Hello forum,
back in March I had to accept the fact that the Winged C (a.k.a. 'real' Svetlana) EL-34 tubes in my pet amp had run their course. Tough cookie for me - Winged C is no longer being manufactured and I refuse to pay triple for a set of N.O.S. tubes that may or may not work. I get paid the same amount for playing bar gigs whether I have Winged C tubes in my map or not. But I digress...
The obvious choice by now would be to go with a pair of JJ, and brand that I have used in the past in other amps (just not this particular one) and supplied my customers with for years. This time, however, curiosity got the better of me and I ordered a par of the new Tung-Sol El34B reissue. I also ordered a pair of JJ 6L6GC for my RD-50 and they work fine - but that's another story.
The new tubes got ordered in early April from my wholesaler in AZ, was put on a shrimp boat to China and finally arrived around May 1. If you think that I think Canada Post is slow, you are absolutely correct. I installed the tubes and adjusted bias until I was almost happy thinking I'll look at it again next weekend when I have more time. Well, then life happened and I had to put this particular thing on the back burner for a few months. On the upside I got reacquainted with my big rig 130W Music Man in a gigging setting. As we all know on this forum, there is a fine line between 'loud with headroom' and 'menace to society' when you're playing a Music Man HD, but it is fun to ride along that line once in a while.
This past Saturday I finally got to play the Sixty-Five at a gig with the new Tung-Sol tubes. It sounded wonderful! Not only is my 112 a sixty-five, it's also the old style with the 12AX7 phase splitter and will compress a fair bit when I kick it in the low power setting. This is as opposed to the HD amp that will go 'meh' at whichever signal you throw at it. So where am I going with this - uhm, I guess I really like the Tung-Sols for now, I heard no noises, no buzzing, no unwanted sounds in the amp. The sustain I got when playing solo was excellent even without any fx other than the onboard reverb. My clean boost pedal tends to work a little differently in this amp than the HD, probably because of the 12AX7 - on the HD I get 100% lift, on the sixty-five I get 50% lift and 50% dirt added. Not bad, just different. Next show, if I bring the sixty-five, I will play more on the 'hi' setting to get the extra clean headroom. Maybe I need to buy a seventy-five combo for comparison? ( don't tell the wife!!)
Do the Tung-Sols sound as good or better than the Winged C? I dunno, I will have to play a few more shows and get back to you on that. For now I will say they sound absolutely fine for the price compared to Winged C these days.
Clear as mud?
Cheers,
Lars Verholt
House Brand - www.housebrandmusic.com
Happy Canadian Thanksgiving - in advance
If I was playing more (ok,
If I was playing more (ok, ANY!) I'd try a pair. I've pretty much been a JJ guy and anything MM I worked on, got them. Still think they are the best bet out there but I'm open minded enough to try other stuff. I also have to say that I've heard horror stories about other distributors and crappy results from THEIR JJ's so I'm going to say that I've never had any bad JJ's from Eurotubes (as I cough and rap wood). Take that for what it's worth. I truly believe that some sellers get the crap and some get the good stuff. Just my 2c's worth. By the way, I have JJ's in MY amps but I would like to try the Tung Sols and I would REALLY like somebody to try the new 6CA7's from JJ! Mike.