Anybody else hate EH EL34's?

[guitarslinger]

So I retubed my Rivera Hammer with JJ 6L6 tubes, and it just absolutely pwns now.

It's like a new amp. It balanced everything out and made it sound ridiculous.


EH EL34's came wiht it. Is it Possible they were just old? Or do they sound as bad as I think?

BTW, I've hated every EH tube I've used. no joke.

 

[blackba]

I think its just you, the EH EL34's sound fine in my Vox AC50. JJ does make nice power tubes though.

I like EH 12AX7's too, they are decent, but not great. Far better than JJ 12AX7's.

Do you like Sovtek tubes?

 

[guitarslinger]

I think its just you, the EH EL34's sound fine in my Vox AC50. JJ does make nice power tubes though.

I like EH 12AX7's too, they are decent, but not great. Far better than JJ 12AX7's.

Do you like Sovtek tubes?

Interesting.

IMO, JJ Ecc83 usually sounds better than the EH, unless it's a REALLY dark amp.

Sovtek, not always my favorite, but IMO, always better than the equivalent EH. I know they're all new sensor, but:

EH 6550 = absolute piss
Sov 6550 = Glory!!!
EH 12AX7 = meh
sov 5881 = meh
Sov 12AX7A = meh
Sov 12AX7B = meh

 

[Marshall Freak]

I think it's your taste in tubes. I think JJ preamp tubes sound like shit, all 6550's sound like shit, and I like EH EL34's quite a bit in my Marshall. Not a fan of Sovteks, but I like EH 12ax7s mixed with Chinese C9's.

 

[fek]

I liked the two sets of EH 34's that I burned through in my Mig 60. More than the JJ set I went with for the third set of powers. I was putting a lot of hours on that amp with the master up to 3:00 or higher over those few years.

 

[Bob Savage]

That was possibly my favorite tube in the Univalve.

 

[Zachman]

So I retubed my Rivera Hammer with JJ 6L6 tubes, and it just absolutely pwns now.

It's like a new amp. It balanced everything out and made it sound ridiculous.


EH EL34's came wiht it. Is it Possible they were just old? Or do they sound as bad as I think?

BTW, I've hated every EH tube I've used. no joke.

YES... I prefer other EL34's as well. The Mojave Peacemaker- I prefer JJ's, w/ the MKIII Coliseum- I use Boogie tubes

 

[D-Rock]

I like all the EH tubes I've had. (EL34's & 12AX7's)

 

[6AM]

I've tried most currently made EL34s at this point. Here's my take on them.

Winged C - Harsh and cold sounding
JJ EL34 - Fairly balanced, somewhat muddy sounding in the mids.
JJ E34L - More "in your face mids", louder, but missing the depth of the JJ EL34
JJ KT77 - Lots of bass, lacking mids, harsh highs
Chinese EL34 - Hit or miss. Can be great sounding.
EH EL34 - Constantly good sounding. Well balanced, no mud.

I think the EH products are fairly good across the board. JJ tubes tend to be dark, or even muddy sounding. Chinese tubes could be the best out there if they were more consistent. My favorite Winged C product was the one everyone dogged, their 12AX7.

 

[JamesPeters]

My tastes are more along the lines of 6550, so I prefer EL34 with more clearness in the mids and a bit more deep of a sound. However, when I included tubes like that with my amps (including JJ KT77) it turned out people usually disliked them. After trying a few EL34 types with the amps and demoing them for people, the EH EL34 became my standard EL34 (that usually ships with the amps).

It seems the EH EL34 just hit a broader range of people as sounding like "what EL34s normally sound like".

 

[blackba]

I've tried most currently made EL34s at this point. Here's my take on them.

Winged C - Harsh and cold sounding
JJ EL34 - Fairly balanced, somewhat muddy sounding in the mids.
JJ E34L - More "in your face mids", louder, but missing the depth of the JJ EL34
JJ KT77 - Lots of bass, lacking mids, harsh highs
Chinese EL34 - Hit or miss. Can be great sounding.
EH EL34 - Constantly good sounding. Well balanced, no mud.

I think the EH products are fairly good across the board. JJ tubes tend to be dark, or even muddy sounding. Chinese tubes could be the best out there if they were more consistent. My favorite Winged C product was the one everyone dogged, their 12AX7.

I tried the svetlana 12AX7's and they were very harsh and cold sounding, not sure if that is the =C= 12AX7 you are referring to, but they were awful tubes.

You are one of the few I have seen who doesn't like =C= EL34's and finds them harsh and cold.

 

[Bob Savage]

I've tried most currently made EL34s at this point. Here's my take on them.

Winged C - Harsh and cold sounding
JJ EL34 - Fairly balanced, somewhat muddy sounding in the mids.
JJ E34L - More "in your face mids", louder, but missing the depth of the JJ EL34
JJ KT77 - Lots of bass, lacking mids, harsh highs
Chinese EL34 - Hit or miss. Can be great sounding.
EH EL34 - Constantly good sounding. Well balanced, no mud.

I think the EH products are fairly good across the board. JJ tubes tend to be dark, or even muddy sounding. Chinese tubes could be the best out there if they were more consistent. My favorite Winged C product was the one everyone dogged, their 12AX7.

6AM? Same as from HC eons ago?

 

[JamesPeters]

I tried the svetlana 12AX7's and they were very harsh and cold sounding, not sure if that is the =C= 12AX7 you are referring to, but they were awful tubes.

You are one of the few I have seen who doesn't like =C= EL34's and finds them harsh and cold.

He's referring to the EL34.

I understand what he means about the SED EL34 being "harsh" and "cold". I wouldn't call them that myself; usually I find them more "clear" and "open". But when most people think of EL34 sounds, they're not thinking so much of "clear" and "open" as they are "warm" and "thick" (how "filled in" the midrange sounds).

 

[Dale B]

I like EH EL34's for what they do. They have a fairly deep, tight bass response. The mids have a nice hump and the highs have great spacing. The individual notes weren't as thick as some of the other EL34's in the amps I've used to draw my comparisons, but they're a great tube in my book. I tend to prefer the JJ EL34 because of its aggressive nature and I like the SED EL34 because of the swirling harmonics when it breaks up.

I always order EL34's that fall on the lower end of what most people dub "The Mesa Scale" or just a tad below it.

 

[Marshall Law]

I hate EH el34's, muddy flabby, winged C's or JJ E34L's for me, for new production
NOS Mullard XF2 very hard to beat

 

[JamesPeters]

I hate EH el34's, muddy flabby, winged C's or JJ E34L's for me, for new production

You find EH EL34 muddy and flabby but not JJ E34L?

Are you sure the amp was biased correctly? Or were you using them at the time in an amp which was primarily designed around 6L6s (thereby giving the EL34 twice the impedance they were "expecting", all things being equal)? I've never found EH EL34 to be muddy or flabby, not even close. JJ E34L have more lows and somewhat more "cloudy" lower mids, so if anything I'd have expected you to have said the opposite of what you did.

 

[Marshall Law]

I hate EH el34's, muddy flabby, winged C's or JJ E34L's for me, for new production

You find EH EL34 muddy and flabby but not JJ E34L?

Are you sure the amp was biased correctly? Or were you using them at the time in an amp which was primarily designed around 6L6s (thereby giving the EL34 twice the impedance they were "expecting", all things being equal)? I've never found EH EL34 to be muddy or flabby, not even close. JJ E34L have more lows and somewhat more "cloudy" lower mids, so if anything I'd have expected you to have said the opposite of what you did.

IMO, on a carr hammer head the EH sounded like shit

 

[JamesPeters]

IMO, on a carr hammer head the EH sounded like shit

Had you biased the amplifier? And had you compared it with the same setup (guitars, cab, etc.) with other EL34 in the amp biased properly? Sorry to be pushing this so much but maybe if you did these things, that was just a bad pair of tubes. I wouldn't even question your dislike for them, but to say they were flubby and muddy, that's another story.

 

['63-Strat]

IMO, on a carr hammer head the EH sounded like shit

Had you biased the amplifier? And had you compared it with the same setup (guitars, cab, etc.) with other EL34 in the amp biased properly? Sorry to be pushing this so much but maybe if you did these things, that was just a bad pair of tubes. I wouldn't even question your dislike for them, but to say they were flubby and muddy, that's another story.

Yep, I find it hard to believe that with the same setup across the board that the EH tubes were flubby and muddy while the JJs were not unless the tubes were bad. FWIW, I think EHs are nice, also like the SEDs, haven't liked JJs in anything yet, fwiw. Which brings me to my next thought which is that the OP doesn't like the EHs in his Rivera because they probably make it sound harsher in the mids whereas the JJs smooth it out, right? I'm not a big Rivera fan, honestly though I'm sure they work great for others. If someone has tried good batches of tubes through multiple amps and then that makes sense to me for them to be adamant about certain tubes. To base tube opinions on their performance in one circuit (which is why my opinion doesn't really have THAT much weight here though I have tried a bunch of tubes in my last guitarists' 800 and SL too, I'm mainly going by my exp with my XTC as previous amps I had were 6L6/5881 based) is a little misleading, IMO.

 

[blackba]

I tried the svetlana 12AX7's and they were very harsh and cold sounding, not sure if that is the =C= 12AX7 you are referring to, but they were awful tubes.

You are one of the few I have seen who doesn't like =C= EL34's and finds them harsh and cold.

He's referring to the EL34.

I understand what he means about the SED EL34 being "harsh" and "cold". I wouldn't call them that myself; usually I find them more "clear" and "open". But when most people think of EL34 sounds, they're not thinking so much of "clear" and "open" as they are "warm" and "thick" (how "filled in" the midrange sounds).

I know he is referring to the EL34's, but at the end of his post he talked about the =C= 12AX7's, which I found to be harsh and cold. I like the =C= EL34's, I find them to be plenty warm....