=C= vs JJ

[MississippiMetal]

Rubys are great buys for tubes. Good quality and good prices.

This. I bypass JJ's reliability issues and SED's insane prices and go straight for robust and cheap with Ruby.

 

[LP Freak]

Rubys are great buys for tubes. Good quality and good prices.

This. I bypass JJ's reliability issues and SED's insane prices and go straight for robust and cheap with Ruby.

They are great tubes for the money.

 

[Ventura]

There are 2 kinds of JJ clients: those who've had tubes failures, and those that are gonna ...

 

[aftec]

I was a firm believer of =C=, but last week, 1 tube from a new TAD selected pair failed on a gig at the third song (approx 20 hours in them). Changing tubes did not help, (at home it turned out that an internal fuse is blown too) had to do the last 10 songs with a Roland Cube 40. That was painful.

 

[LP Freak]

I was a firm believer of =C=, but last week, 1 tube from a new TAD selected pair failed on a gig at the third song (approx 20 hours in them). Changing tubes did not help, (at home it turned out that an internal fuse is blown too) had to do the last 10 songs with a Roland Cube 40. That was painful.

TAD's are select Ruby Tubes, not Winged C's.

 

[Anonymous]

TAD's are select Ruby Tubes, not Winged C's.

Actually I think both TAD and Ruby are select chinese tubes, and so are Groove Tubes

 

[aftec]

Whatever they sell as like EL34-SVT or 6L6-SVT are =C= Svetlana tubes. The C logo is there on the bottle. I have one of the tubes still, I can get you a picture.

 

[Anonymous]

Whatever they sell as like EL34-SVT or 6L6-SVT are =C= Svetlana tubes. The C logo is there on the bottle. I have one of the tubes still, I can get you a picture.

I think you're right, from what I can see on the TAD website; they also rebrand chinese power tubes, which is the most common rebranded tube.

 

[charveldan]

Whatever they sell as like EL34-SVT or 6L6-SVT are =C= Svetlana tubes. The C logo is there on the bottle. I have one of the tubes still, I can get you a picture.

Current tubes for the US market under the "Svetlana" name are not the same as SED Winged =C= brand, even though they use the flying C logo they have different construction and are not made in the same factory, ask Laura at Valve Queen.

As for Groove Tubes they use primarily Russian, Slovak [JJ] and Chinese tubes, their designation/label for the tubes are "R" for russian
"C" for chinese
"S" for Slovak

 

[Jofipe]

Correct.. EU tubes still goes under the Svetlana name. American Svetlana tubes are EH tubes as far as I know.

 

[grimm26]

TAD's are select Ruby Tubes, not Winged C's.

Actually I think both TAD and Ruby are select chinese tubes, and so are Groove Tubes

Ruby Tubes with CZ in the model name are JJs. Most others are Shugang tubes. You can also get Ruby =C= tubes.

 

[RACKSYSTEMS]

I personally like the jj e34l or el34 tubes. Now that being said you really have to sort through them to get a good set. I personally only like them from ARS electronics and then I still test them myself. Not much problems in the field at all. Hard to use winged c in production for cost reasons. The price has just gotten to much.

 

[Classic]

Depends which TAD tubes we're talking about. Their STR's are pretty unique and not rebranded equivalents. I have some of the TAD 6L6GC-STRs and I'd be pissed if they blew during a gig. Having said that, I've heard of both JJ's an =C='s giving up.

 

[grimm26]

Depends which TAD tubes we're talking about. Their STR's are pretty unique and not rebranded equivalents. I have some of the TAD 6L6GC-STRs and I'd be pissed if they blew during a gig. Having said that, I've heard of both JJ's an =C='s giving up.

Every tube fails. It is just a matter of how it performs before it fails, how long it performs before it fails, and how much it costs over time.

 

[70strathead]

JJ 's EL34L's are it for me. I play stock old Marshalls turned up and I have not experienced issues other than the normal yearly maintenance for over all Amp Health check.

 

[mbman]

I've been using JJ 6V6s, E34Ls and 12AX7s for several years now with no problems.

Martin

 

[leib10]

I will say that I love JJ KT88s. Very clear, defined, tight, and with a bit more mids than others.

 

[guitarman967]

I dont get the " I Love/Hate this brand" stuff.
Aside from tube's with track records for premature failure, they all have their place in one amp or another.
JJ pre's are great tubes for the money. Very high gain, full of warm mids and low on noise. They tend to attenuate high end in certain amps and this can actually be a good thing!
They definitely serve a certain role that other current production tubes just don't seem to do as well in some situations.
Their power tubes are decent (especially the E34L!) but I've found better alternatives for the same money.