Who makes decent tubes these days?

Gibsonchild

Gibsonchild

Active member
Namely 12AX7's, 6L6's and EL34's. I need to retube a couple amps, but I have no idea who's worth a shit anymore. I bought some JJ's about a year ago, and they failed in just a couple hours. Not sure who else to consider.

Also... these are going into project amps, so I'm just looking for dependable basic bitch stuff. I don't wanna mortgage the house to buy unobtanium NOS shit made from vegan fairy farts and free range unicorn semen.
 
I've never liked the sound of the EHX pre-tubes or 6L6's and a bunch of brand new EHX pre's I had were dead right away. I've been told the current Sovtek's also have reliability issues, but not from my experience

I agree about Tung-Sol's. I've heard others also mention JJ's dying, but my experience has been solid with them and as far as newer tubes go one the best sounding ones to me, but I admit I've not tried anywhere near as many current production tubes as old ones
 
Rex Rocker said:
JJ pres have been reliable to me, just don't like the sound of them.

I've actually never owned a set of JJ powers that didn't fail, LOL.
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That’s pretty much my experience with the JJ’s, and why I won’t buy them again. 3 different sets of JJ EL84’s took a shit with less than 5 hours of use.

I did have one microphonic JJ pre as well, but mostly didn’t like the way they sound.

To be honest, I’m the one person that actually liked Groove Tubes. They were decent enough tubes, but I mostly liked them for their consistency. But I was getting them at dealer pricing back in the day, which took a lot of the sting away. I don’t have much interest in them at normal street prices.
 
Racerxrated said:
This..if I were in the market for new production, these are the 2 I'd buy. For preamp tubes, the older stuff still seems to be available at decent prices, even used they will last for thousands of hours.
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I got a killer set from Racer and he can tell you what they are. Made my already killer Friedman sound soooo good.
 
I only order pre tubes from JJ if I need to darken an amps tone. Power tubes? I’ve had more failures than I can count with JJ EL34s. Most were in amps I’ve bought, advertised as ‘new’ but failed within a short time. Then, new EL34s had the same results. So no, never again. I have built up a collection of Winged C, Siemens and a few Mullard 34s plus some GT LS as well. So when an amp shows up with JJs, I rip them out immediately and replace with some from my stash.
JJ 6CA7s are the exception…they have been reliable and sound good. I’d buy them based on my experience.
 
This is curious to hear such different results with JJ power tubes. Some swear by it, others hate it. Wizard amps recommends JJ's throughout, as they handle plate voltage better apparently. That makes me tentative to use other brands...
 
lessarti said:
This is curious to hear such different results with JJ power tubes. Some swear by it, others hate it. Wizard amps recommends JJ's throughout, as they handle plate voltage better apparently. That makes me tentative to use other brands...
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The JJ EL34L, yes…but I wouldn’t try any other JJ in there. There’s a reason Friedman stopped using JJ. Too many failures. The EL34L can handle the 550v PTs Wizards have.
The other tube that can handle it are the GT EL34LS, which were a special order EL34L with larger heat wings. But, not made anymore.
 
Racerxrated said:
The JJ EL34L, yes…but I wouldn’t try any other JJ in there. There’s a reason Friedman stopped using JJ. Too many failures. The EL34L can handle the 550v PTs Wizards have.
The other tube that can handle it are the GT EL34LS, which were a special order EL34L with larger heat wings. But, not made anymore.
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JJ KT88s too! Though I have run Svetlana 6550s and Gold Lion KT88s in my KT150 and SED el34s in my 100w Wizards without issue.
 
JJ pre and JJ power tubes in 50+ amps over 15 years and have had 1 maybe two pre amp failures and zero PT failures. EL34, KT77, E34L, 6550, EL34II, 6L6GC. All JJs and not one failure. I'm not partial to any tube and not saying I'm a JJ fanboy at all, just that they work for me and they're cheap and available. I'll keep buying them.

I think tube failures are more related to just a bad tube off the line and even more often the abuse people put them through more so than brand. You buy a used amp and a tube(s) fail...how many times did the previous owner yank and insert the tubes. Some people swap incessantly and that can cause damage. Might not see it easily but that's gotta jack up the pins or where they connect to other internal components inside the tube. Shipping can easily damage a tube...they're relatively fragile.

And I don't get the JJ pres are dark/dull comments I constantly read. I can throw in a JJ pre and then swap to a tungsol, Chinese, or TAD 12AX7 pre and hear very little difference at all. And that's in many many different amps.
 
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Strongest power tubes have low plate AND screen current draw. Get em low and bias them up! My bias point 21 JJ KT77’s take 32 watts at idle no problem.
 
I haven't had good luck with modern tubes at all.

Especially JJs. But it's basically the same for most of the "brands" still active. GT, whatever.

I'm not a tube "roller" or swapper at all, when I find something stable/that works I stick to it.

You can still get tons of NOS preamp tubes for relatively short cash. Even something from the 90s, I generally seem to have better luck.

If I can't find something NOS and I'm in a pinch for something - a V1 or PI or something, I've had success with mesas branded/tested stuff.

For power tubes I have no idea.
 
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