Best Tubes for Fender Hot Rod Deluxe

[homylo]

Hi,

I´m looking for the best tubes for my fender hot rod deluxe amp for the pre- and power amp section. any recommendations?

thnx

[tubeswell]

If you can get them - RCA, Mullard, Telefunken, Tung-Sol, Sylvania, Siemens, Phillips, GE, Tesla, Raytheon, Brimar.

After that you can try the 're-issues', and Electroharmonix, JJ, Sovtek, and the chinese stuff, and a handful of boutique tube makers

[jrfrond]

I am not normally crazy about these amps, but last week I was servicing one for Squeeze, who were in town, and all I had in stock was reissue TungSol 5881's, and it really gave the normally-sterile (to me, anyway) HRD some cool "bounce" and woke up the tone. These amps come stock with Sovtek 5881's, which I probably would have used if I had them, but I'm glad I didn't.

[Wakculloch]

Anything that's no longer in production and/or ridiculously expensive;- preferably both.

[Steve Conner]

Of course, and don't forget the cryo treatment to add even more money for value!

[Wakculloch]

Must repent for making facetious comments and rescue your post from undeserved obscurity.
"Best tubes" is an impossible thing to recommend as it's unspecific about what they should be best at, and probably most importantly, what your style of playing is. For any person that has a preferred brand someone else will say theyre rubbish. NOS are the goal for many on sound and longevity, but for the price of one you can get a box full of russian equivalents that i've never felt sounded any different. Overload characteristic is more subtle, but again if you use pedals for distortion or like a clean sound then its all much of a muchness.

I think if your more specific, someone will have tried to achive your goal and can give an experienced recommendation.

[Diablo]

If the cork-sniffers think vintage cloth covered wire improves the sound of their amps, it's less of a stretch to conclude that NOS tubes sound better than modern production. I know for sure that the NOS tubes were produced in an era where they could afford to do plenty of R&D and tool up for high volume production with great quality contol. Lots of engineers and scientists were involved in the old production. Who can afford that today?

[BackwardsBoB]

I think Tubeswell's list is really good, if a bit non-commital.

I buy lots of used old amps, and I frequently find "OOS" tubes in them that are quite nice. For my own use, I feel comfortable using used pre-amp tubes and even used power tubes if they match fairly well, and I just pull out my "collection" and try them. I even buy used vintage tubes on eBay with good results.

Tubes do sound different, even from the same manufacturer. Much of the apparent difference has to do with variations in the tube gain, and new tubes sound different after you use them for a while.

A tube might be good in one position, and not as good in another. Maybe you'll find that you like a mellow used RCA in the first stage, a 12AY7 in the overdrive stages, and a high-gain low-plate resistance tube for the PI.

It's fun to do tube swaps, but you'll get much more bang for your time and buck changing speakers.

[telemoxy]

If you can get them - RCA, Mullard, Telefunken, Tung-Sol, Sylvania, Siemens, Phillips, GE, Tesla, Raytheon, Brimar.

After that you can try the 're-issues', and Electroharmonix, JJ, Sovtek, and the chinese stuff, and a handful of boutique tube makers

Add SED Wnged C to the reissue list and put them at the top IMO.