NOS 12AX7 help needed!

[MrDan666]

I just went through my old parts box and found some tubes i had bought for pennies in a pawn shop about 5 years ago. Back then i knew basically nothing about tubes or what was good or not etc.

Anyway.. turns out that amongst these tubes were:

2 Mazda 12AX7's (Blue logo, Made in Hungary),
an old original G.E 12AX7A (Made in USA),
a NOS Mazda 12AX7 (White logo, Made in England),
a Chinese 12AX7A,
and another tube which i cant work out what it is..
It just says 12AX7 on it. Il post a pic later, maybe someone here can identify it?

How will some of these sound?

Also, just to be sure.. is it safe to use these in any position in my Cameron '79 JMP 2203? I know there's some tubes that can fail in some positions so i thought it was worth double checking!

Dan

 

[bravedude2]

try them out. if your worried about screwing up your main amp, try a less expensive amp.

 

[MrDan666]

try them out. if your worried about screwing up your main amp, try a less expensive amp.

Im not worried about the amp.. i just dont wana fuck the tube up, as id like to get to try these out and hear how they sound!

 

[King Crimson]

try them out. if your worried about screwing up your main amp, try a less expensive amp.

Im not worried about the amp.. i just dont wana fuck the tube up, as id like to get to try these out and hear how they sound!

Hey Dan, they're preamp tubes. FWIW, NOS is nothing but hype – paying ridiculous prices for old stock. The newer re-issued tubes in the same category that you mentioned above are if not usually more articulate sounding and more reliable.

Worst case(s) scenario – they will sound like crap or fail.

Pop them in and DIY.

 

[Loudness250]

The made in Hungary Mazda could be a Tungsram. The made in England is probably Mullard. The chinese could be old chinese which is reputed to be a super good rock metal tube. I'd say they are all safe to try. I tried every tube I got my hands on in my 2203/04 and never had a problem unless the tube was just bad. "that is as long as the tube was 12ax7,U7 or T7.

 

[duesentrieb]

LOL - nobody builds as good sounding reliable tubes as Philips/Mullard and RFT did with their ECC83, ECC81 and EL34.

Try them Dan. Mazda tubes are pretty cool - if still good of course.

 

[MrDan666]

Thanks for the advice guys! Much appreciated!

Ok well i have tested out the G.E 12ax7, the two different types of Mazda 12ax7 and have yet to try the rest listed.

So far my favorites of the bunch are both the Mazda (made in england) and the G.E 12ax7a! They both have plenty of gain, a real nice top end and upper mids. Smoother sounding than the Shuguang 9th Gen Chinese that was in the amp originally, but still with enough presence and cut to make it balanced sounding. Nice low mids and bottom end, without getting farty even at high gain levels.

The Mazda (made in hungary) had tons of bottom end and low mids. Too much for my amp.. made it woofy even with the bass set low. But i would guess it could be the perfect choice for a lower gain bluesy amp for a fatter tone.

Also one of the Mazda blue logo 12ax7's was making a loud ticking noise nonstop, so im guessing its gone bad.

So is that correct that the English Mazda could be a Mullard?

 

[JTyson]

Mazda tubes????? Do you get a rotary speaker effect when using them? Ha, Ha, Ha! Sorry man, never heard of them. I would not be afraid to try them, they should not hurt anything, You'll either like how they sound, or not. I'll bet you get better gas mileage!

 

[JTyson]

PS - I'm sorry Dan, I know that was no help at all, I could not resist - Jim

 

[Anonymous]

tone is subjective but a nos telefunken is worth around 50,000 hours. try that with jj/sovtek etc.

 

[blackba]

The GE 12AX7 is one of my favorite preamp tubes.

I have heard of the Mazda tubes, but I don't know much about them.


The one that is making a ticking noise is probably bad. Try it in another amp if you have one or later in the change and see if causes the same issue before you discard it....

 

[King Crimson]

This is either a VERY ignorant post or King Crimson doesn’t have sensitive ears to hear the difference in tubes.

I was speaking to the hyped up prices that some of these tubes are listing as - which is ridiculous and not that much of a tone difference. I've wasted several hundreds of $$$ on RFT, Mullard and such only to find that Tung-Sol, Svetlana, EH sound just as good for a fraction of the price and are much more accessible, sound great and are much more reliable once you’ve “learned” how to dial in the amp with different pre-amp tubes. I’ve been there, done that

Waste more $$$ on NOS! Please…save your money.

BTW – If you’re interested I’ve got a boat-load of NOS ECC83 106/107 & 105/104 +1 RFT’s that I’ll be more than happy to sell to youfor $50 a shot…

 

[Anonymous]

if you learn the codes on 12ax7`s you can get great deals. lots of nos are mullards and telefunken etc that`s all im saying/ figure it out for yourself.

 

[trey85stang]

This is either a VERY ignorant post or King Crimson doesn’t have sensitive ears to hear the difference in tubes.

I was speaking to the hyped up prices that some of these tubes are listing as - which is ridiculous and not that much of a tone difference. I've wasted several hundreds of $$$ on RFT, Mullard and such only to find that Tung-Sol, Svetlana, EH sound just as good for a fraction of the price and are much more accessible, sound great and are much more reliable once you’ve “learned” how to dial in the amp with different pre-amp tubes. I’ve been there, done that

Waste more $$$ on NOS! Please…save your money.

BTW – If you’re interested I’ve got a boat-load of NOS ECC83 106/107 & 105/104 +1 RFT’s that I’ll be more than happy to sell to youfor $50 a shot…

Ill give you $50 for a pair of NOS RFT's. That should be a good deal since they are not worth the hype

 

[MrDan666]

Mazda tubes????? Do you get a rotary speaker effect when using them? Ha, Ha, Ha! Sorry man, never heard of them. I would not be afraid to try them, they should not hurt anything, You'll either like how they sound, or not. I'll bet you get better gas mileage!

 

[MrDan666]

The GE 12AX7 is one of my favorite preamp tubes.

I have heard of the Mazda tubes, but I don't know much about them.


The one that is making a ticking noise is probably bad. Try it in another amp if you have one or later in the change and see if causes the same issue before you discard it....

Yeah good idea, i will do that tomorrow. I dont know why but i never throw tubes away.. even if theyre blown or bad.. I end up keeping them in a box in my garage. No idea why

 

[MrDan666]

LOL - nobody builds as good sounding reliable tubes as Philips/Mullard and RFT did with their ECC83, ECC81 and EL34.

Try them Dan. Mazda tubes are pretty cool - if still good of course.

Yeah they seem pretty cool Olaf! The GE and British Mazda stand out as the 2 best to my ears.. but im still experimenting!

Those RFT's i hear a lot about. Il have to try one out sometime and see what all the fuss is about!

 

[MrDan666]

This is the Mazda tube i liked the most:

http://kcanostubes.com/products/529/NOS-Mazda-ECC83-Great-Britain.htm

Looks like it was made by Brimar and has the Mullard/Philips style Plates.

 

[Anonymous]

like the tubes crimson posted. they were most likely made in the same west german factory but without the rft label on the tube id give 18.95 per tube

 

[MrDan666]

Dan, KCA NOS tubes is a rip off artist. His prices are insane...like he is...

Hey Dave, no worries bro.. i dont buy tubes from there anyway I just used their site for reference!