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Lets Talk About Valves

I recently experienced using a Bugera RAT amp for the first time, which is a 0.1,1or 5watt valve amp with various modifications as link below.

http://www.ratvalveamps.com/bugera-v5-combo

I was blown away by the sound (not by the 350v inside!)

I now know 3 people who were also impressed they bought one too.

(mind you it's not cheap!)

As the valves can be changed inside them to vary the sound, there is now a debate to what is the best sound available and what valve is best.

The information keeps pointing back to NOS Mullards, has anyone any experience in valve speak?

The rectifier valve is being changed soon to a Mullard EZ80

and have a vintage Mazda Ecc 83 to try

Here is a link I found:http://www.watfordvalves.com/cgi-bin/documents/testreport_2.pdf

Any info is welcome on the topic of best valves and circuits etc.

as this facinates me how it all works.

Thanks for your help...

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Permalink Reply by BUGGY (C) on June 15, 2013 at 10:22am

http://www.cigarboxnation.com/video/vacuum-tube-amplifier-theory

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Permalink Reply by Clock The Wolf on June 15, 2013 at 10:23am

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Permalink Reply by BUGGY (C) on June 15, 2013 at 10:27am

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Permalink Reply by BUGGY (C) on June 15, 2013 at 10:35am

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Permalink Reply by Clock The Wolf on June 15, 2013 at 10:39am

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Permalink Reply by BUGGY (C) on June 15, 2013 at 10:51am

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Permalink Reply by BUGGY (C) on June 15, 2013 at 10:58am

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on June 15, 2013 at 4:21pm

Bug,

You know the answer, don't you? Yer gonna hafta buy several 12AX7 / ECC83s from different manufacturers, and plug-n-play. Mullard, ElectroHarmonix, JJ's, the cheap Chinese tubes - sorry, valves (which I don't recommend)...most of em are made in Russia, China and the Czech Republic nowadays. As with CBGs, you can go crazy chasing tonal differences that most people can't hear. NOS tubes (back to AmEng) for the curious, are "New - Old Stock," meaning New In Box, but made back in the day, stocks of which were collected from TV and amplifier repair shops and are offered for sale. They are supposedly better than the newer Russo / Czecho / Chinese replica versions, due primarily to quality control, although the EH's and JJ's I buy, which are Czech made, seem to last pretty well, and are cheaper than Mullards. Valves can get expensive very quickly.

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Permalink Reply by Skeesix on June 15, 2013 at 4:33pm

Back in the 90's I had a friend who was a tube amp nut. He worked on my Fender Deluxe amps to get experience. They sounded awesome. We would go to the "tube room" at this neat old surplus place the next city over to find NOS tubes for projects.

Anyway, Mullard was one of the ones he talked about as being desirable. I haven't heard of Mazda. Back in the 90's, for new tubes, Sovteks (from Russia) were considered good, while Chinese tubes were not so good.

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Permalink Reply by Slowpaw Steve T on June 15, 2013 at 7:46pm

Valves, or tubes, are fussy beasts - the holy grail are supposed to be the British made Mullards used on the early Rock star amps, used ones can be bought for around £100 + each, new old stock (NOS) are like gold dust...don't buy the modern made ones they're not as good.

Marshall used Sovtek valves before they went solid state, not sure if they're still using them, Brimar are pretty good valves.

The bigger EL34 type power amp valves have to be matched and biased by a qualified audio techy, the pre-amp smaller ones (12AX7) sometimes come matched but don't need biasing, some low wattage power amps (Orange TT) don't need biasing.

Good place to look is Watford valves...

http://www.watfordvalves.com/aboutus.asp

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Permalink Reply by Skeesix on June 16, 2013 at 6:29am

My amp tech friend used to match everything, tubes, capacitors, you name it. He was a big fan of Gerald Weber.

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Permalink Reply by BUGGY (C) on June 16, 2013 at 10:15am

Well I just slotted in a vintage mazda ecc 83 and an ez 80 mullardin
so see how the next video sounds in uploading in a bit
thanks for the tips so far

Also got a vintage Mullard on the way to try too

ever tried Harmas? they are only £12 any good?