Mullard in VJ

[rybass]

Who here uses mullards? What are your opinions on the new models vs the old. I have heard good and bad about the new production line, made in russia I think.

[wpkg]

Who here uses mullards? What are your opinions on the new models vs the old. I have heard good and bad about the new production line' date=' made in russia I think. [/quote']

 

Personally, I refer to them as DULLards... I wasnt impressed by them at all.

[m-theory]

NOS mullards are phenomenal. New ones are reboxed Sovtek, as I recall.

[rybass]

That is what I had heard. I have TAD, EHX, JJ, and mesa power tubes- Sovtek, JJ, ruby, mesa, EHX and JAN preamp. Any further suggestions for experimenting for dirty blues/ garage rock? EHX pre seems to yeild the most gain are there any others you guys have experience with higher gain?

 

thanks for the suggestions.

[m-theory]

You can't label any particular brand of tube as being "high gain" or not. There is no consistency in that regard. Any given 100 lot of tubes will have a majority that test in a midrange in terms of gain, some that test very low, and some that test higher than average. None of today's tubes match what was routinely seen in yesteryear.

 

For instance, if a machine that you test tubes on gives you say 80 tubes in a 100 lot that are between "85-95," 10 that are below "80," and 10 that are around "110," and you sell one person an "80," but the next person a "110," does that mean that this particular brand of tube is either high gain or low gain? Nope. It means that one person got a low outlier from that lot, while another got a high outlier.

 

All new tubes suffer from an overall low gain syndrome, and lack of consistency.

 

Also, "high gain" is a term that means very different things for preamp tubes than output tubes. A "high gain" preamp tube would be one that would YIELD higher gain that a lower gain tube would. A "high gain" output tube is a tube that will yield higher HEADROOM than a lower gain tube. The exact opposite. If you want more crunch from a preamp tube, you want higher gain there. If you want more crunch from an output tube, you want LOWER gain there.

 

Your best bet for buying any tubes, new production or NOS, is to buy from a reputable dealer than tests each tube individually, and grades them accordingly. If you contact the seller and explain what you're looking for, they'll hook you up with what they find to be the best tubes to match those needs.