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Old 11-26-2016, 11:18 AM
Steve DeRosa Steve DeRosa is offline
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Default PSA: Need tubes?

These guys are running a sale (up to 40% off - unheard of in tube-junkie circles) through Monday:

http://www.thetubestore.com/

For all you guys with low/mid-power EL84 amps (Vox, Carvin, Peavey, Bugera, Egnater, Bad Cat, Fender Juniors, et al.) I can't recommend the house-label Preferred Series highly enough; they're the Soviet-era mil-spec equivalent of the JAN tubes all the hard-core Fender guys would kill to get, and at $20 per ($14 for the 12AX7 preamp tubes - and an extra $5/ea. gets you matched triodes) it's one of the cheapest ways I know to make some major improvements in your tone - turned my Bugera V22 into a real little monster......
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Old 11-26-2016, 05:56 PM
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Bob Womack Bob Womack is offline
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Very Cool!


Bob
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Old 11-26-2016, 10:52 PM
muscmp muscmp is offline
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just to add, antique electronics/amplified parts/tubesandmore has a 12% off on everything thru monday. i checked just one item to compare. the tubestore has jj el84 for $11.53 while antique has them for $8.79. shop each before you purchase. shipping charges from each may come into play also.

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Old 11-26-2016, 11:05 PM
loco gringo loco gringo is offline
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Great deal. Unfortunately, I just bought a complete set for both my amps from thetubestore.com a few weeks ago. Never even crossed my mind there would be Black Friday deals on tubes.
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Old 11-27-2016, 03:26 PM
Steve DeRosa Steve DeRosa is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by muscmp View Post
just to add, antique electronics/amplified parts/tubesandmore has a 12% off on everything thru monday. i checked just one item to compare. the tubestore has jj el84 for $11.53 while antique has them for $8.79. shop each before you purchase. shipping charges from each may come into play also...
Good point - always comparison-shop, whatever the item purchased; that said, I wouldn't even mention JJ/EH/Sovtek/Groove Tubes/etc. in the same context as the Preferred Series EL84's - they really are that good and, like the US-equivalent JAN tubes, well worth the extra outlay. If you tend to think of EL84's as bright/chimey/bluesy/quick breakup, forget it: while these'll give you those classic Beatle tones they're more of the "NME '65" EL34 AC50/AC100 variety (if anyone here is looking to retube an AC30 they'd be my first choice) - and if you missed out on one of those mid-60's "big-tube" (usually 7027's) blue-check Ampeg guitar amps, a set of these and an efficient American-voiced speaker will provide comparable tone/headroom/output. Sometimes you actually do get what you pay for, and IME this is indeed one of those cases; quite frankly, with a finite supply I'll be squirreling away a few sets - had my eye on a Carvin V3MC for a while now, and four of these with an Eminence Swamp Thang should turn it into a 40-pound Twin-killer...
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Old 11-27-2016, 08:28 PM
muscmp muscmp is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve DeRosa View Post
Good point - always comparison-shop, whatever the item purchased; that said, I wouldn't even mention JJ/EH/Sovtek/Groove Tubes/etc. in the same context as the Preferred Series EL84's - they really are that good and, like the US-equivalent JAN tubes, well worth the extra outlay. If you tend to think of EL84's as bright/chimey/bluesy/quick breakup, forget it: while these'll give you those classic Beatle tones they're more of the "NME '65" EL34 AC50/AC100 variety (if anyone here is looking to retube an AC30 they'd be my first choice) - and if you missed out on one of those mid-60's "big-tube" (usually 7027's) blue-check Ampeg guitar amps, a set of these and an efficient American-voiced speaker will provide comparable tone/headroom/output. Sometimes you actually do get what you pay for, and IME this is indeed one of those cases; quite frankly, with a finite supply I'll be squirreling away a few sets - had my eye on a Carvin V3MC for a while now, and four of these with an Eminence Swamp Thang should turn it into a 40-pound Twin-killer...
steve: i agree wholeheartedly! tube rolling is the only way to go. could be sovtek, mullard, amperex, ruby....subjectively, one of them will be the one for you! i'm using the jj el84 in place of the shugang originals in my ac15c1 and it is night and day. i tried my amperex,that tested good, but the jj is the sound i like.

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Old 11-27-2016, 09:44 PM
Steve DeRosa Steve DeRosa is offline
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Seems everybody and his Uncle Wong is using Shuguang tubes in EL84 amps these days, if only in the name of economy of manufacture; BTW they've got three quality levels - the $1.29 OEM crap you got in your Vox (and me in my Bugera), an upscale line that also includes some STR types made for various labels (Northern Electric, Preferred Series, et al.) and is competitive in quality/price with the better modern East European tubes, and an uber-premium line that comes in presentation boxes and is directed at the high-end audiophile market. TMK they produce the Preferred Series 12AX7 for thetubestore.com - nice stuff if you like JAN-style tone/response in your preamp stage but don't want to mortgage your first-born to get it...
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