Fellow musicians. I have an older VOX VT-30 and I'm pretty sure the prevamp tube has gone bad. It's 15+ years old and about 5-10 minutes after it warms up the sound gets really ratty.

Here is the first question: What is the consensus on the best 12ax7 tube?

Second question: Best domestic (USA) tube supplier/source that ISN'T Amazon....

Best preamp tubes are the vintage NOS or ANOS. I have Amperex, Mullard, Sylvania, RCA, Hammond, Motorola, Philips, RFT, Siemens and on and on. These can last for decades and sound worlds better than the modern stuff. Though I think the new production stuff that gets the best reviews are the Gold Lion and even new Mullards.

eBay can be good, if you know what you're looking for. Then there's tubesandmore.com and there's a sticky on tube suppliers on thegearpage.net. I only keep a few new production 12AX7s on hand for replacements when I'm at a gig or band practice.

And check out Pete Thorn's Youtube video comparing various NOS tubes.

Not a guitar amp specialist but I have a lot of experience with NOS tubes for stereo tube amps and preamps and phono stages. I have a large collection of NOS tubes and if you need a quality 12AX7 I can help you out.

If you want a lush warm tone, 1950s Mullards are the best. Amperex and Brimar also are nice. If you want a clean linear sound with a little less warmth, try Telefunken or Siemens. Good NOS tubes blow away any new production tubes, and they last a long time.

New production Mullards/Tung Sol/Genelex etc have no connection to the originals. Chinese and Russian companies bought the names and the modern ones don't hold a candle to the originals.

Its also important to test the tubes. I use one of these.

https://www.radiolaguy.com/Sho...ment/Hickok_752A.htm

It's a Vox Valvetronix, guys, not a Dumble. It's a modeling amp that uses a single 12AX7 tube as both a pre-amp and a power amp (looping the preamp output signal back through the same tube through a different, generally unused path to give the power tube feel) before sending that signal to a solid state power amp that actually drives the speaker. It's a modeling amp that uses a single tube in order to give tube response. The signal processing was designed around modern tubes, aka the cheap Chinese and Russian stuff. NOS anything for that role is lipstick on a pig, and I mean no offense to Rightwire because I love and sold the fuck out of those amps for a few years and nearly bought a VT50. They're great. What they aren't is an amplifier that requires an expensive NOS vintage tube in order to sound great.

Throw a JJ in there and I can pretty much guarantee you'll be happy with it. If you aren't, the nice thing is that 12AX7's are pretty cheap and you can swap them out to your heart's content because you don't have to bias them (pretty sure it's a non-issue with the VT series anyway IIRC). FWIW, I have Chinese 12AX7's in my Hugh & Kettner Duotone head, and I have them in there because they sounded the best out of the selection of stuff I ordered when I was working at the music store. Yes, I was surprised and disappointed also. I swapped until I liked the way it sounded and then kept the others for spares. I have no idea where I "stored" them right now, but if you want, I can poke around and send one your way. I don't remember what they are exactly, but I think they might even be JJ's.

The answer to your second question has to be, from me, your local independent music retailer. Short of that, I can ask the guys at my old store where they order tubes from these days, or put you in touch with them. You could even order over the phone from them and they'd ship to you, I've bought plenty that way since I moved.

I've used tubes from Tube Depot for stereo applications before.

Just grab a Sovtek local and get back to playing.

quote:

Originally posted by Rick Lee:
Best preamp tubes are the vintage NOS or ANOS. I have Amperex, Mullard, Sylvania, RCA, Hammond, Motorola, Philips, RFT, Siemens and on and on. These can last for decades and sound worlds better than the modern stuff. Though I think the new production stuff that gets the best reviews are the Gold Lion and even new Mullards.

eBay can be good, if you know what you're looking for. Then there's tubesandmore.com and there's a sticky on tube suppliers on thegearpage.net. I only keep a few new production 12AX7s on hand for replacements when I'm at a gig or band practice.

And check out Pete Thorn's Youtube video comparing various NOS tubes.

Another vote for NOS Mullards. In the past I usually stocked up on these when available from tubesandmore.com

There's always the old Groove Tube.
https://tubedepot.com/products...es-gt-12ax7-c-select

Interesting to find this thread, as I'm shopping acoustic guitar amps now! I once had a Trace Acoustic (Trace Elliot) acoustic guitar amp and it was amazing. It was solid state. I'm thinking that modern solid state is probably as good or better for acoustic (quietly played in-home), and that electric may benefit from tubes -- particularly if playing at some volume.

Is that right thinking? Any thoughts eagerly welcomed.

quote:

Originally posted by P220 Smudge:
It's a Vox Valvetronix, guys, not a Dumble.

(laughs)

I’ve gotten tubes from Tube Depot. I usually spend a few extra dollars and get matched tubes.

quote:

Originally posted by r0gue:
Interesting to find this thread, as I'm shopping acoustic guitar amps now! I once had a Trace Acoustic (Trace Elliot) acoustic guitar amp and it was amazing. It was solid state. I'm thinking that modern solid state is probably as good or better for acoustic (quietly played in-home), and that electric may benefit from tubes -- particularly if playing at some volume.

Is that right thinking? Any thoughts eagerly welcomed.

Yes.

Generally, the rule of thumb is solid state amps for acoustic guitars, tube amps for electric guitars. That's generally where they're happiest. The short and simple explanation is that electric guitars sound good with the compression, and the natural harmonic distortion and breakup that tube amps naturally yield. Acoustic guitars can sound good through a tube amp, but solid state amps generally have a lot more clean headroom (i.e. how hard you can push the amp at volume before the signal starts to break up and distort), and they tend to better replicate the sound of the guitar. With an electric guitar and a tube amp, the one is as much an instrument that you're playing as the other is - as you turn the tube amp up, the signal compresses and distorts more easily. With an acoustic, it's more like you're simply reproducing and coloring the sound with an amplifer, or plugging direct into a PA.

P220 Smudge I much appreciate the advice. I ran down to Guitar Center and grabbed a Tung Sol and popped it in. Huge difference. I was really starting to wonder if there was something wrong with my guitar. Clearly it was the tube. Found a few picks hanging out in there too. Those vents are in a bad spot.

I'm not an expert on amps, but I wish there was a list somewhere of the amps it models. I realize for copyright reasons they couldn't list them but the descriptions are a little too vague. WHOOPS!!!!! spoke too soon!!

A-1: BOUTIQUE CL - Dumble ODS
A-2: DELUXE TWEED - Fender Tweed Deluxe
A-3: SUPER 4X10 - Fender Super Reverb
A-4: VOX AC15TB
A-5: VOX AC30HH
A-6: EXPRESS TRAIN - Trainwreck Express
A-7: VOX AC50CP2
A-8: UK 25TH - Marshall Silver Jubilee
A-9: US ‘90S - Peavey 5150
A-10: UK MODERN - Marshall JVM
A-11: BOUTIQUE METAL - Diezel VH4

B-1: MODDED CL - Fender Blackface
B-2: TWEED 2X12 - Fender Tweed Twin/57
B-3: TWEED 4X10 - Fender Bassman
B-4: VOX AC15
B-5: VOX AC30TB
B-6: BOUTIQUE OD - Dumble ODS
B-7: VOX AC30BM
B-8: UK ‘80S - Marshall JCM 800
B-9: CALI METAL - Mesa Triple Rectifier
B-10: UK ‘90S - Marshal - JCM 900
B-11: METAL BULL - VHT Pitbull


Anyway, back in business gakking chords and missing notes....

quote:

Originally posted by Rightwire:
P220 Smudge I much appreciate the advice. I ran down to Guitar Center and grabbed a Tung Sol and popped it in. Huge difference. I was really starting to wonder if there was something wrong with my guitar. Clearly it was the tube. Found a few picks hanging out in there too. Those vents are in a bad spot.

Hey, excellent! Yeah, when tubes start to go bad, it's not always the most obvious thing and can lead various bizarre symptoms. And yes, I remember at least one customer dropping a pick down into our VT's that was out for demo. Top vents are great in theory, but in practice...

The Tung-Sols are great. The new Mullard reissues are truly excellent. I have found that a long plate in the first position is key for those with more than one preamp tube.

I have a bunch of Wurlitzer brand (probably RCA) that are excellent. If anyone is giving away an old organ get it and harvest the tubes (and maybe the transformers).

And on a related note, Uncle Doug!

https://www.youtube.com/user/Stratosaurus1/videos

https://www.facebook.com/UncleDougsVintageAmps

quote:

Originally posted by cparktd:
And on a related note, Uncle Doug!

Uncle Doug is the man!

With a little time researching new acoustic guitar amps, I'm positively floored at what you can get now for $500.

Chorus effect on guitar channel, delay/echo effect on mic channel, and independent reverb on both channels. Harmony function automatically creating smooth and accurate vocal harmonies via real-time key/chord analysis of the guitar input. Built-in looper for practicing, developing ideas, and enhancing live performances.

Incredible!

A couple other places

Tube World Express

The Tube Store


Rick

People love RCA 12AX7 blackplates, but they are pricey. RCA greyplates are also good and less expensive.

I can't say about blackplates, but greyplates sound great in my Princeton