Has anyone tried these tubes?

Fierball · Post by **Fierball** » Sun Oct 05, 2008 10:34 am

Hey all -

I'm getting an older (fuse replaced under warrantee era) used EMX and pretty sure I'm going to want to replace the tubes because it's never been done and I'm certain these have been beat on. I've been doing my reading, and I know that most everyone is using the JJ's and these hold up pretty well, but these tubes from Ei are reviewed as having a really low noise floor, and great dynamic range and "Musicality" (I assume this is what they're calling clean and clear harmonics).

http://thetubestore.com/12ax7.html

They do warn about not using them in high gain situations (and honestly, I'm not too knowledgeable yet about the Electribe's circuitry), so I'm left wondering if these would be a good choice or not.

Any thoughts from the "Tube Gurus" out there?

Thanks,

Fierball

Ruso · Post by **Ruso** » Mon Oct 06, 2008 5:40 am

I have no experience with those tubes in particular but several pointers.... first of all tubes for guitar amps and tubes for electribes are designed to do different things. Usually you want more distortion for guitar amps for that warm electric organic sound. I've found on the electribes tubes with the lowest level of distortion sound much better.

From personal experience the tubes with the taller plates produce less distortion. My personal favorite are these jj's: The jj ECC83 S

I also noticed that it makes more sense to put shorter plated tubes on the esx because it does not have overdrive.

Some other observations about the different plate configurations. On taller plated tubes, with electribes overdrive turned up, they really like to make wonderful dynamic sound scapes if you turn up filter resonance. The difference is tremendous. It sounds simply amazing. All the traditional UGLY distortion of the emx transforms into smooth warm sounds even with the overdrive all the way up.

Also you can turn the master tube drive button very high and still have clear sound that becomes much warmer. This is not the case with shorter tubes. It seems as though the more short the plate, the more distorted and ugly the sound gets.

Fierball · Post by **Fierball** » Mon Oct 06, 2008 6:05 am

Thanks for the quick reply Ruso.

I think I'm going to give these a shot. They have a large flat plate design, and are touted as being more for home stereo applications and not so much for guitar amp distortion, so after reading what you said, I they just might be a good fit. I can get them locally pretty cheap and at least it will be a learning experience for all (I'll share what I find). Worst case, we'll all know NOT to buy them

Fierball

Willie K · Post by **Willie K** » Wed Oct 15, 2008 3:56 am

I also use the JJ ECC83 S and I'm more than happy with them, the difference between these and the originals in the tribes is BIG...

mish mash · Post by **mish mash** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 9:28 am

Hey dude I bought the tubes on Ruso's advice and it changes the life out of my EMX-1.....go 4 it

......get them on eurotube....great service,helpful ppl and you get a free sticker...happy days

soundklinik33 · Post by **soundklinik33** » Tue Oct 28, 2008 6:22 pm

Just got 4 of JJ ECC 803-S from :
http://www.jjtubes.eu/pages.php?page=kontakt

BTW, Ruso uses- JJ ECC 803-S gold pins, not 83-S

2 year warranty and they really made a BIG difference in both machines, especially in ESX-1. (They might have been on their way out...)
Before, the sound was shattering/distorting on setting 10-11 o'clock.
Now really clean and clear sound, all the way up

Korg Forums

Has anyone tried these tubes?

Has anyone tried these tubes?

Do it!