Screw new production JJ tubes!!

  • Thread starter Thread starter scottosan
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I have spent alot of time today on the phone with almost every tube vendor out there, and most say that the winged c is the way to go. That being said, most also indicated that the EL34BHT/Shuguang which i guess is somewhat new design has been doing great in the field and been getting great reviews. Most vendors are out of stock on the winged c's so I went with the Ruby EL34BHT's and will order some wonged c's in a few weeks once they are back in stock
 
I bought an assload of JJ's over the years. I only ever had 1 side of an 803 long plate die. That's it... :confused:

Sorry about everyone elses luck.

That being said, I'm on NOS pre's right now, but still use the JJ power tubes.
 
I've seen only 1 bad JJ preamp tube over the years. They've been quite reliable. On the other hand, Groove Tubes drove me to buying JJ's because I've had plenty of them go bad on me. JJ's may not sound AS good as winged C's and some other brands, they're affordable and reliable enough.

I also bought a batch recently to replace in my Bogner Shiva. I replaced everything with JJ's except two Chinese preamp tubes. They sound great and haven't had a single issue with them.

I buy my tubes from a good source who tests them. Maybe that could account for the luck some of you have had. I'm not an expert, but I've had worse luck with Groove Tubes & Ruby Tubes (yes I know Groove Tubes are just rebranded tubes, but apparently their tubes aren't as reliable as I thought).

One other tube I've had great success with is Mesa Boogie tubes. I haven't had even a bad preamp tube from them. I replaced the tubes in my Bogner Metropolis combo with a full set of Mesas and it not only sounds great but has been very reliable for 1 year already.
 
I've had great reliability out of JJ kt88's and strangely enough the JJ/groove tubes e34ls. Everything else from JJ has been a major crap shoot, especially preamp tubes. As has been said above the quality control on the factory end is just no good on any of the modern tubes. Buy from someone like Lord Valve or Doug who puts them through a thorough burn in.
 
I've had pretty good luck with the preamp tubes and 6L6's, but it's been a while since I've bought some. Of course, I usually get tubes from Doug, so that helps. I've still got a pair of matched JJ KT-77's brand new that I got around 2 years ago so maybe they're from a production run of good ones. Hope so as I intend on using 'em one day.
 
JJ EL84s suck my dick. 2 sets of matched quads, all with way too much white noise/hiss and total failure rates. first set, 1 JJ goes chernobyl on me. second set, hiss and rattle and some weird intermittent "whooom" noise. their pre-amp tubes are muddy as fuck. EH are the most robust EL84s in my experience. you just can't kill them.
 
The new run of Ruby's seem pretty nice. Well, the pre's and EL34BHT's at least
 
I've been running the Ruby branded EL34 in my VHT and have been extremely happy with them. The winged C's are great tubes too though.
 
And just think...Mesa is using the ecc83's right now....

I ordered one from them and it was snap, crackle pop....right out of the box. :(

Funny thing is, my Dual recto came loaded with them circa 1999 and they sounded great and were super reliable for years.
 
Man, am I ever so pissed off now. So, one of the vendors in question send a replaceent tube. I already made the decision I am not risking the bogner, so I go to put these in the Egnator, which hasn't been touched with any of this drama. All is good for 4 minutes then I hear humming again. Keep in mind that this is four different amps, 3 different bias tools, and I have biased 50 amps in the past 10 years. I check the tubes and another died. It won't even bias. As sooon as I take it off standby the bias shoots up to 100ma in like 3 seconds, and I have to hit the kill switch. I put the Ruby's back in the Egnater, and everything is fine. I take then JJ's over to my JMP and do 2 at a time to find the culprit, which can easily be tracked to a single tube. So, I have 2 tubes fail out of 5 in less than three day of bedroom playing for less than an hour a day with the tubes biased at about 60-65% max dissipation. unf'ing beleivable :gethim:
 
JJ's suck. I've been saying it for years, the pin size on their tube base is smaller and it causes problems. Measure the pins with a micrometer and you'll see they're a smaller diameter. Poor connection on the control grid and your fucked.
Bob tells people to clean the tube sockets, no dice, that's not the problem. I just had a local customer here with JJ's from Bob and when he called they told him that particular amp needed to be biased cold (contrary to everything Bob talks about when setting bias) or he would have problems and when the called and told them they made noise they asked him if he could live with it. Blame the amp, great customer service!
Jerry
 
JerryP":1lvk02vy said:
JJ's suck. I've been saying it for years, the pin size on their tube base is smaller and it causes problems. Measure the pins with a micrometer and you'll see they're a smaller diameter. Poor connection on the control grid and your fucked.
Bob tells people to clean the tube sockets, no dice, that's not the problem. I just had a local customer here with JJ's from Bob and when he called they told him that particular amp needed to be biased cold (contrary to everything Bob talks about when setting bias) or he would have problems and when the called and told them they made noise they asked him if he could live with it. Blame the amp, great customer service!
Jerry
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Exactly, I've always cleaned and retentioned socket when I change tubes (I am an old Marshall guy). So, yeah according to them this is so "rare" they asked me to send a tube back to them so they can send it to the factory to research the problem. I think I am going to just box everything up, mail it back and call the credit card company. I don't need the money and I have wasted much more, but I don't like the customer service.
 
add another unsatisfied JJ power tube customer. I've been thru 3 quads of JJ tubes in 2 different amps within the last 4 months, 2 quads of E34L, and 1 quad of KT77 . All 3 quads have had a pair redplate and blow the amp fuse, and all were less than a month old. I'm very careful to bias correctly, as I measure the plate voltage of the amp with a bias probe to determine the correct bias current, and I prefer running them on the colder side. I also never run tubes into the ground, I treat it like a maintenance item and replace them regularly. I'm done with JJ, at least with their power tubes.
 
I guess I'm the lucky one, It's funny how that works, I'm 44, I have had tube amps for over 29 years, I have used all tubes over the course of that time, and I have never had a problem, I have liked some better than others, but once, my 1981 JCM 800 2204, which I have owned since 1983 was making some wierd noises, because the tubes were heavily used and 6 years old, so I replaced them and I have never had a problem with tubes since, and I'm talking about 6 different tube amps that I own and several others, I just can't believe all the tube failure and the old, I put 3 sets in 2 months in my amps problems, that I hear.
I live 20 miles away from euro tubes bob and believe me he know's his shit, you can slam him if you want too, and I'm not saying JJ's are the best, winged C's defiantly kill, that's what I put in the the old 800, but I just find it hard to believe, all this tube failure BULLSHIT, I think it is just a loose nut behind the guitar.
that's just in my opinion, fire at will, if you want too, still going strong after over 25 years experience, :rock:
 
Well, to counter one over generalization with another......Tubes do have problems, they are fragile creatures by nature, tiny little bits of metal and wire in thin little glass bulbs that get hundreds of volts pounded on them. Thermal stress, vibration, bar gigs, trailers, such is life for the poor little bastards. In my experience as a working tech the JJ's I have purchased recently have been of less quality than I would like, but none of the currently available tubes are as nice as I would like either. I can't find a modern el34 that is even close to the mark, yeah yeah yeah "winged c's are awesome" says everybody, probably even people who have never used them because they read that stuff everywhere. Winged C's are ok, they're not perfect, I've seen failures, I just had to send back a dud that was purely due to a manufacturing flaw. With all that said well screened tubes are generally pretty reliable, I said it before and I'll say it again, buy them from somebody honest who knows how to test them and you'll probably be ok.
 
Marshall Law":159pxhxc said:
I guess I'm the lucky one, It's funny how that works, I'm 44, I have had tube amps for over 29 years, I have used all tubes over the course of that time, and I have never had a problem, I have liked some better than others, but once, my 1981 JCM 800 2204, which I have owned since 1983 was making some wierd noises, because the tubes were heavily used and 6 years old, so I replaced them and I have never had a problem with tubes since, and I'm talking about 6 different tube amps that I own and several others, I just can't believe all the tube failure and the old, I put 3 sets in 2 months in my amps problems, that I hear.
I live 20 miles away from euro tubes bob and believe me he know's his shit, you can slam him if you want too, and I'm not saying JJ's are the best, winged C's defiantly kill, that's what I put in the the old 800, but I just find it hard to believe, all this tube failure BULLSHIT, I think it is just a loose nut behind the guitar.
that's just in my opinion, fire at will, if you want too, still going strong after over 25 years experience, :rock:
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If Bob knows his shit then he knows he's fucking people too. He may know tubes, but he don't know amps. How long did he carry on about the Peavey XXX E34L fiasco before he changed his story? Just because a tire is round don't mean it's good and it will work on every car. They know they have tube issues and they try to string people along to see which ones will shut up and walk away.
If you sell a dud take it back and take it up with the manufacturer. I understand some other tube stores may have stopped selling JJ's because of all the problems, but they didn't leave people hanging that spent money on the tubes or make up bullshit excuses.
Jerry
 
I've had failing SEDs, GTs, Rudys, TADs, JJs. I think all the currently manufactured tubes have poor reliability.
 
I guess im alone on this, no issues with my JJ Tesla EL34L's , sounding good to me. : )
 
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