Can you put any brand of tubes into any Tube head?

D

dumass

New member
hey, i was wondering if i could put Mesa EL34's into my Carvin MTS3200, switching the bias to EL34...

does anyone have experience with this? does it really make the amp that much better?

all of the reviews on the MTS that i have read have said that EL34's sound a lot better than the 5881's. or, does anyone know of any other brand of tubes that will make my amp sound better than with Mesa tubes?

i was planning on buying the tubes from the Mesa website, so i would have to order 2 sets of duets? (the mts takes 4 power tubes)

sorry for the dum questions, i'm very new to tube amps...
 
They're not dumb questions. Only way to learn. :)

If the amp will work with EL34s by simply rebiasing it........then
the EL34s should have a bit warmer sound......they'll breakup a little bit earlier than the 5881s. They won't be as clean....whether this is 'better' depends on what you want.
I would check with Mesa and make sure that this is ok........if it's not, then you could damage the amp. But quite a few amps can use different types of tube with rebiasing and my old Ampegs can use almost anything without rebiasing. So check with Mesa and if it's ok....go for it!

As for brands.......well, there are a lot of brands so you need help from people who listen to a lot of tubes. Try:
http://www.thetubestore.com/

Last thing.........let the tubes cool a bit before moving the amp. You know how a light bulb will go out if you thump it while it's hot? Same thing with tubes. When I do a gig, the first thing I do at the end of the night is turn my amp off so it can cool while I wrap cords and such.
 
I'm not sure about any other mods needed. I know that one of the tubes I can't just drop in my Ampegs is an EL34 so be sure to check with Carvin.
Or maybe someone will be along that knows for sure.
 
Good advice from everyone.

Dont automatically go for the MESA tubes...read and shop around before buying tubes. You might also want to check out: kcanostubes.com

Good luck.
 
Why are you so set on Mesa tubes? I don't know, but I'd be willing to bet they are just re-labeled Sovteks or some other Russian tube. Hopefully an expert on Mesa tubes will correct me if I'm wrong.

Regardless, I wouldn't be so dead-set on Mesa tubes. There are several good brands of tubes on the market, so keep your options open.
 
MESA does not make tubes.
They simply buy Sovtek or Svetlana or chinese tubes and relabel them
Go to one of those tube sites and read about them.
Then you'll know what you're doing.
 
I used to use Groove tube 6550 power tubes and 12ax7 pres in an amp many years ago. I liked the Groove tubes much better than the stock Sovteks that came in it. I also tried some Svetlanas in the same amp. I'm not sure which I liked better (it was many years ago) but I really liked them both (Groove Tubes and Svetlanas).

But again, Groove tubes are relabeled Sovtek tubes. They test and match the Sovtek tubes so you get a high degree of consistancy in your tone. When they burn out you go get more and your tone will more or less be the same.

There are NOS (New Old Stock) tubes that you can buy but expect to shell out some cabbage for those. Some NOS tubes are supposed to produce ungodly tone but once you find some you like... who knows if you will be able to get more when you need them.

IMO, you can't go wrong with Groove Tubes strictly for the consistancy. But I'm no expert on tubes, just research them and buy some... you never know what you will like until you try some.

Cheers!
 
You got me wondering about the match on my tubes in my "new" 1yo amp, getting ready for first tube replacement, have 12AX7 Electro Harmonics in pre amp, and Sovtek EL84 in out put stage...any suggestions?

The suggestion about amp cool down before moving is "solid" Also 30 minute warm up before playing works well with my amp mho
 
The thing is.....there are only a few brands of tubes. Electro Harmonix does not make tubes. They simply take available tubes and match them. There are Svetlana, Sovtek and a couple of chinese manufacturers and that's it. There are probably a couple of others but that's about all there is.
So getting too caught up in tube brands is kinda pointless.
I've been using tube amps for 40 years.......and I've never worried about brands.....or matching......or rebiasing and I've never had any problems whatsoever and I've had a couple of good tube techs agree with me that it's not real important.
I don't personally like the chinese tubes 'cause they're not as reliable. So I would say....get the cheapest rusky tubes you can find.
 
When changing output tubes, biasing is very important. If you don't know hpw to do it yourself then get a qualified tech to do it for you or you could die!

Preamp tubes there is no need to re-bias.

If you are changing to a different type of tube like from EL-34 to 6L6 your amp may or may not be able to do this and could require some more work for the transistion.
 
Mesa Boogie gets their tubes by the truck load and they use Russian and Chinese made tubes... and relabel them. They have a couple of guys doing nothing but testing tubes all fricken day long. They sake, tap, and etc the tubes to see if they fail. They sort the tubes out by matching bias, tube glowing colors, listening to them, and etc. They put the best tubes in their best amps.
 
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