Members MesaMonster Posted July 16, 2015 Members Share Posted July 16, 2015 I am totally stoked. I had sold my Laney LC50 amp about two years ago to fund my Mesa. I really missed that amp. The person I sold it too asked me the other day if I wanted it back. I was like Hell Yeah! I had changed out the original H&H speaker out for a Celestian speaker. When I get it back I would like to change the tubes too. It uses a pair of EL34s and 12AX7s. What would you recommend that I change them with? Thx, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WRGKMC Posted July 16, 2015 Members Share Posted July 16, 2015 JJ's makes some great EL34 tubes for the cost. They have that RCA tone and can take the higher voltages better then most. Electroharmonix are really good too, especially the preamp tubes. I did a comparison with about 7 others in a mic preamp and the EH 12AX7 tubes did better then all the others for clarity and loudness. Tung Sol are supposed to make some good preamp tubes too but I haven't had the chance to try out their new versions yet. I'd stay away from buying NOS tubes. Most are used tubes pulled from old gear in questionable condition. You have no idea how many hours are already on them and there's allot of pirating going on too. They are even pirating the old logos on boxes to cash in on amateurs who don't know better. Any NOS vintage tubes that may have been out there were likely sold off decades ago, especially the most popular ones like EL34, 6L6, 12AX7, 12AT 7 etc. Besides the new tubes are just as good as the old ones now. Vintage tubes are often held up as being spectacular but most of that is Nostalgic BS. Vintage tubes went bad even quicker then many tubes do today and in a low fidelity amp like guitarists use, driven up in gain, there is practically no frequencies above 6K or so where the differences in tube quality really shine. If it was a Hi Fi amp that used the full frequency response, or a preamp for a mic, then you might hear mild differences. A guitar amp is mostly midrange and even if the tubes did put out varying amounts of high frequency, it would all be rolled off by the guitar speakers response curves below 10K. Just buy decent ones that don't go microphonic from vibrations while producing a decent tone. Make sure you buy matched pair power tubes and have the amp properly biased with a burn in period. A bad bias job can easily make the best set of tubes sound worse then the worst tubes out there and a budget set can sound better then the best tubes poorly biased. The tube store does give some ratings on tube tones you can read up on.https://www.tubesandmore.com/tech_corner/12ax7_comparison_of_current_made_tubes You can compare prices and write-ups with Tube Depothttps://tubedepot.com/t/tubes/preamp-tubes/12ax7-ecc83-7025-cv4004 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DeepEnd Posted July 16, 2015 Members Share Posted July 16, 2015 Happy Got My Amp Back Day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MesaMonster Posted July 20, 2015 Author Members Share Posted July 20, 2015 I put EHX 12AX7 tubes in before I sold the amp. Since there are not that many tubes, I am going to replace them all. Getting it this Wednesday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MesaMonster Posted July 28, 2015 Author Members Share Posted July 28, 2015 GOT IT!!! Been playing it all weekend. I forgot how sweet this amp sounds. I also put it in stereo with my Egnater Rebel 30. Wow! I also forgot how heavy this thing is. Weighs almost as much as my Mesa Boogie head. I always use a cart anyway whenever I am playing out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MesaMonster Posted July 28, 2015 Author Members Share Posted July 28, 2015 Thank you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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