review of tubes for VH tone
Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2006 5:36 pm
Ok, so some of the wine tasters are going to think I'm nuts. But thats ok, I'm old enough to have no shame.
I recently bought one of George's 12 series amps. The day I went to his shop to pick it up it had a squeal problem so we ended up taking th new sensor mullards out and put in jj's. I was not that excited about the amp at this point. But at the end of grueling few hours of gettign the amp to work, he put the new sensors in and I went AHHH thats better.
I just finished doing a taste test of comparing the new sensor mullards, NOS xf3/4's and NOS siemens. With all the money I spent on the nos tubes its hard to admit this. I like the new sensor mullards the best for the VH tone. They are the closest in my opinion. There is one thing the mullards have that the new sensors don't. They are very smooth when you turn your guitar volume knob down. The new sensors are more ragged. But when you do balls to the wall the new sensors nail the tone we've been looking for. I emailed George and told him this and he told me thats the reason he's using them.
My 12 series is slightly different than stock because I had him put in a mercury output trannie. I'm playing a prs custom 24 that is very loose and vibrates very well with a custom custom duncan pickup. I'm playing the amp on 400 volts thru a dr. Z airbrake attenuated down 4 notches. The speaker cab is a marshall 4x10 from the eighties with celestion g10l35 speakers. I'm sure the tone would be even better thru a good 4x12.
So the jj's sucked. The real mullards are great but the frequency response just isn't right for VH. The siemens are very cool too and have a compression and wildness that are nice, but again it doesn't get VH. The new sensors are so close; its within the margin of error.
I emailed George and he said that the amp that David Szabados tested had the new sensors. And he said this amp had the VH magic. unfortunately one of them broke on its way to George Lynch. Very unfortunate indeed, because for this amp the new sensors seem to do it.
Wes
I recently bought one of George's 12 series amps. The day I went to his shop to pick it up it had a squeal problem so we ended up taking th new sensor mullards out and put in jj's. I was not that excited about the amp at this point. But at the end of grueling few hours of gettign the amp to work, he put the new sensors in and I went AHHH thats better.
I just finished doing a taste test of comparing the new sensor mullards, NOS xf3/4's and NOS siemens. With all the money I spent on the nos tubes its hard to admit this. I like the new sensor mullards the best for the VH tone. They are the closest in my opinion. There is one thing the mullards have that the new sensors don't. They are very smooth when you turn your guitar volume knob down. The new sensors are more ragged. But when you do balls to the wall the new sensors nail the tone we've been looking for. I emailed George and told him this and he told me thats the reason he's using them.
My 12 series is slightly different than stock because I had him put in a mercury output trannie. I'm playing a prs custom 24 that is very loose and vibrates very well with a custom custom duncan pickup. I'm playing the amp on 400 volts thru a dr. Z airbrake attenuated down 4 notches. The speaker cab is a marshall 4x10 from the eighties with celestion g10l35 speakers. I'm sure the tone would be even better thru a good 4x12.
So the jj's sucked. The real mullards are great but the frequency response just isn't right for VH. The siemens are very cool too and have a compression and wildness that are nice, but again it doesn't get VH. The new sensors are so close; its within the margin of error.
I emailed George and he said that the amp that David Szabados tested had the new sensors. And he said this amp had the VH magic. unfortunately one of them broke on its way to George Lynch. Very unfortunate indeed, because for this amp the new sensors seem to do it.
Wes