was hoping for Saturday, oh well).

 

[cant play pool with a rop]

You'll definately like the difference a tube swap in the Ace makes, especially the tubes you picked( I read from your post). Good luck bro!!

 

[Russ]

In the future you might try a GT 12AX7M in V1. The Stiletto's are kind of Marshally and Marshalls love Mullards.

 

[SoCalSteve]

I actually put a GT 12AX7-M in V1 that I kept from a previous amp I sold but it went bad (I hope this amp isn't eating tubes). My new set actually arrived today - I don't know how they get here so quickly for $3.95 shipping, he just shipped them Wednesday from Tennessee and they're on the west coast 2 days later. I put in a long day today and will probably wait to put them in tomorrow morning. I'm glad they came ahead of the Governor so I can have a chance to hear how the amp sounds with the Vintage 30 and a tube change.

 

[cant play pool with a rop]

I've had two of those GT12AX7's go bad on me in the Ace which had me wondering about the consistency of those tubes. They sounded awesome though until they went south.

 

[Russ]

There were some batches that weren't that consistent though they tested well and sounded good.

 

[SoCalSteve]

I got the tubes installed (V3 is kind of a pain with the fan in the way). The amp is quieter but any tone change is subtle-although I didn't really get a chance to crank it yet. The amp sounds so good it's hard to imagine any drastic tone changes. I've always felt that speaker changes made a much more noticeable difference than tubes.

 

[Russ]

You are right, speaker changes are more drastic. However, tube changes do make a difference, in some amps more than in others.

 

[SoCalSteve]

Update: After the tube change, I had an issue with the Spongy power mode dropping down very low in volume. The Mesa rep had me do a test bypassing the loop in clean mode to see if it still does it (it didn't) and then do it in the second channel (the volume dropped) Before mentioning that I had changed the preamp tubes, Mesa told me some tubes in V3 and V4 "sponge out too much". I then told him that I had changed all of the preamp tubes except V4, the loop, and that I would put the stock Mesa tube back in V3 and try it. well, now it works normal again.

Long story short - Keep the stock Mesa tubes in V3 and V4. You'll save yourself some money that way and be able to put the $15 Tung-Sols in V1, V2 and V3 which by the way sound fantastic.