Best Tubes?

[Hungrycat]

What, in your opinion, would be the best brand of tubes for my Carvin X212B? 6L6GC power tubes and 12AX7 A preamp tubes. It still has the original tubes in it from 1983. I think it's due for new tubes...

 

[Steven Lister]

All hail the hypnotoad..., except if that is HIS very loaded and subjective question maybe we should stone him instead. Ha, haa.

Best brand for what? durability? your ideal tones? price?

 

Ah hell, I'll stop tap dancing and venture an objective (sort of) approach.

If you like how the Carvin sounded all these years then replace the valves with whatever brand is in it.

JJs are good tone-for-value bets all around: I like Tung Sols 12AX7s to mellow the VJ preamp a little bit and it may work in the Carvin to do likewise, or not. The Ruby line and some others are re-branded hype -- do your homework and save $. Also try asking the good tube vendors (Virginia Tube Audio etc.) as they often have very knowledgeable people who know good tone/amp/valve combos. If you go for vintage be prepared to pay through the tooth for ??? results.

 

By the way your 1983 vintage tubes may be just fine --- but its a good bet that your filter caps need swapped out to clear out the mud and a voltage and bias tweak may be just what the "toad" needs.

 

One thing is for certain -- ask 100 valve amp owners the "best tube" question and you'll receive 100+ different answers..., so sit back and wait the the other 99 to follow.

 

Hitting every BLUE NOTE baaaby..., I'm still playing on :-

[Hungrycat]

I don't know much about amplifiers. As for the brand of the current tubes, well... They just say 'Carvin' on them, and nothing else. Carvin doesn't even SELL tubes anymore.:- EDIT: Lies. They sell Groove Tubes.

 

I need a mid to high gain sound, that overdrives easily, and that I can still pull back to clean easily as well. (Think 1980's Steve Vai.) It sounds pretty good as is, But I've always heard that tubes are like strings: New ones sound better. I was looking at Groove Tubes, as they're the only brand I can get locally with out going to Nashville. I can order online, but I don't know where to start. All these specs mean almost nothing to me. You guys know what you're talking about, so here I am.

[Old_Ampeg_Guy]

. . . But I've always heard that tubes are like strings: New ones sound better.

 

Hungrycat, I'll offer my own experience, FWIW. That old Ampeg Reverberocket that's in my current avatar has been retubed and recapped exactly once. Back in the period from 1968 to about 1972, I drove it hard as hell, putting an Electro-Harmonix LPB-1 in front of the preamp stage and running the output into a 2 15" cab. Then in the mid 1970s or so (I may still have the receipt somewhere) I took it in to Valley Arts Guitar (yep, they had a brick and mortar building) and had them look at it. All it REALLY needed were new capacitors and preamp tubes. They put in new power tubes because I wanted them, IIRC (7591a tubes--very hard to find now).

 

I still use the amp, and it sounds excellent. The reverb is starting to howl a bit when I max it, so perhaps the reverb driver and/or recovery tube(s) need to be replaced. Admittedly, I haven't gigged the amp in a LONG time, but it's gotten fairly regular use and doesn't sound as if it's lost any power.

 

Old Ampeg Guy

[m-theory]

An amp that's over 15 years old really needs full servicing, in order to run in top shape and be reliable. Yours is 27 years old. Regardless of whether or not the tubes are still viable (which is possible, though not all that probable, depending on how much use it's gotten, and how hard it was driven), all electrolytics definitely have to be changed, especially the filter caps. Anytime after 15 years, they can dry out, leak, or worse. If one fails under load, it can take out the output tubes and both transformers when it blows.

 

Beyond that, those old caps are seriously degrading the tone of the amp. You'll find the amp astonishingly more robust, crisp, punch, and articulate when you have it fully serviced.

 

Like output tubes, filter caps fade gradually, so you'd never notice any loss of performance. The only way you'll notice how seriously it impacts tone is when you get it back from the shop and hear how much better it sounds.

 

As for specific tube brands, few manufactured today can be broadly called "good," let alone "superior." In terms of preamp tubes, they're so utterly inconsistent that, in any given 100 lot, regardless of the brand name, you'll almost never find a single one that's comparable in gain to average tubes manufactured in the 60's and 70's, and even amongst the ones with acceptable (though far from great) gain, you'll find a LARGE percentage that will be useless because of excessive microphonics, and another sizeable percentage that'll be wildly unbalanced.

 

The power tubes aren't QUITE as bad as preamp tubes, but still far from the glory days. For 6l6 tubes, JJ's are very robust and fairly consistent, but the one that my buddy the amp tech still installs after trying them all, is the Sovtek 5881. Arguably not the prettiest sounding tube, but highly consistent and reliable. There's nothing else on the currently produced market that I'm aware of that's going to be consistent in terms of gain, microphonics, or reliability, frankly.

 

All of this fuzzy/hazy doubt leads to the fact that you're best off buying tubes from a local tech who'll not only test each tube individually, but will provide you with some sort of assurance, in the form of a warranty, that his testing process will yield reliable tubes to install. It'll cost you a few dollars more, but it's WAY worth it. As flakey as today's tubes are, you do NOT want to buy from an unknown source or straight over the counter. You'll get burned more often than not. Sad, but true.

[Old_Ampeg_Guy]

. . . all electrolytics definitely have to be changed' date=' especially the filter caps. Anytime after 15 years, they can dry out, leak, or worse. If one fails under load, it can take out the output tubes and both transformers when it blows.

 

Beyond that, those old caps are seriously degrading the tone of the amp. . . ..[/quote']

 

Well, ahem, perhaps I've missed some servicing. I've noticed m-theory seems to be a good source of info about amps, so I'll get the Ampeg re-capped again and have the tubes checked (and its tube brothers here, as well).

 

Old Ampeg Guy

[Hungrycat]

I'm happy with the way it sounds now, but I was poking around it, and was thinking "Jeez, this ALL original... I wonder if I should have some stuff replaced?"

[m-theory]

I'm happy with the way it sounds now, but I was poking around it, and was thinking "Jeez, this ALL original... I wonder if I should have some stuff replaced?"

Again, tube and cap deterioation occurs so gradually that there's no way you'd ever hear it happen. The only way you'll know just how severely it degrades your tone is to have the parts replaced.

 

I was guilty of this myself, until I became better edumacated. Replacing tired filter caps is definitely cheaper than replacing blown transformers. With 27 year old caps, you're going to hear an astonishing improvement in the amp.