JJ or Groove Tubes

[Thrust]

I'm going to retube my XXX combo and I haven't decided which tubes to get. I'm going to go w/ EL34's instead of the 6L6's w/ an ECC83 in the phase splitter hole.

My local guy wants ~$115 to do a full retube and bias w/ Groove Tubes. I've heard a lot of good things about JJ but not a lot about Groove Tubes (I'm not a big amp guy). Which is the better tube? Is that a good price?

Thanks

[zeegler]

Re: JJ or Groove Tubes

I'm not sure about the price, but both JJs and GTs are great tubes. A friend of mine just replaced the tubes in his Marshall DSL with JJs, and his amp sounds awesome. My Blue Voodoo has GT's, and I heard nothing but compliments on the sound. I have no idea which tube would last longer.

[KidPredator]

Re: JJ or Groove Tubes

JJ tubes for sure! As far as I understand it, GT takes a Sylvania or Sovtek and relabeles them after grading / marking them up 200% etc. etc.

I've dealt with Bob @ eurotubes.com and have been nothing but pleased with the knowledge, service, and tone.

I would rather get them direct from someone who knows tone and knows how to get you there, AND save some $$$ in the process. I got my skull-crushing set of JJ's for my 5150 in two days from calling him.

Just my

[straycat]

Re: JJ or Groove Tubes

JJs!!!!!!!!!Bob knows his poo about tubes and can help you get the tone!

[wyldefan]

Re: JJ or Groove Tubes

I agree JJ's are great tubes. If you are going with EL34's I prefer the old EL34 over the EL34L. The 6L6's are great tubes as well. My favorite has to be the JJ KT 88's. Unreal tube!!! I also like Groove Tubes a lot. The great thing about GT is they match their tubes well. I just put in a quad if GT-E34-LS tubes in my Uber and it is like a night and day difference. I also replaced the Phase Inverter tube with a Mullard CV4024/12AT7WA. This really warmed up the amp a lot. For you Uber owners I highly recommend this. The GT-e34-LS is a modified JJ. You can't go wrong with JJ or GT. But of course for the money JJ's are hard to beat.

[Thrust]

Re: JJ or Groove Tubes

I've gotten a quote on JJ's from eurotubes but my problem now exists in biasing the amp. Bob @ eurotubes said there is a $30 attachment that works w/ a voltmeter that I can use to bias the amp myself but he didn't say which attachment it was or how one actually biases an amp.

Have any of you guys biased your own amps? The XXX has an adjustable bias from the factory (for lack of better terminology) so from my understanding it isn't that hard.

[wyldefan]

Re: JJ or Groove Tubes

I started Biasing my own amps this year using the Bias King. It works great!

[floydroseuser]

Re: JJ or Groove Tubes

JJ's all the way!

[jackson1]

Re: JJ or Groove Tubes

JJ's here too. Bob is friendly, informative and a fast shipper. Before ordering, i asked him a ton of questions both in emails and by phone and he answered it all very fast.

I replaced all the Sovtek's in my ENGL preamp and Peavey power amp with JJ's and it is sweetness. Read my review (and tons of others) on his site here:
http://www.eurotubes.com/euro-t.htm

/Henrik

[reprieve]

Re: JJ or Groove Tubes

You should also think of EH 12AX7. They are very cool high gain tubes with a lot of high end and growl. Like them very much :-)

[toddstaples]

Re: JJ or Groove Tubes

JJ E34L's....... and dont look back......

[Cleveland Metal]

Re: JJ or Groove Tubes

SED SVETLANA... The best sounding to me EL34s I've used. It is the only power tube I'll buy...

[ChlorineRR4]

Re: JJ or Groove Tubes

i just ordered a set of JJ's from Bob for my Peavey Ultra 112 combo, cant wait to hear how they sound [img]graemlins/band.gif[/img]

[Wizard of Ozz]

Re: JJ or Groove Tubes

+1 for SED EL34s.

I don't need to give GT another $20 just for slapping their label on tube they didn't even make.

[img]graemlins/bs.gif[/img]

[LRGman]

Re: JJ or Groove Tubes

Originally posted by Cleveland Metal:
SED SVETLANA... The best sounding to me EL34s I've used. It is the only power tube I'll buy...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Yep try the tubestore.com cheap and they overnight it for 12.95.

Screw GT overpriced junk. To get a good Russian tube from GT its twice the price, same as boogie. They also don't have shit for QC, bought some preamp tubes once and had to go through 7 to get three that weren't microphonic.