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On the other had I have a combo of Tung Sol v1 and JJ v2 and probably going for Sovtek lps in the PI and that sounds much better than all JJ.. plus I prefer the tungsol el34's over the JJ el34s
What I don't understand is the use of them in non-high-gain amps - then it just serves to muddy the tone. A clean amp shouldn't need any sort of HF suppression - and almost no vintage amps have it, about the only one I can think of is the tiny cap across the PI outputs on the Bassman/Marshall-type circuit.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
As for the sound - for me personally, I hear little to no difference. I read stuff like Myles Roses tube primers long time ago and kept buying tubes and experimenting. Stopped it a while ago, as I decided it's not worth it for me. I won't say it's all imagination, but I'm quite happy the way it is as it saves me lots of money that I'd need to spend on NOS glass otherwise.
However, I've paid top prices for new EF86 valves, cryo ones, etc. All have been microphonic.
I've ended up buying a box of 5 or 10 old, used EF86s and simply picking one that sounds good and is not microphonic
I wonder if anyone is now making good, quiet EF86 valves?
does it have VVR?
Some of the factories produce different ranges though.
Going back a few years, the Sovtek factory was making a 12AX7WA, 12AX7WB, 12AX7LPS, plus the EHX 12AX7 (and maybe a few more).
I'm not sure what's out there now, as I have lots of spare valves, and use my Kemper most of the time, so I'm not getting through them very quickly. At my current rate of usage, I probably won't ever need to buy another ECC83/12AX7.
I should point it out here and indeed encourage anyone exploring tone with amps and pedals by doing the opposite to what you expect should be done. In this case, I put 3 gold lions in the vintage amp, expecting the Gain of each valve to exaggerate the volume and drive of the amp at the expense of the Cleans. Instead, the cleans are more defined and closer to the amp's ideal amp tone. Those same gold lions sound muffled in the Redplate aforementioned.
I'm beginning to think it doesn't depend on the valve, rather the amplifier. Yes, that sounds obvious; yet too often we believe that NOS is simply better than New or that one New brand is better than another. There's an EHX AX7 in the drive section of the Redplate, added by the previous owner, that I quickly swapped for a gold lion, only to discover the EHX sounded much better.
Silly hour.
Rift Amplification
Brackley, Northamptonshire
www.riftamps.co.uk
It’s definitely affected the break up like you wouldn’t believe.
I think the overall amp volume is a little lower which is a good thing for the way I’m using it.
The amp has a completely different character.
I haven't give it a loud run out yet and to be honest it’s needed a tube change for a while but I’m firmly in a ‘different valves do make a difference’ camp big time
But then i tried it.
I had about 15 tubes kicking around in various amps. Pulled them all. Switched them in and out of a Satriani JVM.
Noticed massive differences in tonality and levels of gain. Massive.
That was case closed for me.