JJ-KT77- How many out there have tried them?

[Metal Handles]

Some get it, some don't.

[KT77dude]

It's a few simple questions that when TT gets the time, I'm sure he will chime in.

[kt77]

But still let me add, that I think that the KT77 might be a good tube for bass players, however not for guitar IMO.
Larry

I would agree w/ this.....and especially if I had original GECs that I'd save for the studio......JJ's would be good 'road tubes'...but I am still hesitant to reccomend them due to failure rates I've experienced....but hey they're cheep enuf......much like our disposable society....

[tubetramp]

some guys have great luck with them ,i do not if you put them in an amp that doesnt move around alot or have too hot a bias., i guess anything would work.remember why marshall went to 6550,it wasnt tone i assure you.it was due to the fragile nature of the el34 all by its own accord.they were sending them out and getting tubes sent back as the factory is responsible for the first set of tubes in any amp. tesla in general which is far beyond jj is still not anything close to the hype that surrounds it they seem to go flat more often then not. you can still get away with running crap tubes if your pres are higher caliber.a set of xf1s wont sound good if you populate your preamp positions with cheapies.its simple to test take a good tube put it in v1 put a new tube in after.i think helen keller could tell the difference.tt

[tubetramp]

aerosmith billy gibbons>? who told you this? three quarters of all amp manufacturers in the us have converted to the shuguang for reliablilty reasons and tone .this is what my distributor told me some time ago.i double checked it, he seems to be correct .and jjs have the worst reliabliity track record on the planet .ive yet to see one set of el 34s that sounded good and lasted yet.even the tesla company of old left alot to be desired imo.or course if you dont get out much,a nodd is as good as a wink to a blind horse.i can hardly believe that people that play guitars worth 200k are going to piss away and turn there noses up at tubes costing a few hundred bucks that reduce harsh tones by 100 percent.most of the people i run into play 3000 dollar amps with 65 dollars worth of tubes in em.in the english language the word ,totally lame comes to mind...do i need to paint a picture for you? i think your impairment could possibly be hearing related ,rather then sight. are you working for jj?

[Bainzy]

I bet theres someone out there that's too cheap to put a new set of strings on their 1959 Gibson Les Paul

[KT77dude]

TT, I do not work for JJ. According to the GT website- the LS version is used by Joe Perry, Billy Gibbons, Joe Walsh.

Warren Haynes uses the JJ-EL34 or EL34L depending on the amp. His guitar tech Brian Farmer is a good friend of mine. Many other professionals use them.

I like the Ruby BSTR-EL34 quite a bit. The Chinese are making better tubes than they used to.


It is obvious that you have something against JJ. I can give you the names of many top amp techs who use them and like them. Goerge here at Metro likes the JJ-EL34L here alot and so do many others on this board.

Save your JJ bashing for Harmony Central. One more thing:

Paragraphs are a good thing!

[Marshall Growl]

My experience with jj is that they are average sounding tubes, like Sovtek, just o.k. For my money, I would go for winged C over JJ anyday. I have played through Shuguang and thought they did sound really good. Also, the new GT mullard reissue is a very good tube, I've been playing through a quad of these in my 2203 for a couple months and they sound great and there is no bias drift. To me they actually sound like mullard which I have used also xf2's. And that is what they are based around.

[rjgtr]

I've used the JJ E34L in a Sovtek Mig60 for years (don't play it a lot lately but used it a tone for a couple years). They held up great and are still going. I haven't had reliability with JJ tubes at all, myself and for EL84s I think they and Ei have the best choices. The JJ 6V6 is the equal of any 6V6 I've used (and yes this includes a lot of NOS like RCA, Brimar).

However, for EL34s I think the Winged C (SED) is the best choice in tone and price. I'm using a duet of GT-Mullard EL34s in my main amp right now, just to see how I like them. As I said above the GT-M, NOS Seimens and Winged C all sound very similar. I have used Winged C's since they were Svetlana (before New Sensor's shameful usurping the name) and they are my favorite EL34. They just do what you want - good clean and good distortion.

And I have used Teslas, both EL34s and ECC83s. The problem I had with them was they were inconsistant and the preamp tubes have a tendancy of going dark after they break in. The current line of JJs are very consistant and don't have the problems the old Teslas did. Unfortunately, I get the feeling JJ is voicing the ECC83 to make a Dual Rectifier sound better, which isn't always great for Marshalls.

Sovteks are very reliable, but completely boring.

I have to agree that the Shuguang power tubes have improved a lot. I've got the TAD small bottle 6L6s and they really are a good sound, as are the 5881s. I need to try a set of EL34s. The 12ax7s are my favorite utility tube. I still prefer a Mullard in V1.

[johniss0001]

i happen to agree with terry about the reliability issue of jj i got a quad of e34ls from george for my 15th birthday and used the amp for 5 hrs if that and the buggers died i started to get a hummmmm from the amp, so i put my old rft el34s in and the amp worked like a charm, but i accidentally smashed an rft so i put a pair of jje34ls in and a pair of rfts in and i love the sound of them dispite the fact i have to reconfigure my pre amp on my super bass, i put the rfts in sockets 1 and 4 so no wonder my amp sounds sooo good. but the jj are not a bad sounding tube for the money when i put them in my amp i lost my AC/DC type sound they made my amp sound cleaner so when i mixed them with the rfts my tone came back since that day i will never buy another jj power tube. terry when i get the money i'm coming for your shugangs!

[jctaudiodesigns]

Hi All, just want to add my 2 cents. I know this is an old thread but someone might look at this trying to gain incite on the JJ KT77.

As everyone here knows, the sound that you get is from a combination of things. The guitar, the amp, the settings, the cabinet and.......oh yea the player. I have a Marshall TSL 100 with the KT77 installed. I have 2 cabinets from Avatar and they are both 2x12s. One is loaded with Vintage 30s and the other has the G12H30s. With the G12H30 cab, the KT77s sound fantastic. But with the Vintage 30s, there is too much low end. Just wanted to add this comment.

[Flynman]

Thought I would add to this also. I have a TSL 100, JCM 800 RI, Metro Plexi 100. The KT77 sound really good in the first 2 amps.They cut down on that ice pick high end. I've had older versions of the KT77 that did not last very long before sounding like crap. The newer ones seem to be holding up very well with no bias drift. In the Plexi they just don't cut it. Much better off with NOS or Winged C's. Also the Pre's make a huge difference. IMHO.


K

[MajorWatt]

Okay.

I've never tried the JJ 34's or the 77's. But when it comes to the big 88's, i'm a complete JJ whore. They make my Majors sing and I only had one go bad out of the box.

[MajorWatt]

Just in case you haven't seen the real thing.....

[HEAVIER THAN HELL]

I've had dreadful experiences with JJ EL34s and KT77s - some bad right out the box (arcing internally) and in general I didn't like the tone.

Their 6L6GC was a pretty robust valve though and sounded pretty decent, although more like a STR type of 6L6.

The JJ 6V6 is the star of their range though - tough enough to take lots of punishment and a great tone. Not a true 6V6 tone though, they're endging toward a 6L6WGB type tone imo.

Their ECC83s is a decent enough valve, low microphonics and good for fattening up bright amps.