Refurbing a 200S

[Jack Crank]

Hi All,
Did a search through all the old posts but got overwhelmed by all the stuff.  Sorry about the redundancy.  Anyways.  I grabbed a beat up old 200S last night that I'm looking to restore.  I'm pretty set on using JJ for the KT88's/GZ34 but I'm having a hard time figuring out what I should go for for the 12AX7.  This is my first amp repair project so I'm pretty new to the whole thing.  I think I'm in between the JJ, Mullard, and Tung Sol.  Is there anything I should know about choosing hi-gain over standard or anything like that?

Also, I'm probably going to need to re-cap the whole thing.  Any advice in terms of choosing new caps?  I'm probably going to go with a pretty standard refurb at first, but i plan on using this thing for guitar with some pedals for added dirt.  Is there anything I should do to give it a better guitar (as opposed to bass) sound?

[noel]

I've used JJ's for preamp tubes in 200s and had good luck.  Like everything in this area its gonna be a matter of taste.  Since you're new to it I'd probably just go with anything and see how you like it.  Lucky for you there's only one 12ax7 so worst case you could get a couple and see what you like.  Honestly I doubt how much tangible difference there'd be between JJ, Mullard and Tung Sol.  Anyway, as long as the amp is up to spec. throw any working 12ax7 in there and it'll sound good.

Recap is gonna be necessary.  I wouldn't worry about caps too much.  Just get the right capacitence and voltage rating and solder them in haha.  As far as making more of a guitar amp I don't know how wise that is.  I'd refurb the amp to stock and then see what pedals sound like through it.  There's no sense trying to make the 200s something its not.

Another way to approach the second question is to have a look at the 100s schematic versus the 200s.  I would be you its the same amp with a different tone stack so in that regard Sunn has probably already done the work for you to try to make it sound "more guitar like".
hope that helps.

[Soundmasterg]

I'd get lots of different 12AX7 types and try them all out.....you'll find one you like best eventually, and then you'll have extras in case it fails. Get a NOS 6AN8 for the phase inverter, and a couple new JJ KT88's and you're good to go there. As far as caps...well stock is probably better for guitar, but it all depends on what you're looking to get from the sound. All the mods I mentioned in past years are meant for bass, and I personally can't stand the sound of the Sunn tube amps for guitar except for clean tones, so I never really considered their use for guitar and what mods are appropriate. You could go either way...the bigger caps on the first two cap sections would give you bigger bass...but whether you want that or not I don't know. My choice for an amp for guitar would be a Vox AC30, tweed and blackface Fenders, vintage Marshalls and HiWatts, Silvertones, Supros, etc. Hope that helps?

Greg