I agree. It's really hard to hear the real character any amp from demos, you need to be in the room and under your fingers.
Videos are good for mainly showing functionality. I find even a lot of the 'pro' recorded demo's that are properly mic'd and processed, sound pretty unique to that player anyway, not what it'll will necessarily sound like for me. Then there is the media of video and soundcloud etc to listen to it, which also has its limitations of the real nature of the amp in the room.
I'd have to use a phone for mine, and that wouldn't capture anything too accurate, but it's all I have and CBF diving into the expensive world of proper recording just to do demo's.
I like those guys, but Ola sounds the same through almost every amp he demo's, I can't hear a huge contrast in his videos. Most of the well known guys are the same with their various amps. I get that they obviously dial it into the sounds they hear best with their ears and also process it a certain familiar way to them, but it all sounds homogeneous.
Swapping tubes out for me only really makes the biggest difference to my ear for the initial hour, day or maybe two, after that it just sounds like my amp with perhaps the smallest difference in tone, but maybe a tiny different feel and response. I also think you really need to have put some hours into the amp and know it's ranges on the various channels to really hear a significant difference at first. If you do it too soon when you own it, it's too hard to hear the change properly. There is also the possibility factor that perhaps nothing changes tonally at all, or is just negated but adjusting the dials afterwards.
I've got two VH4's; Silver one with 77's and Blueface RI with 6L6's. They do sound slightly different and have a slightly different feel, but is that really all due to the power tubes, or could it be the slightest difference in the component tolerances, the pot specific ranges and settings between them or the particular brand and manufacture quality of the tubes?
I use Gold Lion 77's, and they do sound better than the JJ's, but it's a very slight difference and a touch less congestion an feel, and I feel thats mostly attributable only because I spent so many hours with it and the JJ's, so their sound was firmly in my head. I confidently say no-one else would hear the same slight difference I did or do. In a mix... forgetaboudit.
I doubt I'd go with changing the VHX tubes, other than just to a more reliable brand. It's so vast in its ability to fine tune the tones I doubt I'd hear any real difference between 77/34/6L6's in it. I could just change a knob setting or two as little from 50 to 55 and it would change the sound more.
