Splawn retube: EH KT-88's and Tung Sol 12ax7

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I retubed my Pro-Mod the other day and figured I'd throw out a quick comparison between the stock Sovtek's and the EH KT-88's.

 

Overall, I think the main noticeable differences are that the EH's are a little less harsh and are "sweeter" sounding. The bottom-end is so thick and warm with these tubes, I noticed a difference right away, but some of that would be because the others were almost two years old. I liked the Sovteks too but with the type of guitar I have and pickup, it was a little to brash on the high-end at times. I didn't notice a whole hell of a lot of difference with the Tung Sol 12ax7. I have actually been using a JJ 12DW7 tube in my v1, it's half 12AU7 and half 12AX7. It's a great tube for lowering the gain of the amp a bit, it still retains the high-end well and sounds good for medium gain stuff. I seem to be able to get more range out of the gain knob with it, it's a great tube.

 

One thing to note if you're going to switch to the EH's (I talked with Scott about this), you'll need to stretch or remove the spring tube holders. The EH's and quite a bit bigger in girth than the Sovteks and the added pressure reduces the life of the tube. I removed mine all together, the sockets are tight enough to keep them in place as long as you're not really banging it around.