What you've been missing at the Hub.
Pacomc79
Posts: 9,404
This is too freaking awesome not to post. Tube needing people read on..
Quote:
Originally Posted by PinkStrat
Hi Lord Valve,
I wanted to check in with you and get your opinion on the new Mullard EL-34s & the new TungSol 12AX7s? Are they still of the same quality that I heard from a set around the Winter NAMM show? We put the new Mullard 34s in Bjorn's Mad Professor CS-40 and they sounded really good! Keep in mind that the MP runs about 500 volts on the plates. What EL-84s are you recommending for Classic 30s these days? I want to try the Mullard 34s in my Komet 60 (runs around 475 volts) & the Tungsol 12AX7s in the C30. I need something that is more reliable than those first batch GT 12AX7-M tubes that went bad very soon after taking them for a trial spin.
Best,
Dean AKA Pinkstrat
Lord Valve Speaketh:
The Reflektor/Mullard is the EL34 I'm assuming you're asking about, yes?
Because GT also has a "Mullard" EL34, and I don't know anything about
that one yet. The Reflektor is excellent so far. When I say it's "excellent,"
I mean that I don't get many of them back. ;-) (Very few, in fact.) I put
reliability right at the top when I decide what I'm going to sell - it doesn't
matter how good something sounds if it craps out, right? (Sort of like
owning a Jaguar - Jaguars run great when they run, but they don't run
all that often. The Jaguar owns *you* - check your maintenance records
for details.) At any rate, most of the folks who buy the Reflektor/Mullard
EL34s become fanatically devoted to it. (Not all, of course; some folks
hate 'em.)
And of course we have the Eyeball Gurus...the dudes who are clever
enough to notice that the Reflektor/Mullard has the same plates as the
Electro-Harmonix and the Reflektor/Svetlana, so they puff up and post a
bunch of horse-shit about how all three are the same and Mike Matthews is
a ripoff artist and on and on and on. What these assholes don't know is that
the plate is the *least* important part of the tube - as long as it can operate
at 1100 degrees Kelvin without warping, it could be a goddamn tunafish can
and nobody would be able to hear the difference. The tonal mojo is the stuff
INSIDE the plate, the stuff the Eyeball Gurus can't see (and have no idea
about the technical aspect of, either) when they do their "tests." The grid
pitch (how the control and screen grids are wound and aligned) has way more
to do with how the tube sounds than the plate structure, as does the internal
spacing of the various elements, element-to-element capacitance, screen
radiator thickness and area, grid wire material and coating, cathode
temperature, cathode coating formula, etc. The fact of the matter is that
the Reflektor folks actually save us some money by not having to build new
tooling to stamp different plates with every time they bring out a different or
updated EL34, since the existing ones are just fine.
Which brings me to the Reflektor Tung-Sol 12AX7, my all-time favorite among
currently-manufactured (non-NOS) 12AX7s, which has exactly the same
plates in it as the Electro-Harmonix 12AX7EH. In fact, some twat over on
TGP who calls himself "Red Planet" was spewing bullshit about this tube,
saying that it was "exactly the same" as the 12AX7EH, only it was labeled
differently so Mike could charge more money for it. He didn't seem to be able
to explain why it sounds completely different, though, nor was he interested
in the reasons why. He's probably still rotting over there, stinking the joint up
with his "expertise." (Which is why *I'm* here on TGH, where the admins
care more about accurate info and less about posting style. Glass Snobs,
Eyeball Gurus, cork-sniffers and bedroom jammers can kiss my fat ass. They
*deserve* TGP. ;-)
At any rate, the Reflektor/Tung-Sol 12AX7 is a bitchin' fine tube, few reliability
problems (there was a bad batch awhile back, when the Russian Mafia
was fucking with Mike and dirtied up his cleanroom) and a great deal of
customer satisfaction. I rarely make statements about what a tube sounds
like; there are so many factors which affect tube tone that it's entirely
possible for the same tube to sound dynamite in one amp and like utter
shit in another. These factors include (but are not limited to) what kind
of strings are on the guitar, what kind of pickups, control settings on the
amp, playing style, local line voltage, circuit topology, the voltages the
tube is being operated at, the loads it sees from the surrounding components,
the stage gain, inter-lead capacitances in the stage, etc. So, at best, I
can only tell you that nearly all of the people who try this particular 12AX7
like it quite a bit. How it sounds is up to you. I had them in Derek Trucks'
BFSR for the first two legs of the Clapton tour, and rumor has it EC thought
DT's tone was just fine.
Now, for all you folks who are going to point out that I'm a TUBE SALSEMAN
and I have a vested interest in giving "good" reports on the stuff I sell, I
invite you to request a set of my catalogs. In them, you'll find my reports
on the godawful reject rate on the stuff coming out of the Ei factory, notes
about how I can't stand the Sovtek 12AX7WA & WB (which I do, however,
keep in stock for people who won't listen to reason), application notes
for various tubes in various applications - which include what's WRONG with
a particular tube, and why you *shouldn't* buy it if you are using it for
certain applications (like using a 12AX7LPS as a PI or cathode follower -
don't do it...get the catalogs and see why) and so forth. So, for all you
wankers who think I'm here to get PAID, you are ABSOLUTELY RIGHT. I
gotta eat, and I sell tubes. Just keep in mind that I can't lie about the
stuff I sell, because I can't make you like anything that craps out or
sounds like shit. Plenty of folks on the "A" circuit get their glass from
me. There *is* a reason. ;-)
Lord Valve
Businessman/spammer/glass hustler/expert/take your pick...
Quote:
Originally Posted by PinkStrat
Hi Lord Valve,
I wanted to check in with you and get your opinion on the new Mullard EL-34s & the new TungSol 12AX7s? Are they still of the same quality that I heard from a set around the Winter NAMM show? We put the new Mullard 34s in Bjorn's Mad Professor CS-40 and they sounded really good! Keep in mind that the MP runs about 500 volts on the plates. What EL-84s are you recommending for Classic 30s these days? I want to try the Mullard 34s in my Komet 60 (runs around 475 volts) & the Tungsol 12AX7s in the C30. I need something that is more reliable than those first batch GT 12AX7-M tubes that went bad very soon after taking them for a trial spin.
Best,
Dean AKA Pinkstrat
Lord Valve Speaketh:
The Reflektor/Mullard is the EL34 I'm assuming you're asking about, yes?
Because GT also has a "Mullard" EL34, and I don't know anything about
that one yet. The Reflektor is excellent so far. When I say it's "excellent,"
I mean that I don't get many of them back. ;-) (Very few, in fact.) I put
reliability right at the top when I decide what I'm going to sell - it doesn't
matter how good something sounds if it craps out, right? (Sort of like
owning a Jaguar - Jaguars run great when they run, but they don't run
all that often. The Jaguar owns *you* - check your maintenance records
for details.) At any rate, most of the folks who buy the Reflektor/Mullard
EL34s become fanatically devoted to it. (Not all, of course; some folks
hate 'em.)
And of course we have the Eyeball Gurus...the dudes who are clever
enough to notice that the Reflektor/Mullard has the same plates as the
Electro-Harmonix and the Reflektor/Svetlana, so they puff up and post a
bunch of horse-shit about how all three are the same and Mike Matthews is
a ripoff artist and on and on and on. What these assholes don't know is that
the plate is the *least* important part of the tube - as long as it can operate
at 1100 degrees Kelvin without warping, it could be a goddamn tunafish can
and nobody would be able to hear the difference. The tonal mojo is the stuff
INSIDE the plate, the stuff the Eyeball Gurus can't see (and have no idea
about the technical aspect of, either) when they do their "tests." The grid
pitch (how the control and screen grids are wound and aligned) has way more
to do with how the tube sounds than the plate structure, as does the internal
spacing of the various elements, element-to-element capacitance, screen
radiator thickness and area, grid wire material and coating, cathode
temperature, cathode coating formula, etc. The fact of the matter is that
the Reflektor folks actually save us some money by not having to build new
tooling to stamp different plates with every time they bring out a different or
updated EL34, since the existing ones are just fine.
Which brings me to the Reflektor Tung-Sol 12AX7, my all-time favorite among
currently-manufactured (non-NOS) 12AX7s, which has exactly the same
plates in it as the Electro-Harmonix 12AX7EH. In fact, some twat over on
TGP who calls himself "Red Planet" was spewing bullshit about this tube,
saying that it was "exactly the same" as the 12AX7EH, only it was labeled
differently so Mike could charge more money for it. He didn't seem to be able
to explain why it sounds completely different, though, nor was he interested
in the reasons why. He's probably still rotting over there, stinking the joint up
with his "expertise." (Which is why *I'm* here on TGH, where the admins
care more about accurate info and less about posting style. Glass Snobs,
Eyeball Gurus, cork-sniffers and bedroom jammers can kiss my fat ass. They
*deserve* TGP. ;-)
At any rate, the Reflektor/Tung-Sol 12AX7 is a bitchin' fine tube, few reliability
problems (there was a bad batch awhile back, when the Russian Mafia
was fucking with Mike and dirtied up his cleanroom) and a great deal of
customer satisfaction. I rarely make statements about what a tube sounds
like; there are so many factors which affect tube tone that it's entirely
possible for the same tube to sound dynamite in one amp and like utter
shit in another. These factors include (but are not limited to) what kind
of strings are on the guitar, what kind of pickups, control settings on the
amp, playing style, local line voltage, circuit topology, the voltages the
tube is being operated at, the loads it sees from the surrounding components,
the stage gain, inter-lead capacitances in the stage, etc. So, at best, I
can only tell you that nearly all of the people who try this particular 12AX7
like it quite a bit. How it sounds is up to you. I had them in Derek Trucks'
BFSR for the first two legs of the Clapton tour, and rumor has it EC thought
DT's tone was just fine.
Now, for all you folks who are going to point out that I'm a TUBE SALSEMAN
and I have a vested interest in giving "good" reports on the stuff I sell, I
invite you to request a set of my catalogs. In them, you'll find my reports
on the godawful reject rate on the stuff coming out of the Ei factory, notes
about how I can't stand the Sovtek 12AX7WA & WB (which I do, however,
keep in stock for people who won't listen to reason), application notes
for various tubes in various applications - which include what's WRONG with
a particular tube, and why you *shouldn't* buy it if you are using it for
certain applications (like using a 12AX7LPS as a PI or cathode follower -
don't do it...get the catalogs and see why) and so forth. So, for all you
wankers who think I'm here to get PAID, you are ABSOLUTELY RIGHT. I
gotta eat, and I sell tubes. Just keep in mind that I can't lie about the
stuff I sell, because I can't make you like anything that craps out or
sounds like shit. Plenty of folks on the "A" circuit get their glass from
me. There *is* a reason. ;-)
Lord Valve
Businessman/spammer/glass hustler/expert/take your pick...
My Girlfriend said to me..."How many guitars do you need?" and I replied...."How many pairs of shoes do you need?" She got really quiet.
Post edited by Unknown User on
0
Comments
And those Sovtek 12ax7wa and wbs DO suck big donkey balls.
but i'm just a bedroom jammer anyway.
old music: http://www.myspace.com/slowloader
Yeah, it's a less mod/rule/dominated smaller community created by Jason (JofZ) to get some solid information like the above.
It's in it's infancy, but the level of knowledge as you can see is pretty good.
Tomo posts there, Bjorn, Scotty etc. etc.
Basically I think they got tired of TGP because really, how many "that cost too much" arguments do we need?
In other words just another place to spurn GAS and to get info about coming Tone Fests, started by the same group of folks.
It dosen't move very fast yet, but it's getting there.
so am I but I don't know, I guess I just always wanted to be an engineer too but couldn't hack the math so hey, I'm a writer.....go figure I love detail.
The Hub is growing, we have some cool annoucements and the stuff you will see I think will make you all happy.
Thank you to everyone who has supported us, we really appreciate it.
Hanging at www.TheGuitarHub.com
The only Forum for players by players.......
Playing Les Pauls, Teles, Hubers, Gustavssons, Kolls through a Mad Professor amp with a Bob Burt Cab.
BJF powers my Pedal Board
But hey...I decided to go ahead with the Grosh Set Neck, so maybe I can post pics over there when I finally take delivery.
old music: http://www.myspace.com/slowloader