Stupid question about power tubes

  • Thread starter Thread starter thebigcheese
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thebigcheese

thebigcheese

"Hi, I'm in Delaware."
I have had my Blues Jr. for about a year now. I bought it used, and play fairly regularly. I'm thinking it might be about time to replace the tubes. I went to see how much they cost as realized that everywhere that sells the EL84s lists several options for them: medium duet, hard duet, soft duet, and then some quartets. I'm guessing quartet would be to get 4 tubes, which I don't need, but I don't know what the difference between the other options is. No one ever says anything about that, they just say to get new EL84s. So which ones am I supposed to get? It's very confusing...

Also, which ones are the JJ EL84s? There doesn't seem to be a company called JJ listed on MF or at GC... I see only EH, Sovtek, and Groove Tubes.
 
I know all about Billm, I just ordered a kit from there now that my amp is finally out of its GC extended warranty. Thanks for clarifying what hard and soft mean.

Is there another name for JJ, or do MF/GC just not stock those? It seems annoying to have to order tubes and pay shipping just to get the brand people recommend.
 
JJ Tubes are sold in the US by eurotubes.com. When I bought a full retube kit for my amp from there, the guy was really nice and chatted with me via email about my needs, my amp, and my tastes in tone. So he was able to suggest a set of tubes that were suited to me and my playing style.

I don't have a lot to compare them to, but I really like my JJ tubes. My amp had Sovtek 6L6 power tubes and 12AX7 preamp tubes in it and they were fine and all. They didn't sound like complete shit or anything. But after I retubed it with JJ ECC83s in the preamp (same thing as a 12AX7) and 6L6GCs in the power section, I really liked what it did for my amp's tone. The Sovtek's were stiffer sounding, like it took more to drive them into breakup. The JJs are a little spongier, and they seem to break up a little earlier. Their midrange and upper mids seem to be smoother and a bit more pronounced than the Sovteks were. That's about all of the comparison I could do from first-hand experience.

I think that for the price, JJs are great tubes. It was only like $85 for 4 x 6L6GC and 3 x ECC83. That's a pretty darn good deal. Plus the good customer service and, of course, the good tone.
 
thebigcheese said:
Also, which ones are the JJ EL84s? There doesn't seem to be a company called JJ listed on MF or at GC... I see only EH, Sovtek, and Groove Tubes.
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Check out Eurotubes.... http://www.eurotubes.com

Bob stocks all the JJ tubes, and he's worked real close with JJ Electronics over the years to refine their product and add new tube types to their line.
JJ tubes are made in the Czech Republic.

When I buy JJ tubes...I always buy from Bob/Eurotubes.
Tell him what amp and what kind of tones you are after...and he will pick the right matched tubes for you.

Plus...his JJ prices are the best, and there's little chance you will get crappy tubes.
 
For new EL84s, I think I like the JJs the best. You appear to be in a large US metro area - if you have some time to kill, look around for an old tv/radio repair shop that's still operating. I found one close to me that, for some reason, doesn't sell on the internet, but has a bunch of old tubes. Most of them are for old TVs and so don't fit in my amps, and enough locals know about it that the amp tubes are often sold out (unless they source more through estate sales and stuff), and for some reason NOS power tubes are harder to come by than preamp tubes, but... before a bunch of other folks also raided the place I got a few EL84s for pretty cheap, among them a pair of American made RCA ones that I have in my Blues Jr. now - I like them even better than the JJs. (in fairness, some of the other NOS (or perhaps used) ones aren't as good as JJs - it's a mixed bag).

Anyway - in the DC area could there be any military surplus stores that would have "Joint Army/Navy" (JAN) tubes? I'm daydreaming here, but if you were to find something like that, you'd be in hog heaven.
 
thebigcheese said:
So... Sovtek is the same as JJ?
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It looks like JJ Slovakian tubes and JJ Gold are both made under the umbrella of the New Sensor Corp., which also owns Sovtek. I'm kind of surprised to find that out, but I guess that all of those Russian tube companies are interrelated.

I think that JJ tubes are made in their own factory though. JJ Electronic is a spin-off of the old Tesla corporation that was an electronics monolopy in Russia for a long time. The JJ tubes are made in an old Tesla factory. I'm not sure if other tube brands are made there or not though, so I'm not sure if JJ are unique to their own factory or if there are other brands that are picking through the same supply of tubes like Sovtek and Electro-Harmonix do. EH, Groove Tubes, and several others are just rebranded Sovtek tubes. I didn't think the same was true with JJ tubes, but now I'm not so sure.

Hell, to read the EuroTubes website, you'd think that JJ tubes were made on a different planet than Sovteks.
 
thebigcheese said:
So... Sovtek is the same as JJ?
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No. They might be owned by the same people these days but the quality and tone of the JJ's is far, far superior. Imo.

Definitely not rebranded Sovteks, compare the internals.
 
Alright, so probably have to order those JJs then, unless I can find a smaller retailer around here that would sell them. I think I'll order the preamp tubes from MF, though, cuz I have a gift certificate.
 
Hmm, even with my MF gift certificate, Eurotubes seems to be still the cheapest option. Guess I'm going with all JJs, then...
 
When you replace the EL84's in that Blues Jr. you might hear a lot of difference in tone and you might not.
 
ggunn said:
When you replace the EL84's in that Blues Jr. you might hear a lot of difference in tone and you might not.
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Mostly not.
I had a big box of spensive NOS tubes and I tried maybe a couple of dozen in my Blues Jr.
Differences between the sound with changing power tubes WERE there but they were somewhat subtle.
The ONLY tube that changed things a pretty good amount was a GE black plate 12ax7 in V1. That really brightened up the amp quite a bit (which it needs) and I kept that one ...... the others simply didn't make a big enough difference to be worth the money.
 
Well, I'm mostly replacing them cuz they're old, though I wouldn't mind having the high end be a little less brittle. I'm still trying to figure out what the deal with that is, but hopefully between the new tubes and the Billm mods, I'll get that sorted out.
 
thebigcheese said:
So... Sovtek is the same as JJ?
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No, more like Sovtek and New Sensor are the same thing. New Sensor is the parent or umbrella company under which all of those brands operate, but it doesn't mean JJ and Sovtek tubes are the same tubes just different labels, not at all. If I understand correctly what I'm seeing here, I like it because New Sensor does not include any Chinese manufactures? My only goal is to avoid Chinese made tubes, and I can do that if I stick with JJ, TungSol, Sovtek, Winged C I think, maybe some others. So far the only tubes I have ever had any problems with were the brand new ones I got from Mesa that were labeled Mesa.
 
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