My experience with Eurotubes - JJ's

[Smokey]

Hey guys,

I know everyone has their own subjective bias in terms of tone and brands of tubes. I just thought that I'd let you all know about my experience with Eurotubes and using JJ tubes in my RM100.

My RM100 came with Sovtek 12ax7's tubes in V1 - Guitar input, V2 - Effects Loop and V3 - Phase inverter. Power tubes were a quad of GT 6L6B. My modules had:
Blackface - Electro Harmonix 12ax7
Brown - Electro Harmonix 12ax7
XTC - Electro Harmonix 12ax7
Erect - GT 12ax7
1086 -Electro Harmonix 12ax7

I play a PRS Custom 22 and a late 80's Les Paul with Alnico II Pro's and run my RM100 head through an Australian made Ulbrick 2x12 - just so you know my setup and gear.

About a month ago I changed my poweramp section to a quad of JJE34L's which came with the amp when I bought it as spares. This straight away brought a heap of warmth that I felt was missing in the sound.

After doing some research on the net, I decided to overhaul my entire preamp section (5 modules and V1, V2 and V3 head). I know every tube brand is going to tell you that they are better than all the others, but I found the info on Eurotubes site such as:
- How different tubes sound (6L6, EL34, KT77, El84)
- How JJ compare to other brands
all extremely useful and informative. I will note that I have also looked at other tube sites and found this the most straight forward explaination of descriptions. The customer feedback on Eurotubes also tipped me over the line. I think I had also read about a few other people on the MTS forum recommending Eurotubes.
http://www.eurotubes.com/index.htm

After some very friendly, prompt and informative emails between myself and Bob at Eurotubes I ordered the following:
Guitar Input V1 - ECC83S Gold Pin x 1
Effects Loop V2 - ECC83S x 1
Phase inverter V3 - ECC83S (Balanced) x 1

Blackface - ECC803S x 2
Brown - ECC803S x 2
XTC - ECC83S Gold Pin x 2
E-rect - ECC83S Gold Pin x 2
1086 - ECC83S Gold Pin x 2
Spare tubes ECC83S High gain x 4 = 17 tubes total

I ordered on a Monday night in Australia and on the Friday afternoon I had the package in my hands! I find this sort of service incredible from America, considering that I don't live in a capital city. Halfway around the world and to my door in under 4 days!!! Outstanding and I haven't even tried the tubes yet

Anyhow, I changed all the tubes over and WOW! I loved the RM100 before, but now it's devastating! There is a huge difference in clarity, distortion is warm and not buzzy, and the top end shimmers. The bottom end has tightened up a bit as well.
The Brown module has lost a bit of gain due to ECC803S's having less gain and also can go microphonic if you max the gain out. But this gives the Brown a fresh vibe for me anyhow. I'm gonna slam the front end with an OD if I need more gain. I haven't given the ECC83S High gain tubes a go yet, but they give me options to try out.

If you're still reading now.. thanks for bearing with my long post. If you are looking to change tubes, I cannot recommend Bob and co at Eurotubes highly enough. Customer service is fantastic, quick replies to emails with a heap of information. If in doubt read the feedback on their site from other customers. If you don't change anything else, at least look at getting a JJ Gold Pin ECC083S for your guitar input and a JJ balanced Phase inverter if you still have the stock Sovteks in your head / combo / RM4. Your ears will thank you and inspire you to play!
Cheers

 

[tung]

thanks for posting this very useful info. I haven't thought about changing the tubes on V1, V2... sections. I have been doing some experimenting with the power amp and the preamp tubes, having some good results with the JJs and the Tung Sol.
Here's a thought: How much do you think the V1,V2,V3 sections really make a difference? or is it the preamp tube swap that gave you the improvement in tone?
Are the Gold Pins better than the standard ones?
Again, thanks for this post. Great to hear about your experiences.

 

[Smokey]

In my RM100 head, from my understanding V1 - guitar input and V3 - phase inverter are the most important links in your signal. I don't use effects in my loop so V2 doesn't bother or affect me at the moment.

Bear with me on this analagy. Imagine if tubes in your amp were the steering column, shocks, brakes and tyres on your car. You could have a Porsche, but if you had bad quality tubes, then your car wouldn't handle, steer or brake effectively. With our Egnater / Randall modular amps, we want them to cover so much ground in the musical spectrum (Clean, Slightly Overdriven, Crunch, Grind, Shred, etc). This is like wanting a car that is a cross between a Hummer and a Lamborgini. An offroad go anywhere vehicle that has the handling and speed of a sports car.

Now back to amps, lesser quality tubes = lesser quality sound / tone. Your V1 - Guitar input and V3 - Phase inverter are used in your signal path before and after the tubes in your module. If the V1 and V3 are of lesser quality than your module tubes, then you're not getting the full potential of your sound. Like having a sports car with completely bald tyres (sorry for the car analagies). Then lets say you swap the bald tyres for high performance sports tyres on the car...... now we're smokin!!!

On gold pin tubes, below is a quote from the Eurotubes site on Gold pin 12ax7's
"Once again, the best way to describe the difference is to say that the Gold pin ECC83S is a little smoother and richer sounding. These make great V1 tubes in any amp if you're after a smoother and richer tone and I have quite a few customers running them in all positions which is a bit expensive but if you want the best of the best in smooth rich tone these will do it"

On the importance of the phase inverter - again from Eurotubes
"Q: What is a phase inverter ( splitter ) and why should I use a balanced one?
A: A phase inverter or splitter is the tube that keeps your power tubes ( in a push pull A/B type of amp ) running 180 degrees out of phase. This is necessary because in a push pull amp one tube creates the upper half of the sine wave while the other tube creates the lower half. One of the symptoms of an unbalanced phase inverter is that some notes will sustain very well where others will fall off or sound dead. In 99% of all guitar amps the PI tube is the closest preamp tube to the power tubes and 99% of all A/B style guitar amps use a circuit that splits the phase inverter duties utilizing both triodes in this tube."

In entire 12ax7 swap I just did, I'm not sure how much has been affected by modules or V1 / V3 swap. All I know is that harmonics and notes sing a hell of lot more than they used to. This is awesome when combined with the clarity of a PRS.

These pages are great for info:
Different tube descriptions - http://www.eurotubes.com/euro-e.htm
How JJ's compare - http://www.eurotubes.com/euro-h.htm