Cifte 12AU7 Tubes

[Hella1hella]

Has anyone tried Cifte 12AU7 tubes? Or anything from Cifte in general? I have a lil night train and want to experiment with some other tubes. I saw that The Tube Store has a NOS Cifte 12AU7 and I thought I would maybe try it out... It says "For high end audio" though, not sure if that cancels it out for guitar applications. I know it will work, but whether it will sound good for what I want.

On another note, does anyone have any "new" or easily obtainable NOS 12AX7 or 12AU7 tubes that they like and think I should try out?

[Chuck H]

A tube being designated for high end audio means nothing. High end audio doesn't have nearly the same amplification as a guitar amp. And further, the circuits are typically linearized with a ton of local NFB and such. The tube may even be too microphonic to use as the first amplifier in a guitar amp. Tell you what...

I have a bucket of 12au7 test good pulls from an old CONN organ. If you really want to try a 12au7 in your Night Train PM me and I'll sent you my mailing address and how much postage will cost. I'll give you one if you send postage.

I did have a couple of sources for used good pull 12ax7's (or one of their many alternate designations) as well as a few power tubes. Sometimes in pairs. But that was when I lived in the SF bay area in California. Nothing where I'm at now. I'm inclined to think that my old source in Ca. is probably gone under by now too. I find good pulls in old gear at thrift stores. I admit this is a bit unscrupulous, but I've even gone into such stores with known good, but less collectible tubes and swapped them out in units on the floor Electronic salvage stores often have boxes of old tubes that need sifting through to find useful guitar amp tubes. Otherwise you need to use the same internet sources as everyone else. Which isn't so bad! As such you can get actual NOS (new old stock) and often have it tested and selected (for a little more $$$) for low microphonics. If your only buying a special tube for the first two amplifier stages in an amp or two this makes the investment a good one. Preamp tubes will last for years. If you sell amps, and try to make a profit, this obviously won't work.

[exclamationmark]

Surprisingly, ebay isn't a bad source for NOS tubes, just as long as it doesn't say "mullard" or "telefunken" on the tube. For some reason where I live (Australia), new production tubes are ridiculously expensive (in the range of $15 to $20 EACH!!), whilst if I search around a bit I can get NOS G.E/Raytheon/whatever else for about $10 to $15 each on ebay. I recently acquired a couple of GE grey plates (allegedly from 1951/1952) from good ol' fleabay for the bargain price of $5 each. On top of that, they tested pretty much as the seller said so, and if I'm to believe other websites, they appear to be worth $90! I find it really funny that NOS tubes from international sellers happen to be cheaper than what I can get locally, even as new production.

As to whether some tubes are more suited to guitar amplifers... well personally, I usually stick tubes in an amp and forget about them. As long as they're not microphonic, they all sound the same to my ears - I mean, sometimes I can detect some differences, but subtlety tends to be lost on me. I've only had one experience where I heard a night and day difference between sets of tubes - though to be fair it was a 6505+ head and it had something like 6 pre-amp tubes - you would HOPE you could tell the difference! (I'm pretty sure it was a bad tube though ... I couldn't be bothered to replace one at a time).

[kleuck]

CIFTE tubes are among the best ever made (at least the 12AX7 Mazda branded, i never had a 12AU7) actually i think THE best if you are considering the signal to noise ratio, bandpass, hum and microphony.
I don't like them in guitar amps though (maybe because they are to "linear" sounding) but some of my friends love them.
I'm talking 12AX7 here, as i said, i never had a Cifte 12AU7/ECC82.