Smallbox Preamp Tubes?

[Equ1nox]

There's only a couple tube manufacturers. The rest are just companies that guarantee characteristics like gain or low noise or no parasitic or microphonic issues.

If you want a little more gain and "bite", just throw a Chinese in V1, but get it from TAD or ARS or someone that will validate the tube for you at a slight cost up.

Go to TubesAndMore and click on the various tubes to see a graphical representation of each, frequency and gain levels. - https://www.tubesandmore.com/search/node/12ax7

or this link: https://www.amplifiedparts.com/tech_cor ... made_tubes

Here, throw some Ruby 12AX7AC5 HG+ in the V1 position - www.dougstubes.com/preamp-tubes/12ax7-e ... ade-1.html

For power tubes, you'd be looking for JJ E34L (which are EL34's but tested with a higher gain). They have a little fatter bottom also, but it's in the ears of the amp owner. Hell, some people like bees nests and putitng the presence on "10"! Some peopel don't run past 6. It's in the ears of the beholder, but there are general statements. Enjoy!

 

[hammered]

There's only a couple tube manufacturers. The rest are just companies that guarantee characteristics like gain or low noise or no parasitic or microphonic issues.

If you want a little more gain and "bite", just throw a Chinese in V1, but get it from TAD or ARS or someone that will validate the tube for you at a slight cost up.

Go to TubesAndMore and click on the various tubes to see a graphical representation of each, frequency and gain levels. - https://www.tubesandmore.com/search/node/12ax7

or this link: https://www.amplifiedparts.com/tech_cor ... made_tubes

Here, throw some Ruby 12AX7AC5 HG+ in the V1 position - http://www.dougstubes.com/preamp-tubes/ ... ade-1.html

For power tubes, you'd be looking for JJ E34L (which are EL34's but tested with a higher gain). They have a little fatter bottom also, but it's in the ears of the amp owner. Hell, some people like bees nests and putitng the presence on "10"! Some peopel don't run past 6. It's in the ears of the beholder, but there are general statements. Enjoy!

Thanks for the info. I actually put a Ruby AC5 HG+ in V1 today , I`ve got a decent amount of various Rubys laying around

 

[LP Freak]

"Yeah good luck with that in production. If you are shipping 120 amps a month you can not get that many good non microphonic tubes. Let say a box of 100 tungsols, you might have 20 usable non microphonic tubes. Not good. Chinese is more like 6 usable ones. I need around 150 usable 1st slot tubes a month... This is why I use the jj tube in the first slot..."

ABSOLUTELY understood and understandable Dave and from a high volume production standpoint.

One thing I was just trying to communicate was 1. I don't like the JJ's personally (too flat) and with that, other tubes may have more "bite" and gain. 2. Whether you or just someone that already owns the amp should use another party to do the testing and hand sort so they sell you they 2 in 10 or 6 in 10 "good" tubes only and pay the little bit of cost-up and make their amps sound EVEN better.

While on my journey thru variations of tubes, there is SIGNIFICANT differences between them. With THE SAME AMP and going from say JJ's throughout the amp to different set of tubes, I went from an ok sounding flat tone to exactly what I was looking for. The issue wasn't the amp or amp design. It was the tubes!

My $0.02

Agreed. I swapped the V1 JJ in my BE with an RFT and what a difference. It has slightly less gain but got rid of the boomy bottom end and brought the mids forward which was exactly what I was looking for.