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Gibson branded 12ax7's?


Tomm Williams

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Branded most likely like Fender has done for decades up until they bought Groove Tubes, their main supplier. There are a ton of branded tubes out there both past and present. First branded tubes I bought were the Radio Shack back in the day. Before that I bout the usually RCA, Sylvania, Mullard etc.

 

Ruby for example never make tubes. They buy them from china and get their name stamped on it (or do it themselves) All they do is test them and make matched sets.

 

I believe you said in another thread that Ampeg was vintage? If so the tubes may be older. Older unfortunately doesn't mean better. All tubes fatigue after so many hours of use and none get better as the hours rack up on them.

 

These are the current manufacturers that make Tubes today. http://www.thetubestore.com/Tubes/Tubes-by-Manufacturer why buy branded when you can buy the real thing.

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Yea, it sounds like someone stuck a batch of all their used tubes in there before selling it. I'd likely get new tubes throughout.

I just did my 60's Bassman using EV preamp tubes. I tried Ruby for the power tubes but they didn't last 60 seconds so I sent them back. I have a set of JJ power tubes I need to put in there still.

 

For the Inverter I bought a NOS JAN (joint Army Navy Tube) It's ratings blew all the others away when I was researching them, and it was a good buy for $12 for a New/Old stock American made tube.

 

The EV preamp tubes really made a big difference I have like two dozen different types at home. I spent a couple of hours swapping them out last time and the EV's blew them all away including some American made tubes I still have. EV's were Brighter and more full ranged compared to the GT's and all of the other Russian and Chinese tubes I had, quite a bit louder for sure.

 

I suspect the JJ's power tubes will be similar to the Groove tubes which have been very reliable. I was going to go EV all the way but the JJ power tubes are known to be very durable and I liked the specs on them.

I don't think your Ampeg uses any odd ball tubes like they did in the 70's aluminum faced amps. I believe they use 6V6 power tubes. I haven't checked the specs on those.

 

I'd go here and compare their ratings. You can probably get that amp to boost up nicely with some new bottles.

 

http://www.thetubestore.com/Resources/Product-Reviews/6V6-Tube-Review

 

https://www.tubesandmore.com/search/node/6v6

 

https://tubedepot.com/t/tubes/power-tubes/6v6

 

Their preamp tube ratings are spot on too.

 

https://tubedepot.com/tube-comparison-tool

 

https://www.tubesandmore.com/tech_corner/12ax7_comparison_of_current_made_tubes

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