New Tube Report: Day 1

I got the JJ's!

(for those non-tube people out there, I'm referring to the vacuum tubes for my guitar amp, which are made by a company called "JJ".. not some kind of affliction. Like, "I got the jimmy-legs!!")

So last night I installed them. For the record, I took out a quad of Sovteks EL84s and three Chinese-made 12ax7s.

I replaced them with a matched quad of JJ EL84s, two of the JJ equivalent of a standard 12ax7, and, for the "distortion" position pre-amp tube, a higher-current JJ 12ax7 variant.

The idea was to smooth out the distortion channel, add a little jangle, and warm up the clean channel.

Of course, they haven't been properly burned in yet, but here's my initial impression:

Clean channel -- Wowee wow wow! Sounds like a totally different amp. The clean channel, which I have avoided on pretty much every amp I've ever owned, now sounds so nice that I actually want to play it. Very warm. Nice round bottom-end and chimey highs. Very balanced.

Lead channel -- Better than it was. The lead tone is definitely a LOT smoother.. the question remains as to whether or not that's a "good" thing.. what with my tendencies to rip it up and all, but I'm working it out. : ]

The mids are definitely a lot tighter and very well-defined.

My main concerns at this point (again, they aren't burned in yet, which is why this is "Day 1") are the extreme bottom and top ends. The bottom, while it is a lot tighter, is a little less defined than it was. Not quite as much of an edge or "pop" down there in the lower register. Very round. Would sound excellent in a bass amp, but I don't know about in a guitar amp. And the treble can actually achieve almost painful levels. There's "chimey" and then there's "Ow! Ow! Make it quit that!" Of course, I can just roll the treble down a bit and rectify that, but I want to make sure that the tubes are performing as they ought to, not just mask any issue.

Overall: You can tell, even taking them out of the box, that the JJs are lovingly manufactured. A really nice tube. As far as overall sound, they are quieter than the sovtek/china mix, and produce a much more solid, stereophonic sound.

I will keep burning them in, tweaking the amp, and trying different guitars (can't wait to get the 1500 back!). I didn't get a chance to really crank the amp up, which I'm sure will also effect overall performance. I will probably also buy and install my replacement speakers, which will open a whole new sonic realm. If I determine that the JJs have something wrong with them, I'll get a replacement set from Bob at Eurotubes, who appears to be a good guy. If not, and I still haven't quite nailed that "right sound", I'll probably try a little mix-n-match. Like maybe putting the Sovtek power tubes back in with the JJ pre's.

I'll let you know how it's going!