most popular brand replacement 12AX7, 12AT7, 6V6, 6L6, KT66, KT88

[mikepukmel]

Having very bad luck with Electro Harmonix tubes.
Is there a brand or two that you guys who do regular repairs used most often?

[Leo_Gnardo]

JJ. I get 'em from Antique/CE/Amplified Parts, one company doing business under 3 names. Yes, JJ got an awful reputation when they started out late 90's - early 2000's, we've all seen the complaints here and on other forums. Octal pins too skinny to fit the sockets, a run of bad 5AR4's, whatever. They seem to have gotten their act together since say 2012. I hear their founder kicked the bucket in 2011. Coincidence? You decide. Meanwhile all the brands now made in Russia by/for New Sensor, they're dropping the ball while raising the price. Chinese tubes - Shuguang - sourced through Ruby mostly OK but many have microphonic problems. Squeeky pre tubes, rumbly rattle power tubes. I'm sure others will have . . . other opinions. Let the rumble begin!

[soundmasterg]

JJ. I get 'em from Antique/CE/Amplified Parts, one company doing business under 3 names. Yes, JJ got an awful reputation when they started out late 90's - early 2000's, we've all seen the complaints here and on other forums. Octal pins too skinny to fit the sockets, a run of bad 5AR4's, whatever. They seem to have gotten their act together since say 2012. I hear their founder kicked the bucket in 2011. Coincidence? You decide. Meanwhile all the brands now made in Russia by/for New Sensor, they're dropping the ball while raising the price. Chinese tubes - Shuguang - sourced through Ruby mostly OK but many have microphonic problems. Squeeky pre tubes, rumbly rattle power tubes. I'm sure others will have . . . other opinions. Let the rumble begin!

JJ was started by Jan Jurco in 1993 according to their website. Last I heard he was still going strong, though if anyone would know it would be Eurotubes out of Milwaukee, Oregon. I get my JJ tubes from them since they are local to me and I've never had a bad one. CE/AES tests them pretty well too so you'd likely get good oens from them if you ordered from there. If you order elsewhere I think is where the bad reputation is coming from.

Greg

[Justin Thomas]

My experience has been same as Leo. Also the only Russian tubes I'll buy are plain-jane Sovteks. The 5881WXTs are still great as are the 12AX7s. Everything else is overpriced hype. JJs & Sovtek are the bulk of my use. SED ( =C= ) if I can get em but they're nearing NOS prices.

*** I have yet to find an EF86 that survives long in ANY amp...

Justin

[mikepukmel]

Cool-a-mundo, thanks everyone. Yeah, the comments Im reading on various blog-istan sites, are pretty old, re JJ's. I guess once someone gets a bad taste from that accidentally mercury tainted 6 pack of beer, that brand is always bad to them. I even saw a few amps for sale over the few years and comments like "It has newer JJ tubes, they will need to be replaced with good tubes ..." something like that.

Will order a handful of 12AX7 JJ's, hoping for better luck than 0%. What the heck is going on in Russia? I haven't even found a good way to email constructive (no 4 letter word) criticism to EH. I guess they know and don't want to hear it.

Yet another EH fail: If I turned up the reverb to 8 or 9, I would get a slow, steady ringing. In the audible range, way above 60/120. The ringing would peak, i.e. it would not go like feedback and keep increasing. Probed and measured stuff all over, couldn't find the source. Swapped out the phase inverter tube with a used one, problem went away. Not even a hint of a problem. So, that is 100% of the EH small tubes. and some have been replaced by the distributor. No more.

[Chuck H]

Well, to be fair, that last problem sounds like tank microphony. Further, I can't come up with any reason changing the PI should affect a noise with the reverb up UNLESS it was tank microphony. The tube swap could have lowered gain, changed PI balance and a phase relationship or even the overall EQ slightly. I don't think we should fault the original PI tube for this one. But I can't blame you for wanting to get rid of problematic tubes in general. And, FWIW, I like the Shuguang 12ax7's. But you do need to get selected examples like the Ruby brand. I also like the Sovtek 12ax7lps, though they're always too microphonic to use as an input tube in an amp with much gain. Which is really too bad because to my ears they sound a lot like my old RCA gray plates in the same circuits. And my experience with JJ 12ax7's goes back to a previous epoch, but it wasn't good and I haven't tried them since. Maybe it's time to let bygones be bygones.?.

[soundmasterg]

As I said above if you are planning to try JJ tubes, make sure to use a place that pre-tests/sorts them such as Eurotubes or CE Dist/AES. If you buy them some place else that doesn't do this, then you might get a bad one.

Greg

[mikepukmel]

As I said above if you are planning to try JJ tubes, make sure to use a place that pre-tests/sorts them such as Eurotubes or CE Dist/AES. If you buy them some place else that doesn't do this, then you might get a bad one.

Greg

Thanks Greg, will do.

[mikepukmel]

Well, to be fair, that last problem sounds like tank microphony. Further, I can't come up with any reason changing the PI should affect a noise with the reverb up UNLESS it was tank microphony. The tube swap could have lowered gain, changed PI balance and a phase relationship or even the overall EQ slightly. I don't think we should fault the original PI tube for this one. But I can't blame you for wanting to get rid of problematic tubes in general. And, FWIW, I like the Shuguang 12ax7's. But you do need to get selected examples like the Ruby brand. I also like the Sovtek 12ax7lps, though they're always too microphonic to use as an input tube in an amp with much gain. Which is really too bad because to my ears they sound a lot like my old RCA gray plates in the same circuits. And my experience with JJ 12ax7's goes back to a previous epoch, but it wasn't good and I haven't tried them since. Maybe it's time to let bygones be bygones.?.

Thanks Chuck. This one has been a challenge. My test 'setup' is to have the chassis on a stand in front of me, a fairly long cable going to the combo cabinet which is sitting on a shelf to my left, then the wiring to/from the reverb tank down by my feet, the tank sitting on the floor. I'll try stacking the tank on more sound absorbant stuff. The tank wasn't in the bag at that time, though.

Any chance it was some kind of oscillation, and the replacement tube's gain/capacitance/... etc just different enough to kill it?

Thanks for the tip on the Suguang's. Looking for a supplier of the Ruby branded versions. Found one or two. Odd I thought, that the couple of more major "tube amp parts" supplier places didn't have many Ruby tubes.

[Chuck H]

Ruby is their own entity, sort of like Groove Tubes. Which is why you won't find many distributors besides Groove Tubes selling Groove Tubes either. They operate with the same MO too. That is, they find a tube they like, be it Russian, Chinese, whatever, and then buys them by the truck full, tests them for appropriate Ruby goodness and those tubes that pass the test get the Ruby logo. So just like Groove Tubes you'll find them being sold by parts vendors rather than tube vendors.

And I can't say that you're issue wasn't an oscillation. But I've never had a bad PI tube cause an oscillation before. A microphonic reverb tank IS an acoustic oscillation just like a tender microphone on stage.

[Leo_Gnardo]

Odd I thought, that the couple of more major "tube amp parts" supplier places didn't have many Ruby tubes.

Some of those "majors" are trying to flog their own tested & matched tubes, Tubedepot for instance. Although Antique/CE/AmplifiedParts do a good job testing tubes themselves, you can get Ruby there. Also a lot closer geographically at Doug's Tubes on Long Island. Valve Queen in Ohio carries 'em too.

[mikepukmel]

Some of those "majors" are trying to flog their own tested & matched tubes, Tubedepot for instance. Although Antique/CE/AmplifiedParts do a good job testing tubes themselves, you can get Ruby there. Also a lot closer geographically at Doug's Tubes on Long Island. Valve Queen in Ohio carries 'em too.

Cool, thanks for the info, Leo.

[mikepukmel]

Ruby is their own entity, sort of like Groove Tubes. Which is why you won't find many distributors besides Groove Tubes selling Groove Tubes either. They operate with the same MO too. That is, they find a tube they like, be it Russian, Chinese, whatever, and then buys them by the truck full, tests them for appropriate Ruby goodness and those tubes that pass the test get the Ruby logo. So just like Groove Tubes you'll find them being sold by parts vendors rather than tube vendors.

And I can't say that you're issue wasn't an oscillation. But I've never had a bad PI tube cause an oscillation before. A microphonic reverb tank IS an acoustic oscillation just like a tender microphone on stage.

Thanks Chuck.

[Leo_Gnardo]

Cool, thanks for the info, Leo.

Yet another tube supplier even closer to you, Viva Tubes in Easthampton MA. I haven't done any biz with them yet, but they do offer JJ as well as lots of other brands including NOS - for a ^^^ $$$ price of course. They seem to be in business a bit over a year now. JJ prices look competitive, let's see how they do on reputation. And they're holding a September sale 10% off new and 25% off NOS. Here's a page of JJ for you:

https://www.vivatubes.com/brands/JJ....eatured&page=1

[mikepukmel]

Yet another tube supplier even closer to you, Viva Tubes in Easthampton MA. I haven't done any biz with them yet, but they do offer JJ as well as lots of other brands including NOS - for a ^^^ $$$ price of course. They seem to be in business a bit over a year now. JJ prices look competitive, let's see how they do on reputation. And they're holding a September sale 10% off new and 25% off NOS. Here's a page of JJ for you:

https://www.vivatubes.com/brands/JJ....eatured&page=1

Wow, they are close, thanks for the link. Will give them a shot.