Best Current Product EL34 for a Marshall?

[Schaf]

JJ's work in Marshall's for me. With the relatively low plate voltage, you don't need to break the bank with SED's and I think SED's tend to be a little sterile in a Marshall.

Depends on what Marshall. Every Marshall I've had my hands on has had a plate voltage fairly close to 500v.

Yours must be special. Of the 30 or so I have owned, they generally are around the 450-460V range.

Of the 200 I've owned, they've all been 580volts.

Must not have owned a stock MV JMP or JCM then.

 

[FourT6and2]

JJ's work in Marshall's for me. With the relatively low plate voltage, you don't need to break the bank with SED's and I think SED's tend to be a little sterile in a Marshall.

Depends on what Marshall. Every Marshall I've had my hands on has had a plate voltage fairly close to 500v.

Yours must be special. Of the 30 or so I have owned, they generally are around the 450-460V range.

Of the 200 I've owned, they've all been 580volts.

Must not have owned a stock MV JMP or JCM then.

Maybe you didn't get the sarcasm... I don't think I've owned anywhere close to 200 amps. The Super Lead, Super Bass, and JCM800 I had were all in the 480s. The Metro and Ceriatone I built (granted, not real Marshalls), were closer to 500. But again, those weren't real Marshalls.

 

[Schaf]

JJ's work in Marshall's for me. With the relatively low plate voltage, you don't need to break the bank with SED's and I think SED's tend to be a little sterile in a Marshall.

Depends on what Marshall. Every Marshall I've had my hands on has had a plate voltage fairly close to 500v.

Yours must be special. Of the 30 or so I have owned, they generally are around the 450-460V range.

Of the 200 I've owned, they've all been 580volts.

Must not have owned a stock MV JMP or JCM then.

Maybe you didn't get the sarcasm... I don't think I've owned anywhere close to 200 amps. The Super Lead, Super Bass, and JCM800 I had were all in the 480s. The Metro and Ceriatone I built (granted, not real Marshalls), were closer to 500. But again, those weren't real Marshalls.

Gotcha. I didn't get it. But you never know on here with the fliipping that goes on here.

 

[londaxe]

I like the Mullard Reissue EL34's I got recently. Not sure how long they will last at 460pv, but they sound pretty good.

I like how these sound as well. I certainly haven't had any issues with them - I've got them in both of my Friedman mods (one has had them for over a year), and I think the plate voltage is around 475 on both of them.

I don't know how they would do in an amp that has a very high plate voltage though. I've got an old Orange amp coming back to me soon, and I'm a bit hesitant to use them in that.

 

[firegate]

I've never been a huge JJ fan, but the E34L really sings in a Marshall.

 

[Capulin Overdrive]

Electro Harmonix 6CA7......

THIS!



EH6CA7 are my second choice after SED's for Marshally amps.


Gold Lion KT-77 would be nice, but pricey.


The Tung-sol are good tubes, but don't have enough mids for my ears. They do however have lots of bottom.

 

[FourT6and2]

Electro Harmonix 6CA7......

THIS!



EH6CA7 are my second choice after SED's for Marshally amps.


Gold Lion KT-77 would be nice, but pricey.


The Tung-sol are good tubes, but don't have enough mids for my ears. They do however have lots of bottom.

I thought hard about trying the EH 6CA7. But for whatever reason I decided to go the KT77 route. I have the GLs but just got a set of the JJs in today to try out as well. Just going by construction quality, they are pretty crappy by the looks of it: spacers in crooked, mica chips flaking off and loose inside the tube, crooked pins, etc. The Gold Lions are expensive. But look to be better built.

I may try some 6CA7s at some point. Let me know if you do.

 

[SBlue]

I think JJ EL34 or E34L, "C", GT Mullard RI, Ruby, are all great candidates.

 

[lespaul6]

those JJ's are pretty good in my wizards and marshalls.... winged C is no longer in business anyway so try those sovtec made Svetlana's.. lhey are not that bad imo

 

[moronmountain]

Not a huge JJ fan mostly, but I do like the JJ E34L's in Marshall as they seem to tame a bit of the brightness in them. I haven't played a Marshall newer than a JCM 900 though if I'm being honest, so keep that in mind.

 

[Anonymous]

I love the Ruby EL34BSTR and my amps ship with matched quads of them.

Steve

 

[moronmountain]

I love the Ruby EL34BSTR and my amps ship with matched quads of them.

Steve

Who makes the non rebranded ones of those?

 

[Capulin Overdrive]

Electro Harmonix 6CA7......

THIS!



EH6CA7 are my second choice after SED's for Marshally amps.


Gold Lion KT-77 would be nice, but pricey.


The Tung-sol are good tubes, but don't have enough mids for my ears. They do however have lots of bottom.

I thought hard about trying the EH 6CA7. But for whatever reason I decided to go the KT77 route. I have the GLs but just got a set of the JJs in today to try out as well. Just going by construction quality, they are pretty crappy by the looks of it: spacers in crooked, mica chips flaking off and loose inside the tube, crooked pins, etc. The Gold Lions are expensive. But look to be better built.

I may try some 6CA7s at some point. Let me know if you do.

You did the right thing with the GL in the VH4.


I've used the EH 6CA7 in several amps and like them a lot. Don't think I've tried them in a VH4 though, or if I have I don't remember?

 

[FourT6and2]

Electro Harmonix 6CA7......

THIS!



EH6CA7 are my second choice after SED's for Marshally amps.


Gold Lion KT-77 would be nice, but pricey.


The Tung-sol are good tubes, but don't have enough mids for my ears. They do however have lots of bottom.

I thought hard about trying the EH 6CA7. But for whatever reason I decided to go the KT77 route. I have the GLs but just got a set of the JJs in today to try out as well. Just going by construction quality, they are pretty crappy by the looks of it: spacers in crooked, mica chips flaking off and loose inside the tube, crooked pins, etc. The Gold Lions are expensive. But look to be better built.

I may try some 6CA7s at some point. Let me know if you do.

You did the right thing with the GL in the VH4.


I've used the EH 6CA7 in several amps and like them a lot. Don't think I've tried them in a VH4 though, or if I have I don't remember?

Running an Einstein now. Sold the VH4 a while ago. Same difference, though. GLs sound fantastic!

 

[Schaf]

I love the Ruby EL34BSTR and my amps ship with matched quads of them.

Steve

Yeah, those are the ones I'm trying next. Steve has a great ear! I'm one of those guys that don't think output tubes make that much difference. For example, I had two JCM 800 2204's. One had EL34's and one had 6550's. You could dial them in to sound pretty much identical. Buy when I changed from the JJ EL34L to the SED winged C, there was a noticable difference in a good way ( at least ot my ear). I'm hoping the Ruby's sound as good as the SED's.

 

[Junk Yard Dog]

Resurrecting for recent thoughts.

 

[RJF]

I threw a low hr NOS pair of winged C 34's into a JCM900 4500 that I had and that thing ripped.

 

[Salos]

I threw a low hr NOS pair of winged C 34's into a JCM900 4500 that I had and that thing ripped.

I really liked =C='s in my 2204, much better than the Sovtek's it came with. I think the Winged's, JJ's, and Mullards are the best for most Marshalls currently. I had a quad of Ruby's in a 1959, but I liked the Mullard's better.

The =C='s are quite expensive though, especially if you want to be sure they're unused/unblemished.... I only used 'em in a 50 watter, if I had to buy 4 of them, it might have been the tipping point for me and I'd have to just get JJ's.

Though, I always found pre-amp tube swapping to be more of where I liked to edit my tone.

 

[Junk Yard Dog]

I threw a low hr NOS pair of winged C 34's into a JCM900 4500 that I had and that thing ripped.

I really liked =C='s in my 2204, much better than the Sovtek's it came with. I think the Winged's, JJ's, and Mullards are the best for most Marshalls currently. I had a quad of Ruby's in a 1959, but I liked the Mullard's better.

The =C='s are quite expensive though, especially if you want to be sure they're unused/unblemished.... I only used 'em in a 50 watter, if I had to buy 4 of them, it might have been the tipping point for me and I'd have to just get JJ's.

Though, I always found pre-amp tube swapping to be more of where I liked to edit my tone.

What pre's do you like? I've been using RFT's, RubyHG+, Ruby 7025's, and Sovtek LPS's in the PI.

 

[Salos]

I threw a low hr NOS pair of winged C 34's into a JCM900 4500 that I had and that thing ripped.

I really liked =C='s in my 2204, much better than the Sovtek's it came with. I think the Winged's, JJ's, and Mullards are the best for most Marshalls currently. I had a quad of Ruby's in a 1959, but I liked the Mullard's better.

The =C='s are quite expensive though, especially if you want to be sure they're unused/unblemished.... I only used 'em in a 50 watter, if I had to buy 4 of them, it might have been the tipping point for me and I'd have to just get JJ's.

Though, I always found pre-amp tube swapping to be more of where I liked to edit my tone.

What pre's do you like? I've been using RFT's, RubyHG+, Ruby 7025's, and Sovtek LPS's in the PI.

It depends on the amp. I did not like the Sovtek's or Groove's I had in my 2204. I replaced them with an EH in V1, JJ in V2, and EH in V3 - much warmer, with a lot of grit. The EH's get a bad wrap, but I like them in my old Marshall's (had one in a 1959 too), to my ears they add some gain to the tone even though they can be harsh depending on EQ/guitar/pedals.

I like the JJ's, they're pretty balanced and warm. I have a Chinese AX7 in V1 in my current amp, but the other two are JJ's. I haven't used any Ruby preamp tubes, nor have I had the pleasure of any NOS such as RFT, Telefunken, Mullard, or Tesla; with the exception of the 1 stock preamp tube that was left in my 1959, cant' recall what it.