High gain, low noise/microphonic preamp tubes?

[mctallica1]

Trying to help a bud out. His JCM 900 is squealy as hell. My first thought is to try preamp tubes. He isn’t local, so me taking my stash over and just spending a few hours rolling tubes isn’t practical.

I tend to go to military grade 6N4’s for this purpose, but I don’t have any that aren’t in an amp or I’d send him some.

I’ve seen Silver Dragons recommended, but when I search that on EBay different tubes come up. What exactly should I be looking for?

What other recommendations do you have? Prefer not to break his bank if possible.

Thanks!
T

 

[DanTravis62]

If youre trying to be super budget friendly, try those plastic cock rings on the preamp tubes and see if it helps with the microphonics

 

[midnightlaundry]

Use less gain??
Anyhoo.. Just swap them until U get a good one. Turn it up pretty loud and give it a flick. If it goes PING, then it's no go. If it goes THUD then it's a good one for V1..

 

[mctallica1]

If youre trying to be super budget friendly, try those plastic cock rings on the preamp tubes and see if it helps with the microphonics

Ha!

I actually have a few Mesa Spax7’s. Didn’t think about those. I’ll send him some.

 

[midnightlaundry]

Back in the early days of my TriAxis Rack, I had it all in a 12 space SKB on top of the Cab. I had all EI ECC83's in there, some of my favorites...
And just sitting there not playing it would start to go WHOOOOOOOOOOOO... Like a choo choo train.. LOL

Just put that tube to the back and move the next one up until you find one that's stable..

 

[mctallica1]

Use less gain??
Anyhoo.. Just swap them until U get a good one. Turn it up pretty loud and give it a flick. If it goes PING, then it's no go. If it goes THUD then it's a good one for V1..

Yeah…my guy doesn’t have any spare preamp tubes. He’s not a gear head, he just plays and quite well. I sometimes wish I wasn’t as OCD about my gear as I am and could just play without thinking about every detail.

And he’s about 5 hours away, so it isn’t practical for me to go over and tube roll to find what works.

 

[Greazygeo]

JJ’s are not bright or noisy to me. Far as new goes.

 

[csguy0]

Yeah…my guy doesn’t have any spare preamp tubes. He’s not a gear head, he just plays and quite well. I sometimes wish I wasn’t as OCD about my gear as I am and could just play without thinking about every detail.

And he’s about 5 hours away, so it isn’t practical for me to go over and tube roll to find what works.

Amazon has Tung Sol 12AX7 for sale.

https://a.co/d/0fFOLQWm

If you need more gain, add a pedal out front!