Mixing Tubes

[DTBlalock]

Is it bad to mix different brands of preamp and power tubes...


12Ax7 for preamp and 6L6/5881 for power

 

[Hard2Hear]

nope, its fine.

the only thing you really want is power tubes that are matched.

H2H

 

[kid klash]

nope, its fine.

the only thing you really want is power tubes that are matched.

H2H

Yep.

It's not that unusual to run different brands of preamp tubes in the same amp, but always go with same brand, matched power amp tubes in a push-pull design amp.

 

[bongolation]

It's not that unusual to run different brands of preamp tubes in the same amp...

"Preamp" tubes serve different functions in an amp and I find that the actual front-end "tone" tube -- the actual preamp tube -- will usually be different than the phase inverter tube in a well set-up rig. Some 12AX7s simply don't do well (and often fail) as phase inverters, but are great as preamp tubes.