elessar820 Posted March 17, 2009 Share Posted March 17, 2009 Where do you guys get your tubes? I'm looking at trying a new set because the Groove Tubes in my amp have to go. The drive that I get from them sucks. The stock tubes distorted very subtlety and when pushed with my TS9 it was awesome, now it just sounds fuzzy and harsh without the TS9. I still have the stock tubes, I may just put them back in, but I'm still going to eventually need to replace them, so any recommendations on brands as well? I need a set of EL84s and 12AX7s. I'm still pretty new with tubes, so I figure why not ask some guys that know there stuff. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KSG_Standard Posted March 17, 2009 Share Posted March 17, 2009 www.eurotubes.com www.tubedepot.com www.thetubestore.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robin Nahum Posted March 18, 2009 Share Posted March 18, 2009 Eurotubes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elantric Posted March 18, 2009 Share Posted March 18, 2009 Antique Electronic Supply http://www.tubesandmore.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichCI Posted March 18, 2009 Share Posted March 18, 2009 Doug's Tubes For both 12AX7 and EL84, I recommend JJ. I'd avoid Tung-Sol unless you have an especially dark sounding amp; they seem to be another popular preamp tube but I thought they sounded like *** in the three amps I tried them in. I found the Tung-Sols to be obnoxiously bright and brittle in a Blues Junior and Mesa Stiletto Deuce and totally uninspiring in a blackface Champ. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluemoon Posted March 18, 2009 Share Posted March 18, 2009 Eurotubes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LPDEN Posted March 18, 2009 Share Posted March 18, 2009 Antique Electronic Supplyhttp://www.tubesandmore.com/ +1. I have always had a good experience shopping at A.E.S.. Easy to order, decent prices, and fast/accurate shipping. Can't ask for much more than that really. I also keep an extra set on-hand just in case. But in a pinch there is a local shop that charges about 30% more in a pinch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riffster Posted March 18, 2009 Share Posted March 18, 2009 Doug's Tubes For both 12AX7 and EL84' date=' I recommend JJ. I'd avoid Tung-Sol unless you have an especially dark sounding amp; they seem to be another popular preamp tube but I thought they sounded like *** in the three amps I tried them in. I found the Tung-Sols to be obnoxiously bright and brittle in a Blues Junior and Mesa Stiletto Deuce and totally uninspiring in a blackface Champ. [/quote'] Actually Rich after reading some posts in the Peavey Forum I installed the 12AX7 Tung Sol in V1 of my Peavey Classic 30 and left the rest of the JJs in there and the amp sounds much better, now I can see why the description of the Tung Sol says: linearity and low microphonics. It helped the amp a lot. The difference is noticeable right away. Then in turn I used the JJ 12AX7 in my Champ 600 and the amp did not like it, the breakup is farty (tube is old too). The JJ makes my Valve Junior sound great though. It truly depends a lot on the amp. Elessar I would do research on what tubes are best for your specific amplifier. By the way Groove Tubes does not have a factory, they select and test tubes and then they brand them. So if you have Groove Tubes they may just be Sovteks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elessar820 Posted March 18, 2009 Author Share Posted March 18, 2009 Thanks guys. Stiffhand, I did just that. I just emailed Blackheart to try to find out what brand are in my amp right now. If I don't have any luck there, I think I'm going to look into a set of JJs. This weekend I'm probably going to put the stock tubes back in for the time being while I figure out what to order. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichCI Posted March 18, 2009 Share Posted March 18, 2009 Actually Rich after reading some posts in the Peavey Forum I installed the 12AX7 Tung Sol in V1 of my Peavey Classic 30 and left the rest of the JJs in there and the amp sounds much better' date=' now I can see why the description of the Tung Sol says: linearity and low microphonics. It helped the amp a lot. The difference is noticeable right away. Then in turn I used the JJ 12AX7 in my Champ 600 and the amp did not like it, the breakup is farty (tube is old too). The JJ makes my Valve Junior sound great though. [b']It truly depends a lot on the amp.[/b] +1000 I would guess that the Tung-Sols probably sound much better in darker, "British" sounding amps like Marshalls and Voxes. My Mesa Stiletto is a really bright sounding amp to begin with as is my Blues Junior so the JJs worked out much better there. Neither a Tung-Sol nor a JJ was cutting it in my blackface Champ and I ended up replacing that with a NOS Telefunken (which is what I had in there originally). Conversely, putting the Telefunken in the Blues Junior didn't make enough of a difference to justify spending that kind of money on a preamp tube for that particular amp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riffster Posted March 18, 2009 Share Posted March 18, 2009 For an EL84 "Brittish" amp the Classic 30 is a surprinsingly bright amplifier actually. Sovteks are simply piercing when used on this amp. Some people prefer them though, I just do not know how. The JJs work great but the clean channel sound weird, too spanky. The Tung Sol in the clean position (V1) somehow makes the cleans better and the overdrive is more linear which I like. I find it really amazing that you can change the sound of your amp by changing tubes, I think it is a great concept. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoyt Posted March 18, 2009 Share Posted March 18, 2009 I've bought great tubes from this guy for years: http://kcanostubes.com/content/ His Web site has recommendations and user reviews (by amplifier make and model) that are really informative. I've bought tubes for mic preamps, various guitar amps, and my stereo amp. All perfect. He's got the ultimate in NOS tubes, but also will recommend readily available new production tubes that get good results. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thundergod Posted March 18, 2009 Share Posted March 18, 2009 www.thetubestore.com Good prices, good stock, good service. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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