you have a tube amp,looking for great Gain or sustain ?

I have used various brands of vacuum tube over the years, and I must say Tung-sol 12xa7 preamp tube reissue , are the best I have ever used. I have a 80's Laney pro tube lead 100w. I put a set of 4 in these tube amp & WOW the change in sound ! Over the Top ! I have read online that this company has came out with a new EL34 power tube called the EL34B witch at low volume sound like 6L6's then at high volume the El34's kick in! and sound like El34's on steroids .When my power tube's get weak, The Tung-Sol EL34B will be my next choice! ps these tube give the preamp tube a gain kick as well!

Thanks for your words of wisdom. Good info, and it jibes with some word of mouth advice that I've run across lately. I have recently been working with JJ's ECC83 S tubes with decent results. The set I bought for my Peavey Classic 50 410 give great bite and grind with volume, but much less headroom when clean as compared to the Sovteks that were in there when I rescued her from the Pawn Yarde.

Have you ever tried Mullard tubes?

If you do a online check about Mullard tube's , you will find that these tube are used for radio application's.
They have much smoother gain response! they are used in ham radio's or old home tube radio's..
They can be used in a amp, but they just don't have the Gain!

I did some experimenting. In my tackle box of amp stuff I have some older EL84's and 12AX7-type tubes - and I found an old EI-branded ECC83 from a pile of used tubes I bought last year. My C50 has three 12AX7's in the preamp section with the V1 tube handling the clean tone - the V2 tube does the dirt. On this amp, the reverb is served by a tank, not a tube. ANYWAY....Out came the new JJ (Czech made), in went the old EI (Yugoslavia). All this tube says on it is "Yugoslavia" and the designation. I think its about a ~ 1996 vintage.

What an improvement (EI in the V1, JJ's in the V2 and V3). The EI is way better. Reminds me of what the C50 (or any properly set up EL84 driven amp) should should sound like. Nice and fat. I guess the EI in V1 gives it tons of "fatness' clean. But I get lots of dirt and gain on the lead channel even with the "pre" set to 3 or 4. I enjoy the "swirliness" of this tube.

I'm going to pick up a couple of Tung-sols and try 'em in V1. Live and learn... I had no clue about EI, but its a keeper. :idea: :idea: