New Valves for JCM800 2210

[The Luke]

At practice last night my head started dying, with a slow pulsing in volume. Now it's dead. Think it must be a tube issue - they haven't been changed since it had a full service at the Marshall factory in summer 2007.

So, I have spoken to Marshall about getting it booked in, and found out they are happy to fit valves I supply as long as they are working.

Does anyone have any suggestions/recommendations for valves to look into?

I generally play hard rock, fair amount of 80s rock influence, but not the overly trebly 80s rock. Mostly use Les Paul standard or classic. I never use the clean channel of the amp and I run a pretty gainy tone - I run the master volume on full/almost full, the boost channel gain on 10, but the boost channel volume around 6ish.
This is pretty loud, but I'm normally competing with a loud as hell DW Collector's Series drum kit.
Also, I realise putting the master so high might be a bit hard on the power amp tubes, but it seems the tone seems is thicker this way.

Anyhow, thanks for any help.

 

[Loudness250]

Try to get ahold of a quad of RFT el-34's they are old stock but there are plenty of new sets for sale here and there on ebay and such. Maybe even watfordvalves.com could have some, but I'm not sure. They sound so awesome in Marshalls , it's not even funny. Or maybe the new Tung sol el34 which is a new tube which I'm sure watford would have, good luck.

 

[prsdiezel]

6550's will make that amp amazing. I have them in my JCM 800 1981 and I love it. Opened that amp right up and the clean sounds 100% better + it adds some tight lowend. Gives it some low mid gain growl also.

Zakk Wylde runs his like that

 

[Loudness250]

I just decided to check out watfordvalves.com which is an english website. I had'nt been on that site for a long time. I noticed they have some original svetlana's from 99'-2000' New old stock, I would go for those if I was you, damn good tubes, and I believe they are not as good now as the ones made then. 20 pounds each, which I don't know if that's alot but go for it, those sound awesome in marshalls.

 

[The Luke]

I know Zakk uses 6550s, but to me the Marshall tone sounds 'right' with EL34s.
As for RFT's cant seem to find any, or much about them.

Thanks for the heads up on the '99-'00 Svetlana Winged Cs - from what I can tell many people seem to love those things. And apparently the russian made ones are the ones to go for. £20 isn't bad either - a Marshall branded svetlana seems to be about £25, and guess you can't tell which version sveltana it is.

Watford Valves also do revalve kits - that seem ok, but then again I am pretty inexperienced in this area. They have a high gain set that offers 5 of their Harma ecc83s and 4 svetlana EL34s (I am sure I could swap the svetlanas for the 99-00 ones and pay the difference). They any good?
Anyone have any other suggestions for preamp tubes? May as well replace them all know, then I know what's in there lol

Jut looking to get good a lot of good thick gain from the amp without being fizzy.

 

[killertone]

I know Zakk uses 6550s, but to me the Marshall tone sounds 'right' with EL34s.
As for RFT's cant seem to find any, or much about them.

Thanks for the heads up on the '99-'00 Svetlana Winged Cs - from what I can tell many people seem to love those things. And apparently the russian made ones are the ones to go for. £20 isn't bad either - a Marshall branded svetlana seems to be about £25, and guess you can't tell which version sveltana it is.

Watford Valves also do revalve kits - that seem ok, but then again I am pretty inexperienced in this area. They have a high gain set that offers 5 of their Harma ecc83s and 4 svetlana EL34s (I am sure I could swap the svetlanas for the 99-00 ones and pay the difference). They any good?
Anyone have any other suggestions for preamp tubes? May as well replace them all know, then I know what's in there lol

Jut looking to get good a lot of good thick gain from the amp without being fizzy.

I have owned a few 2210's and currently own a 2205 that I have had since 1987.

SED tubes are as good now as they have ever been, no need to worry. I agree, EL34s sound right for true Marshall tone. In your situation I would fit some SED EL34s and try and find some JAN Philips 12AX7A preamp tubes. They work wonders in the 2210s and remove the fizz that you can get at high gain. If you can't find those, find some RFT ECC83s, they are the next preamp tube I would try. They have high gain but have a tamed treble. For currenet production preamp tubes I highly recommend TAD preamp tubes. They have some of their own designs made for them and their testing is hard to beat.

 

[The Luke]

Well people seem to be telling me that Marshall valves are most often rebranded Svetlanas. So will have check with Marshall and see if I actually already have them

And I don't really know much about preamp tubes either, but jut opened the amp up to find:
v1: Marshall Branded ECC83 VLV-00047
v2: 7025/12AX7WA Sovtek Made in Russia
v3: Jan PhilipsECG 12AX7WA 8726 AHA 34167 USA
v4: Jan PhilipsECG 12AX7WA 8652 AGN 34167 USA
v5: 7025/12AX7WA Sovtek Made in Russia
and 4 Marshall Branded EL34 VLVE-00010

I read that the gain stages for the boost were in v1, v3 and overall preamp gain is in v4 with reverb recovery. Not that I use reverb.
So maybe I should look at something better in v1 if v3 and v4 are ok already.