Tube Talk - JJ Electronic ECC83/12AX7 types. Which one to choose? 

Thanks to you for watching :) 👍

Yes absolutely, funny enough, got some great deals on NOS, it costed me the same or even less then modern produced ones :)

@@ecc8344. Is there a best place to find NOS or is it one of those things that you just have to search everywhere and find what you find??

If it works for you, great :)

JJ's are not hard to find, depends where your located ..But on TubeAmpDoctor.com or tubestore.com you should be able to buy JJ models👍

Hi! Usually the marked tubes with paint would mean that they are specially selected from the factory ...for example..Telefunken had blue and red markers i believe which were chosen tubes for medical equipment or some high demanding military application. I do not know what that could be on JJ, I could guess was also marked as better perfoming tube. To know your tubes are balanced you need a tube tester in which you would have to measure both triodes to perform equally...I do have balanced JJ and I cant exactly tell the difference between balanced and non-balanced one...it suppost to perform better in your application but the sound difference is not really there...most of the time you can destinguish the difference is between the heavily used tube and new or barely used..:) also I have experimented with balanced and non-balanced tube in phase inverter and also have noticed no difference in tone :)

@@ecc8344 thanks for the response. Much to digest. I have many tubes but don't know which are best for v1 or phase inverter. I got 6 Mesa 12ax7 Russian 2's. 1 old Hammond 12ax7. 4 JJ ecc83s's. 3 Marshall branded ecc83's. 14 in total. There's a electronics shop down the road the guy has a tube tester. Could a tube tester tell which ones are balanced?

@@J_Braz_ yes, if you want to know if its balanced or not you will need to put in on the tester and both triodes should be tested in the very close range :)

I’ve been leery of JJ tubes, with 5AR4 and 6L6GG I’ve had experience with infant mortality. My experience with the fore mentioned tubes makes me go to other small signal options. I love the old Tesla tubes.

You probabably have the JJ ECC83S, which are muddy, dark and yet brittle on top end, try JJ E83CC or ECC803s, completely diffent story...or even ECC83MG.. otherwise im sure that reissue Tungsol 12ax7 should also do just fine :)

I'd say go for JJ ECC83MG :)

@@ecc8344 for both channels? I was thinking ay7 for v1 and 83mg for v2

Probably a Telefunken tube :)

Sounds much much better for rock and metal. Solid overdrive and good tome, the electro harmonix was great for clean but didn't hold up with overdrive

Anything will be METAL in EVH 5151 because its has alot distortion by itself, so I guess anything JJ will work for you!

the EVH amps are transformed by replacing all the preamp tubes with JJ E83CC, , much lower noise floor, way more musical and clarity in spite of very high gain. you will not believe the difference!!

Perhaps the same, MG is a better choiche imho

@@ecc8344 That's what said a professionnal to me

Then why are you asking me hehe :) you can do your own listening test and decide what works for you , thats the only way to figure it out what your looking to find in your own sound

@@ecc8344 there is so much tubes and so much variations, every answers is interesting

They are made in ex-communist country though, Slovakia.. Which was once part of communist state of Czechoslovakia... So technically the old Tesla toolings which are now used in JJ factory were made by former "commies" LOL. And to responce to your tube preference, I find long plate 12ax7s to be less likely good in metal as short plates.. Why do I think so? Because long plates have little more resolution and headroom which takes away the gain factor for a few hairs.. On the other hand short plates seems to have a little more in gain department and nice compression thats right upfront.. I think JJ E83CC could be a good answer to you, almost dead quiet, nice "fat" low mids and cutting gain if set so :)

Lou Aguado I am a hard punk metal guy. I too prefer long plate tubes. I have a long plate RCA in my main chugging amp and the low end and gain is impressive. I find that short plate tubes just get muddier and muffly faster. I build my own amps and I can say that long plate 12AX7 tubes are the way to go for metal. Yeah commies they are useless. Forget the rest of the tube manufacturers in their commie countries. Did you know Western Electric is planning on making USA made common guitar tubes again? Im excited. America needs the GE and RCA tubes in production again but I will take Western Electric any day!!!