BenoA
Well-known member
Good laugh of the day that I wanted to share with my buddies on Rig Talk. I am pleading guilty of "newbiness" 
regarding 12AX7 tubes.
I have never much tested tube brands along my guitar journey. I have owned tube amps since my early days of playing but never played the game of swapping tubes and at the moment I still own 3 tube amps (3 Mesa, Mini Rectifier, MarkV:25 and IIC+ RI) and they all have their original tubes.
Except my new 2C+, in the past few days, it was leaving a weird noise trails when holding notes. I have a box full of tubes (just in case) and quickly found out earlier today that v1 was the problem. That thing said, as I had in my box of tubes a quad of Tungsol 12AX7, I decided to replace the 4 positions related to the gain stage of the IIC+.
After an hour of playing, I was wondering why my amp wasn't sounding as it was. Less gain, kind of "stiff", I was about to throw it through the window. Put back the original but only replaced the v1 with a JJ 83s that I had in the box. Boom! Back to how it sounded.
Tried an EH 12ax7 too later just for fun, boom, good but a bit brighter to my ears. Tried a Marshall branded, Boom! Good sound but more mids.
Hope this puts a smile on your face as I learned it the hard way today. Just wanted to share my afternoon sonic adventure and sorry for writing a book about it
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On a side note: the biggest challenge was removing the front plate of the IIC+, had no idea how to do it and had to think about it. But now, it's in fact very easy to.
regarding 12AX7 tubes.I have never much tested tube brands along my guitar journey. I have owned tube amps since my early days of playing but never played the game of swapping tubes and at the moment I still own 3 tube amps (3 Mesa, Mini Rectifier, MarkV:25 and IIC+ RI) and they all have their original tubes.
Except my new 2C+, in the past few days, it was leaving a weird noise trails when holding notes. I have a box full of tubes (just in case) and quickly found out earlier today that v1 was the problem. That thing said, as I had in my box of tubes a quad of Tungsol 12AX7, I decided to replace the 4 positions related to the gain stage of the IIC+.
After an hour of playing, I was wondering why my amp wasn't sounding as it was. Less gain, kind of "stiff", I was about to throw it through the window. Put back the original but only replaced the v1 with a JJ 83s that I had in the box. Boom! Back to how it sounded.
Tried an EH 12ax7 too later just for fun, boom, good but a bit brighter to my ears. Tried a Marshall branded, Boom! Good sound but more mids.
Hope this puts a smile on your face as I learned it the hard way today.
Just wanted to share my afternoon sonic adventure and sorry for writing a book about it------------------------
On a side note: the biggest challenge was removing the front plate of the IIC+, had no idea how to do it and had to think about it. But now, it's in fact very easy to.
