No expense spared on re-tubing JET CITY 2212C AMP

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thickwood

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I maxed out on some vintage preamp 12ax7 tubes and voiced much better !
V1- has a GE 5751 which is in fact the fattest sounding midrange and bass tube anywhere.
V2- IEC labeled vintage mullard 12ax7 - awesome bell tones good perfect bottom end .
V3-Tungsram 12ax7 which sounds harmonic and has the sweetest highs not harsh at all , never a bad note come out !
V4- strong current made JJ tesla 12ax7 - the effects loop send & return signal tube .
V5- sovtek 12ax7 Lps tube is the best Phase inverter if you use over-driven tube clipping even a little bit matters Your chords ring out not MUSH !
Big difference in other tubes , sad how much they distorted so awful in the PI socket.

Bias used RI Mullard el84 pair at 360 plate volts reading equaled 23.2 milliamps DC current is 70% using weber bias calculator .
The 9 watt jj tesla el844 tubes degraded the quality of tones but do break up at lower volume if needed but not recommending these for the jet city 22
V1 tube has 2 amp stages called v1a/v1b (CRUNCH CHANNEL ONLY )
So v1b amplifies the signal fully enough to overdrive the v1a stage !
That is the circuit on v1 tube.
V2 is the high gain Overdrive channel as my info says ?

Anyway I like a tone to sing and not chew metal in heavy crunching mayhem, blues & RR and other stuff.
Its now much better using a Eminence Ledgend 1258 12" speaker

Frankly it sounds like another amp altogether now.
Glass slide standard tuning has it talking gain 5 a bit of breakup when you bare down !
Yeah it sings not a bad tone in it .
The round sounding notes does blues so authentic its amazing natural sounding !

I had time and 12ax7 many tubes collected are some best for guitar amps they all have a different voice EQ imop !
Anyway the stock amp was very bright and higher midrange sounding on the EQ voicing by the tubes and speaker.
Too get a great tone out of the Ignater rebel 20 amp which is bright as all get out I used a RCA long black plate 12ax7 in the socket that overdrives the signal .
The Smokey harmonics that tube has, smoothed out the highs in the overdriven tone and lower midrange comes in nice now !
Richie Blackmore used the RCA BP tube in Deep Purple gained up !!!!!!!!

I will crank it when my Roommates go out asap !!!
I use the VOX Deca delay pedal in the FX loop and a Zak Wild chorus and both are anologe , digital is too bright not natural sounding you learn over time !

The stock speaker in the 2212C jet city uses is not suitable imop.

I think its great at gain 5 for blues with sweet highs , I like to bend those high notes but you got to have it sing and not harsh !
I used a Traditional Les Paul epiphone , those humbuckers sound better than my Gibson 2006 LP ?

If you bought those tube today your looking at $140 for preamp tubes. about ?
I have learned to tune amps up , but I need to know what each tube position function is which can be many !
The Jet City2212 has a cathode follower in v3 which may tighten the bass up and adding no gain it sounds brighter, a bit like jcm 800 or 900 uses but crank them up and the OD clips the highs back down awesome now !

You can experiment with what ever you have - tubes -pedals-speakers-use and trust your ears and listen carefully to the guitar imop.
I fixed a mistake by accident , the highs had a smearing of clarity and it turned out when I changed the FX loop tube it went away and wow I found a bright sounding tube in that position was not what you want !

Once you hear and play a cheap tube amp even a decent solid state amp just sounds fake , they lack those low midrange harmonics you need to be authentic .
Where as a tube amp puts out every mistake you make and that makes you play better and real improvement is your strength to hold those chords and single notes with no flub ups lol .

Over 40 years since I started playing guitar just sayin .
I have to get my amps to sound best I can to get and keep a vibe going , I just lov improving and learning but the environment must be right !
Modeling amps are a joke how bad they pretend isn't funny its sad !
Low voltage solid state electronics do not carry the large amount of electrons tube amp do nor do they carry the harmonic overtones .

However I did enjoy the Sun Concert lead solid state amp years ago 1983-88 it was a good one !
I moved on after buying a Pearce Electronics amp G1 model , I passed over a Mesa Boogie head for that G1 yikes what a booboo !
I have now a Laney VC-30
A Ignater Rebel 30 and a rebel 20
A jet city 2212C
Badcat Cougar combo and comes with vintage 30 12" speaker !!!!

I found out how to route my Rebel amp effects send preamp signal to another amp input to play both amps and wow what a sound !!!

The Auditorium sound with a little small delay is beyond belief and I am hooked.
The R30 amp driving my Laney VC30 was the best Tom Petty sound I have ever heard , the record is not as good as what I had going on !

Anyway I had some time thankfully to fix up the Jet City and it has a much preferred tone .
I gotta crank it up with the glass slide in there and hear what I got !
Its better that much is certain
 
Nice review
Thanks for typing that up
I don't even own a Jet City, and frankly don't care for them that much
But your review is still valuable
We are similar in that we started at this late
I started out messing around with a Peavey Valveking - learned a lot
So are you going to swap the speaker?
 
Good tubes are night and day, in most amps. I have a good stash of preamp tubes myself. I've yet to find an amp that didn't benefit from good tubes, it's a no-brainer.
 
Yeah I luv the Legend 1258 and compared it with a Celestion vintage 30 and the 30 had some fur on the sound and not as clear as the legend .
The crunch is superior on the legend and open sounding and louder !
By itself the vintage 30 sounds great but after I tested the legend it was like I lifted a blanket off the speaker !
I got too bidding on 12ax7 vintage tubes and read valve kings 12ax7 reviews and found out a few good tubes to use in guitar amps and what position to try them in !
The worst results came from changing all the preamp 12ax7 tubes at once , I was lost to say the least ! lol
 
I agree napalmdeath , but some folks can never hear any difference for some reason when they retube ?

Could be there not listening very well to there sound and the attack and compression that occurs !
I moved on from 9-42 string sets to 10-46 to get those chords to fret better and cut threw attack has more midrange and bottom.
Its not how fast you play, its the content to hold a great rock blues vibe and take it somewhere , the guitar teaches me if I listen !
The most colorful 12ax7 are the RCA long black plate 12ax7 and Sylvania long black plate ax7.
The surprising Tungsram 12ax7 is so good it never has a harsh note as the highs are extended but silky beautiful but pricey $$ 60+

I did not like the Rebel 20 bright as hell attack but after mucho attempts retubing the preamp the OD tube is a RCA long black plate 12ax7 that smoothed out the super crunchy vibe and tamed the highs just right , its good as can be now but it took awhile !

Same for the Jet City 2212c ,I hate the stock speaker with its supernova highs.
Then I still could not tame it to get the midrange right.
Then I remembered the GE 5751 tube , this GE has the fattest plates of any tube and it is to much bottom heavy bass for most amps !
The Jet City has that cathode follower tube socket that tightens up the bass so that allows that GE run great with bass at 5-6 and great midrange came in and the highs are very good at low settings especially using the slide as it sings awesome now !

I just had to get that harshness out of it , I did just that by adding lower frequencies too it !
 
Do you mean valvequeen.com?

Or literally Peavey Valve King amp like the wiki?


But yeah, tube swaps are major fun/important but I agree - one at time. Easy to lose track of what did what.
 
Valve King makes high end guitar amps , the reviews on tubes is on ebay !
 
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