JJ Tube replacements

I bought my Triple rectifier brand new in March. Have had Mesa send new tubes to replace ALL six of the 6L6 pwr tubes and 1 rectifier tube. It has been such a pain in the @ss considering this is a brand new amp and I have taken very good care of it. The preamp tubes seem to work just fine, but problems with the pwr tubes. Mesa said nothing is wrong with the amp.... its just a bad shipment of tubes from earlier this year.

Obviously I have lost faith in the stock Mesa tubes, so I decided to trash the Mesa tubes, and I talked to Bob at Eurotubes and he recommended several replacement options and here is the result that I decided on:

I replaced all the Mesa 12ax7 preamp tubes (my preference) with some hand picked high(er) gain JJ 12ax7 in V1,V2,V3 and a standard for V4, and a balanced in V5. Bob hand picked and tested these for me.

I replaced the Mesa 6L6 pwr tubes with JJ 6V6 tubes.

I replaced the Mesa 5U4 Rectifier tubes with JJ GZ34.

The amp is run in EL34 bias and Rectifier mode. It simply is beyond words. Channel 1 (which sucked before) has so much warmth, and clarity now. Channel 3 absolutely screams. It has so MUCH warmth and tone that it is unbelieveable. Been running them with NO problems whatsoever, and the sound is THAT much better! I wish Mesa shipped it just like this. It cost me $165.00.... and worth EVERY penny.

BTW - I took one of the original stock Mesa 12ax7 and put it into my Marshall Valvestate Head in place of the Marshall ECC 83, and it really improved the sound of the Marshall.

sounds good. I've been thinking of getting an full retube set just as a spare.

oh btw, what was the matter with the bad mesa tubes?

Within 2 weeks of buying the Triple Rec, I had Prw tube #4 go RED hot while playing. I went to standby and eventually off. After about 30 minutes I turned it back on and within minutes #4 went RED hot again with a loud hum.

Called Mesa, he said that it was common and he'd send a replacement matched pair. He said I could continue to play the amp IF I remove the matched set (#3 and #4) and one rectifier and it would play fine only at less than 150 watts.... somewhere around 100 watts. He said if it ever happens again, do exactly what I did, but when I turn it back on, see if any other tubes look abnormal.

Got the new tubes about 10 days later, and installed them and no problem for about a month. Then all the sudden Pwr tube #6 goes RED hot with a hum. Same story.... standby, shut down, cool down, retry. It goes RED hot again. I did like they had said before and powered back up.... this time it blows a Rectifier Tube AND the fuse. Pissed off..... I alled Mesa (AGAIN) and he asked me to replace the fuse, put the amp in Silicon Mode, swap #6 and #1 Pwr tube and play for awhile to see what happens. I ask him "Are you sure the amp is OK"? He said its fine, this is common with these tubes. I do as he asked, turned it on.... THIS time #2 Pwr Tube goes RED hot. BS!!

So thats 6 new tubes and a rectifier tube..... and that was enough wasted time for me!

The JJ tubes that I put in not only sound GREAT.... they have given me no problems and have resored my faith and LOVE for my Mesa Amp.

Bought a new Dual Rectifier. have had no problems with tubes, but replaced the Mesa 5U4 Rectifier tubes with JJ GZ34. I have the amp switched on "vacuum tubes" and EL34, although i run the original 6L6.

Lately i'm totally into the vintage settings on channel 2 and 3. The eq is so much more balanced and the tone is much thicker.