Tubes

[spellcaster]

Been recently acquiring some preamp tubes to try out in my 200s and 300B.
For power tubes I'm currently using the RI Gold Lion KT88's

Tubes I will have available are:

Mullard 12ax7
Sylvania 12ax7
JJ 12ax7
TungSol 12ax7 reissue

and a couple lower gain versions:

Mullard CV4024 / 12AT7
JAN Philips 5751


I'm looking forward to my experiments but wanted to ask the forum your tube preferences and impressions what works best in the Sunn bass amps.

[EdBass]

I'm looking forward to my experiments but wanted to ask the forum your tube preferences and impressions what works best in the Sunn bass amps.

Ask 100 players and get 100 answers.
That's way too big of a can of worms. It's even more subjective than asking what strings work best on a Jazz bass, or what the best tone settings are on a 200S.


What are your impressions of the RI Gold Lions? Do you have originals for comparison? I've been curious since I heard about them, but haven't pulled the trigger on a set yet.

[spellcaster]

 Yes, Tubes preferences are very subjective and only a small link in the overall chain but it can be fun and exciting to experiment and hopfully a way to fine-tune our setups.

I do like the Gold Lions KT88’s very much but do not have the original UK GEC versions to compare to.  I have the original TungSols 6550's that came with the 350B that I will a/b as well.

My Sorado came with a Sylvaina 12ax7 and the 300B came with a Mullard.
I’ve heard that Model T’s may have come stock with Telefunken’s

Seems with power tubes they were pretty consistant.
Did Sunn have common preamp tubes that they used for certain model amps?

[EdBass]

I've seen all kinds of pre amp tubes in old Sunns, I'm not sure if there was a reason besides availability and/or cost. Mr. Sundholm would probably know if he's not too busy building stuff to read this forum.

[Ryanx]

didn't want to start a new thread on a similar subject, so i'll throw a post in here, it's been a while.


i need to recap/retube my 73 T.  one of my tubes no matter what tube i throw in there refuses to light up and i only get half volume out of the damned thing, which bothers me obviously for numerous reasons.  i've been playing the amp at full volume lately as i'm riffing and raging on a weekly basis and now i guess time has caught up to me as the caps and whatnot are original parts, i'm guessing they dried up.  last time i threw a post up on here i got a good response via email as to some caps i should pick up to replace, i'll be ordering them in the coming weeks.

now my real question is that i was talking to a man very well in the know amp wise who told me that when running a Model T as he does live that i should retube it with Svetlana tubes as it'll boost my wattage from 150 to 200 watts.  i've seen this backed up on the net somewhere as well saying that typically Svetlana tubes will produce higher output.  Now what's the reality of this.  and is it for a KT88 or a 6550?  i'm currently running 6550s but am thinking of switching to KT88 to experiment with sound.  Maybe i'll pick up both, but obviously if this information on the boost of wattage is correct, i'm going to align myself with some Svetlana's pronto!

Skal! 

[Isaac]

Even if that's true, and I doubt it, what's the advantage? I know, 50 watts sounds like a lot, but it's only a 1.2dB difference. Not enough to matter.

[Soundmasterg]

Another thing to add is which Svetlanas? The original Svetlana company now has to call their tubes Winged C in the US and Canada, and the ones now called Svetlana, which being good tubes, are not the same or as good as the ones from the St. Petersburg Svetlana factory. The current Svetlanas are made is Saratov Russia by New Sensor, who also owns the Sovtek, EH, etc brand names.

KT 88's will make more power in many designs than 6550's, but I'm not really sure what your friend is talking about here. It sounds like he really doesn't know what he's talking about either.

Greg