Musician Gear & Tech Discussion

HD, I used some Baldwins that look like your picture in my Triple for a while, I replaced them with the JJs, and I did switch some back and forth, but I wound up going back to the JJs.

The Baldwins sounded pretty good to my ears, but the JJs just have a certain feel when I ran the whole set they sent me, cant put my finger on it, but seems to get a really smooth brown sound in that makes sense, plus those 6V6s breakup a lot sooner than 6L6s or EL34s to my ears, Im able to run my gain lower a few notches than the others, meaning I seem to get less gainy noise, but equal amounts of gain.

Hope that makes sense.

The 6P3S tube are supposed to have later break up. They are similar to a 6L6. I still have to try the other Sylvania in V1. One of my customers has a big stash of 5751s in their warehouse which oddly enough are used as spare parts in old elevator controllers. I can get some for almost nothing....like $5 - $6 a tube. I might pick some up to try just to see if they are any good. I discovered them when they had me going through their dead inventory. They gave me a big list of stuff they wanted help selling off. I saw 5751 tubes on the list and rushed right over to check them out. I thought I had hit the mother load when I pulled the bin and saw this:



Giddy I started opening boxes and got a dose of cold, hard reality:



Disappointed I put them back. I pulled their purchasing records on them and saw they bought a big batch of them in the '90s. Now I'm thinking I might get some to try anyway. Hopefully they didn't trash them.

Well I went there yesterday to see if they still have them and they do. Five years later and they still have 52 left. I grabbed 2 to try out for a wopping $6.06 each. They have about 30% less gain than a 12AX7 and are supposed to be great for sweeter cleans or taming an amp with buzzy gain.

I tried one of the 5751s in V1 of my T15 tonight and it was rather nice. It dropped the gain quite a bit in a nice way. The T15 has more than enough if you push it hard. It definitely increased the clean headroom a lot. I think I'm going to look for a NOS 5751 or 12AT7 for V1.

I put a set of those EH 6CA7s in my Plexi once and you are right they are pretty nice tubes. I ended up buying a matched set '74 6P3S tubes (came today)



....and a very nice balanced '66 Amperex labeled Mullard made 12AT7.

I have been though many tube combo's in my Marshalls and come to the conclusion I like the JJ's best.

I have bought most of my stuff through Tube Depot, but last time they screwed me on a 12AX7. I specced all to read above 100 and one to read above 100 as well as be well balanced (for the phase inverter). The balanced one came with white getter and had a perfect break around it's cicumfrence. The replacement only measured up to 90!

So now I'm not so keen on buying tubes from them.

Which tubes are better? The ones that sound good to you. I've owned plenty of different tubes and they all sound different. This won't make any friends here in the gear forum but basically I find it painful to listen to guitarists talk about amps and the like. It's a lot like when I'm asked "which mic should I put on my cabinet and where should I place it"......the one that sounds good when you pull up the faders.....and if you ask me again, I'll tell you where to put it!

Seriously, I have had shops let me swap out tubes to give them a listen. Most stores won't be willing to, but a good repair shop most likely will let you. Give them a listen and see which are pleasing to your ears given the style of music you are playing. Do you like them warmer? cleaner? Are you hearing any tube microphonics? Even that can be desirable, and if not, dampened.

Which tubes are better? The ones that sound good to you. I've owned plenty of different tubes and they all sound different. This won't make any friends here in the gear forum but basically I find it painful to listen to guitarists talk about amps and the like. It's a lot like when I'm asked "which mic should I put on my cabinet and where should I place it"......the one that sounds good when you pull up the faders.....and if you ask me again, I'll tell you where to put it!

Seriously, I have had shops let me swap out tubes to give them a listen. Most stores won't be willing to, but a good repair shop most likely will let you. Give them a listen and see which are pleasing to your ears given the style of music you are playing. Do you like them warmer? cleaner? Are you hearing any tube microphonics? Even that can be desirable, and if not, dampened.

Very well put brother! Now I feel like "The Village Idiot" I like that handle it made me chuckle!

Really Village? We should ignore all the golden ears tube voodoo on the internet and just trust our ears??? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

SINCE WHEN DID ANY VILLAGE IDIOT WANT A MICROPHONIC TUBE?

(shakes it off) I must be misinformed... (sour look of dismay)

I miss the old days when you just walked into Radio Shack (or Lafayette Electronics) and got whatever tube they had in stock. And they had those old tube tester machines right there in front.

Oh Mike, I am getting all weepy eyed and sh*t. lol