Tone chasing is exhausting

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Nigel said:
Bob Gjika and I both arrived at Mullard long plate 12AX7’s and JJ KT77’s being the master valves. Everything else doesn’t matter without them.

All of my amps please me perfectly now. It’s over, save one more Mofo and a 10n quarter stack. Happy to be satisfied these days.
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Very amp dependent. In my 72 Marshall, no chance they'd sound better than my quad of Siemens 34s. Hell they probably wouldn't survive the plate voltage. Any JJ power tube in a vintage Marshall pales to good vintage glass.
 
Racerxrated said:
Very amp dependent. In my 72 Marshall, no chance they'd sound better than my quad of Siemens 34s. Hell they probably wouldn't survive the plate voltage. Any JJ power tube in a vintage Marshall pales to good vintage glass.
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You are right! And indeed, the GEC/Marconi OG KT77 is the slice of Heaven, but it is very costly.

I've seen no other modern valve that approaches the glory of the JJ KT77.
 
I tune amps around easily found preamp tubes so that I can save money in the long run without needing to roll expensive NOS rare glass. Prices will only continue to rise and I want to be independent of that market.

I really like tung sol 6550s in my Marshall. I use ruby EL34s but will have to find a replacement as they are relabeled Chinese EL34s and China announced earlier this year that they are not bringing the factory back up after covid.
 
Exo-metal said:
Good, the entire world should disassociate from china.
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Not really, you’d be surprised how many common companies are relabeled Chinese tubes. It basically leaves Russian variants and JJs. That’s our only options.
 
glpg80 said:
I tune amps around easily found preamp tubes so that I can save money in the long run without needing to roll expensive NOS rare glass. Prices will only continue to rise and I want to be independent of that market.

I really like tung sol 6550s in my Marshall. I use ruby EL34s but will have to find a replacement as they are relabeled Chinese EL34s and China announced earlier this year that they are not bringing the factory back up after covid.
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I like the Chinese phase inverter and jj ecc83 v1 in my Orange Brent Hinds, but it’s not the cat’s pajamas unless there’s a 50’ Mullard long plate in V2. Goes from “Okay” to “Yes!” That said, if I fill it out with Mullards it loses something and gets to bassy which congests the circuit. So I’m hip to there being cases where new stock is appropriate. That said, a Mullard I63 would probably do better than the JJ, and an RCA over the Chinese, but why split hairs when it satisfies?

If I had a band and was playing out, my tone taste would change anyways. This studio life during Covid has amplified my “Madison Square Bedroom” corksnifferery significantly.
 
Exo-metal said:
Well our options suck friend
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We should be thanking our lucky stars that there's three factories
still willing to do it for such a small niche market.

There's just no money to be made anymore doing it in the west.

China; Shuagang
Sino China, Shuguang, Golden Dragon,
Rebranders: Mesa, Ruby, TAD, Groove Tubes, PM Components, Valve Art, Peavey, Fender, etc.

Slovak Republic: JJ Electronic
JJ, Telefunken Black Diamond
Rebranders: Mesa, Ruby, TAD, Groove Tubes, PM Components, Valve Art, Peavey, Fender, etc.

Saratov Russia: Reflektor Corporation
New Sensor, Electro Harmonix, Mullard reissue, Tung Sol reissue, Sovtek, Genalex Gold Lion, Svetlana (not real Svetlana),
Rebranders: Mesa, Ruby, TAD, Groove Tubes, PM Components, Valve Art, Peavey, Fender, etc.
 
All glass is half full fucks...what about the USA factories, we made the best ever made. I want those options over the overseas shit any day, end of story.
 
Doesn’t matter what we made, it matters what is currently available now. Tubes are expendable and will not last forever. The USA shit is for the cork sniffers that can afford to buy them.
 
Exo-metal said:
what about the USA factories, we made the best ever made.
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Blame the same companies that use to make those tubes.
Them and Bell Labs who invented the FET.

As soon as the transistor was commercially available, Philco, RCA,
GE, Sylvania, Tung-Sol, Raytheon, Zenith, etc. were the first major
customers who funded ramping U.S. mass scale production of them.

TV and Radio profits got ridiculous for these folks. Consumers didn't
know transistors were so much cheaper to produce than tubes so they
actually paid more for them in the beginning.

One of the factors for me ditching analog was how expensive NOS
stuff was getting. That, and if any one of those 3 factories tank the tube
world is gonna go insane.


:mad:
fet.jpg
 
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VESmedic said:
So many of our favorite tones are just great riffs… our brain tricks us and makes us look at it From one side of the coin or the other ( was that great tone or a great riff?). Never forget that. Write killer stuff, and it’s amazing how much better your tone is all of a sudden.
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^^^^This.

Late to the party - but I gotta put my $0.02 in... I've had the "luxury" over the years to buy whatever gear I fancied at the time - but then this led to more time pondering gear than playing it. Over 10 years later I ended up back with the same gear I pretty much started with - lesson learned (this was quite some time ago).

But the biggest lesson I've learned over the recent past with recording and also having the privilege to be guided by some top-drawer professional musicians and industry folk; just GET "a" tone and be able to work that tone from your guitar as best as possible - screw the fiddling with the amp - screw the stomps - screw it all - cuz when the red light's on - you need the most versatile and malleable tone "at your fingers" and not somewhere at the cords end or in a loop or on the ground or...you get my drift. I also realized during this very cool period of growth and musical maturity that I'm using ONE guitar (R9 Yamano) for pretty much anything/everything; with the 2nd in line a P90 equipped fiddle (R6). Of all the Lesters, all the ESPs, so many fiddles - nope!!!! ONE guitar, ONE tone - and man, have I ramped up in the "time spent working through songs, making music, session work, etc" versus "staring at knobs" and "in the room versus on the DAW" tail-chasing. Those volume and tone knobs on a Lester aren't cemented on 10 for a reason...therein lies "let my fingers do the tweaking" zone. And oh ya (EDIT:)) - I've had zero GAS for years now - can't even be bothered to browse... For me it's strings, plectrums, and tubes when the burn out, and on the topic of tubes?? Just get whatever works and sounds good - price isn't always the determining factor here.

It's all I got. Hope it helps??
Rock on :rock:
 
Funny how many people think tone and price are always related (sometimes they are to some degree.... you can't buy total cheap crap of course).

Out of the 4 amps I have at the moment, I like my Diezel VH4 tone the least and it's the most expensive. It's features and options are crazy good though.
 
Purity said:
I'm pretty much already sold and have my mind set on the MCII. Is there another model I should consider? I'm looking for something more on the vintage sound side but can also get modern as in tight bass response.
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Man I'm usually all about getting killer tones on fairly cheap/obscure gear but last time I was in TX I got to spend some time with John Wood's MCII and that thing really is incredible.

FUCKIN DO IT
 
Devin said:
Man I'm usually all about getting killer tones on fairly cheap/obscure gear but last time I was in TX I got to spend some time with John Wood's MCII and that thing really is incredible.

FUCKIN DO IT
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Here's a short video of me playing that exact amp (John's '20 MCII). Love Wizards!

 
mhenson42 said:
Yeah...it does that in spades! Makes me miss my MCII. I sold it to metalheadmike here on RT recently....after getting the Hybrid - which gives me more of the upper mids but in the MTL platform which I prefer.
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Does the upper mid content of the Hybrid reach the same levels as the MC series? Or in between MC and MTL?
 
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