Tube Change

[angst]

Hi, I have a Marshall TSL100 Head form about a year, it has the stock tubes, but I think the sound quality is going lower. So I'm thinking to change the tubes:

1) Do you recomend to change the preamp tubes or only the power tubes?

2)which tube company (JJ', Svetlana, etc...) (and rate) do you recomend for preamp tube 12ax7. I play something like melodic thrash, and I want some heavy sounding, but not an extreme gain distortion.

3)which tube company (JJ', Svetlana, etc...) do you recomend for power tubes EL34? Also, I want some heavy sounding, but not much noise or microphonics.

I read the tube article of Twisteramps, but I just want more opinions....

Thanks

[labelscott]

Re: Tube Change

Power amp tubes are always the first to go. The tubes went out in my TSL after about 6 months. It's been a couple years now and the set I have now are still going strong.

As far as brands go I would try to get a nice matched set. My motto is: ya get what ya pay for.. [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[angst]

Re: Tube Change

I can afford good tubes, but I don't know which are good tubes!

[Riscchip]

Re: Tube Change

For 12AX7 preamp tubes, JAN stuff can sound really great and isn't that expensive. Sometimes tubestore.com has JAN-GE, JAN-Philips 12AX7s in stock. If you want to get into current production tubes, I like Electro Harmonix 12AX7EHs in high gain amps. They sound good and don't tend to be microphonic.

For EL34s, I like Electro Harmonix 6CA7EH in a high gain amp as well as JJ E34Ls. I honestly think those cheaper Sovtek EL34WXTs sound really good too, but they seem to be inconsistent in terms of noise and life span.