Which 12AX7's Are The Noisiest With Less Hum ?

[Amp Kat]

What do you think out of NOS and current production would be the noisiest without being a hummer ? I'm thinking maybe the WA or the Chinese but wanted some views.

[TD_Madden]

what do you mean by "noisiest"....background hiss, etc or highest gain?

[Amp Kat]

what do you mean by "noisiest"....background hiss, etc or highest gain?

No hiss and grainiest I guess I should have said so gainiest and grainiest.:)

[tubeswell]

New - those sovtek long-plate spiral filament ones?

NOS - Amperex/Phillips/Mullard Long Plate? RCA 12AX7A/7025?

[soundmasterg]

The Sovtek WA and WB are lower gain than just about any other 12AX7 types so they will have less noise due to that. I'll take just about anything else myself though.,...they don't sound very good.

The JJ ECC83S has quite a bit of gain for a modern 12AX7.

[rockon1]

This is a difference between gain and distortion or "break up" In other words higher gain doesnt necessarily mean more distortion.
Of the newer stuff I'd say the square getter Chinese (9th gen?) give the most distortion from memory. Ive been using old stock for quite some time now. Of those some of my favorite for early break up are Sylvania short grey plates,RCA black plates and (contrary to most peoples first pick) lastly the RFT.
Ive also had good success with added break up with certain 5751's (even though they are lower mu) notably Sylvanias triple mica black plates. Bob

[Amp Kat]

The JJ ECCG83S and the 803S came to mind also. Rockon1 good to hear from you and we used to talk tubes at the Peavey site. I have all of those NOS and will give them some test. This aplication is for the new style of rock that is being played with the MESA amps and wanted to get that tone with a Lee Jackson and need a tube that breaks up quick and is grainy.I had good sucess witha Valvo mullard ECC83 and some of the WA's actually did a nice job.

[rockon1]

The JJ ECCG83S and the 803S came to mind also. Rockon1 good to hear from you and we used to talk tubes at the Peavey site. I have all of those NOS and will give them some test. This aplication is for the new style of rock that is being played with the MESA amps and wanted to get that tone with a Lee Jackson and need a tube that breaks up quick and is grainy.I had good sucess witha Valvo mullard ECC83 and some of the WA's actually did a nice job.


Hi AK. I'll have to look at one of my Lee Jackson designed Crate Stealth amps and see what Im running in them. I'll say this if your Lee Jackson amp is similar to my Stealth the voicing is pretty single minded-meaning that not much in the way of tubes changes it that much. Of coarse I never tried to make it sound like a Mesa as its soooo 80's metal oriented!-but I dig it. You might try(if you havent already)throwing a EQ in the loop to at least color the sound more in the Mesa direction. Either way I love my LJ designed Stealth. Bob

[Amp Kat]

This is the Ampeg Lee Jackson with the lock on it to keep others from playing your amp. ha ha ! like they would try to do that. It is an awesome amp and gets several tones for modern and new age music. All around versatile amp tstl. Like your idea about the eq in the loop and I'm also thinking maybe a sonic maximizer may help also. The cab is a 5150 4x12 and those peavey speakers grind it out pretty good.

[rockon1]

Yeah give an EQ in the loop a try. Its the most powerful single tone shaping tool I can think of. Might get you closer to that scooped mesa sound. Bob