NEW Tubes suck.....unreliable.

  • Thread starter Thread starter Racerxrated
  • Start date Start date
Tube failures I’ve had:

JJ KT88, immediate faliure, glass exploded, fire, destroyed my bias probe. That was 12 years ago.

PSVANE KT88, immediate failure, bright flash. I’ll never know what these sound like, very wary now.

SOVTEK KT88, I’ve had many of these last long & sound good but last year one went bad and took out some resistors in my VHT 2/90/2 before blowing the fuse. Tube had about 75 loud hours on it at failure.

Lately I’ve been digging 6550EH and Shuguang KT88-98, around 80 hours and no problems yet.
 
Good, all this recent tube mess is kicking me right at digital's door. Which is sad.
 
harddriver said:
I had the same experience with a brand new set of JJ 6CA7's bought from Dougs Tubes. The bias would drift all over the place and the tubes didn't sound right.

I replaced them with a new quad of EH6CA7s and those worked and sounded great. I guess they all have the possibility of infant tube mortality.

I think Dave Friedman said not long ago that he had to switch to all Electro Harmonix tubes because the JJ's were really having issues. That was about 3 years ago and I haven't heard much since then.
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those are the best out in my honest opinion.........6CA7's!!!!!!!!!
 
DanTravis62 said:
This is why I keep a stash of old tubes.
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This.

Years back I started tube rolling, and tried to find as many cheaper, used EL34s I could..Mullard, Winged C, Siemens...all vintage but back then, I could find them for 15 bucks per tube...preamp tubes also. Eventually I had a good amount of 6L6, 6550s too. I should be good for years.
 
Racerxrated said:
This.

Years back I started tube rolling, and tried to find as many cheaper, used EL34s I could..Mullard, Winged C, Siemens...all vintage but back then, I could find them for 15 bucks per tube...preamp tubes also. Eventually I had a good amount of 6L6, 6550s too. I should be good for years.
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Same, especially preamp tubes

I have tungsrams, blackplate mullards, Baldwin Sylvanias and RCA gray plates up the ying yang, as well as a huge stash of early 90's groove tubes sovtek el34s, 50s RCA black plate 6v6s, and a cornucopia of at7s and au7s

I should probably be fine for the rest of my time on earth, as long as I keep slowly hoarding
 
Racerxrated said:
Well, the 'New Tubes are Shit' bug has bitten again.....

My great sounding MT 100 came with TAD 6L6GC Redbase. Sounded killer! Until one redplated...I immediately shut the amp off. Pulled out my tube tester (from the early 60s lol) and all the 'new' tubes tested at 85, where 80 is minimum good, 120 is max. Pulled out a quad of Sovtek Military wafer bottoms, from the early 90s and they tested at 105. Not surprising...I've said this for years, new tubes are shit and I am glad I have a stash. The amp still works, but one of the bias points (where the tube redplated) has no reading. But, the replacement tube works fine, amps sounds great. I'll be returning this one for another, and before firing it up I'll replace those crap tubes with something out of my stash.
I don't buy new amps often, the last was a Naylor SD60 that came with the same wafer Sovteks, no issues. But the previous new amp before that one was an EVH which also had a power tube issue, a crap JJ.
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It really is truly amazing how much better NOS tubes can be. From the vast tonal improvement, to the reliability.

That being said, RARELY, I find that a modern production tube will sound best in an amp, but sometimes it does.

That being said - NOS all the way every day. Find a reliable seller and you'll never buy modern again.
 
I've gone way down the NOS rabbit hole. I had to get both Maxi testers. My Coli c+ with 415's / 416's and Chinese Square Getter 12ax7's is about as good as it gets for me.
 
c+addict said:
I've gone way down the NOS rabbit hole. I had to get both Maxi testers. My Coli c+ with 415's / 416's and Chinese Square Getter 12ax7's is about as good as it gets for me.
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Whatever works, works!

For me, it depends entirely on the application at hand.

In most of my amps, I enjoy the tonal shifts a NOS tube can add. Sometimes, I dislike those shifts but that varies for each tube manufacturer/make, whether old or new.

I have some I would only use for hi.fi situations, as the top end is too detailed and crisp for guitar application IMO

I wouldn't discount new production but if someone has never tried an RCA blackplate in an American styled or even British styled amp, they are missing out.
 
I don't know what to do with all the 12ax7 I have now;(. They last so long esp the 12ax7 Chinese foil getter tubes. I hoard like the above posters and now I have tons of ei and tungsramas well as the foil getters. I did get to sell some to my hero Chris Poland though on ebay.. that was really cool!!.
 
Beyond Black said:
That sucks man. I bought a sextet of those TAD’s for my Mark III Coli, I didn’t have any problems, and they sounded great. I’ve got an MT100 on the way, so hopefully yours was an isolated incident.
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I’m still running those TADs with no issues fwiw. If/when they go it will be loaded with sovteks as I prefer those for 6L6s.
 
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Bxlxaxkxe said:
They are a good sounding tube. I’ve had two go out on me in the past 8 months or so. Not sure what I’ll buy next time I need some 6L6’s
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can’t recommend sovtek 6L6GCs enough. I’ve got a quad running on 10 years in my 5150ii with absolutely no problems. I don’t play it much but when I do I play it loud since it has to be cranked to sound decent. I prefer the glassy top end of their 6L6GCs over their more robust 5881s.
 
napalmdeath said:
I don't trust the new Psvane tubes. I believe that's probably what they are..
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I’ve read mixed reviews on them. I can’t remember now whether it was their power tubes or preamp tubes but I think they had serious quality control problems. When they work they sound ok…but they don’t seem to be any more reliable than JJ these days.
 
Racerxrated said:
This.

Years back I started tube rolling, and tried to find as many cheaper, used EL34s I could..Mullard, Winged C, Siemens...all vintage but back then, I could find them for 15 bucks per tube...preamp tubes also. Eventually I had a good amount of 6L6, 6550s too. I should be good for years.
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Shit....2009 -2012 were the golden years on RT
 
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