Tube Amp Doctor an JJ in my Mesa horrible sound !!

i Have a Mesa Booogie Dual caliber DC-5 from 1992
I Never put tubes.
Now my tech test my tubes and they are not very good
He change my tubes to JJ Power Tubes (2 )
and ( 6 ) 12 AX7-A (Tube amp Doctor) and he change filter capacitors ( Tube amp Doctor capacitors )

The sound is very Bad !!!!!! i hate it !!! very Bad sound !! When i Plug the Guitar !!! **** !!

i return to my Old tubes

My original tubes

(2 ) 6 LG6 GC STR 420 ( Power tubes )
(6 ) 12 AX 7 -A ECC83 ( Pré )

But my tech test the tubes, and tell me to put other tubes.
Now !!!!!!!!

What tubes i Put ? from Mesa Boogie ? they are chinese ! right !!!! Not russian ! in 1990 the were Russian i think

in the Past the Tubes was better i think ! i just dont believe in 2011 World !
i like the sound equipment old school.
Whow its possible a Old Tubes sound better than the new ones ?

People what advice ? what good tubes i put in My mesa Boogie ?

Thnks for Help me !!

sputnik33 said:

Whow its possible a Old Tubes sound better than the new ones ?

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Yes, if they are still good. I use old tubes.

sputnik33 said:

People what advice ? what good tubes i put in My mesa Boogie ?

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Use the tubes that sound best to you and buy more of them! You can still buy old tubes.

Do you have a way to test your old tubes? If they sound great they are probably still good, but if one goes bad it may blow a fuse or a resistor, and that may mean another trip to your tech, unless you can find and replace the bad resistor.

scott

The error is probably to put 6 identical preamp tubes. Try the new power tubes with the old preamp tubes, or a combination of old/new preamp tubes.

JMO, but those JJ preamps in Mesa aren't that good sounding. Perhaps try something like a Sovtek/Electroharmonix or even a Tung Sol...

KH Guitar Freak said:

JMO, but those JJ preamps in Mesa aren't that good sounding. Perhaps try something like a Sovtek/Electroharmonix or even a Tung Sol...

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+100

JJ's are worthless. :?

fluff191 said:

KH Guitar Freak said:

JMO, but those JJ preamps in Mesa aren't that good sounding. Perhaps try something like a Sovtek/Electroharmonix or even a Tung Sol...

Click to expand...

+100

JJ's are worthless. :?

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+ another 100

Try Mullard Reissues....sweeeet

KH Guitar Freak said:

JMO, but those JJ preamps in Mesa aren't that good sounding. Perhaps try something like a Sovtek/Electroharmonix or even a Tung Sol...

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Vintage Tung-Sols are great tubes, especially in Mark amps

Friends ! i love my old tubes sound

with the new tubes i give up

now with my old tubes

my amp make a Noise strange noise !! (ccccrrrrrr ccrrr crcrcrcrr ccrrrrrr) noises and volume down and up

its possible the problem is Tubes ? my old tubes ?

now in going test tube by tube if the noises go

thanks

can i use sovtek tubes in my Mesa dual caliber DC-5 ?
People tell me its better use Mesa boogies tubes because they test the tubes for this amps , they dont have Bias.

Thanks

sputnik33 said:

Friends ! i love my old tubes sound

with the new tubes i give up

now with my old tubes

my amp make a Noise strange noise !! (ccccrrrrrr ccrrr crcrcrcrr ccrrrrrr) noises and volume down and up

its possible the problem is Tubes ? my old tubes ?

now in going test tube by tube if the noises go

thanks

Click to expand...

It could be tubes, either preamp or power tubes. With preamp tubes, replace one at a time with a tube known to be good until you find the bad one. With power tubes, it's probably safer to replace them in pairs.

sputnik33 said:

can i use sovtek tubes in my Mesa dual caliber DC-5 ?
People tell me its better use Mesa boogies tubes because they test the tubes for this amps , they dont have Bias.

Thanks

Click to expand...

It's safer to use Mesa tubes as they are selected to run with the Mesa fixed bias system, unless you know that the current draw of the non-Mesa tubes matches Mesa's requirements. Some Mesa tubes are Sovtek.

KH Guitar Freak said:

JMO, but those JJ preamps in Mesa aren't that good sounding. Perhaps try something like a Sovtek/Electroharmonix or even a Tung Sol...

Click to expand...

Have a .50 caliber with JJ EL84 powertubes and the sound is great. I tried JJ 12ax7 preamp tubes and the sound sucked. I now have Chinese 12ax7 preamp tubes and the sound is close to the original Mesa 12ax7 tubes. I have to agree on those JJ preamp tubes. Doesen't work in a vintage Mesa.

The orginal tubes Mesa usid in the DC-5 were Mesa 420"s which were Chinese tubes!

Just adding my two cents about JJ's. Why all the love for these hunks? (Preamp tubes that is.)

crane said:

The error is probably to put 6 identical preamp tubes. Try the new power tubes with the old preamp tubes, or a combination of old/new preamp tubes.

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+1

Every tube has a unique purpose in the circuit and also has an impact on tone-shaping at later stages in the circuit.

For clean channels, find a great toneshaping tube for V1, and then use neutral tubes for the next stages. If you want chime, audition a bunch of tubes until you find a chimey tube.

For later tubes in the clean circuit, Philips NOS 5751's are as detailed and neutral as I have found, are great value as they cost about the same as new production tubes, and are much more consistent in tone across a set. I like them as V1 in some amps too. Sovtek LPS's are also very beautiful in the later stages of a clean circuit as they have a lot of warm, sweet, roundness but for whatever reason they don't do very well in V1. Not near as consistent as the Philips. Also, don't use LPS's in a cathode follower situation either clean or dirty channel. They last for 1 microsecond in that stage.

For dirty channels, distortion clarity is generally helped using mid-scooped tubes at the front end stages to tame down unmusical collisions of mid-freqs during the (later) clipping stages. NewPro Tungsols work good in this service, and I find chinese tubes in cathode follower gain stages to bring back punch and grind in a good way, balancing off against the Tungsols.

A lot of MB amps are dark, so I've found it necessary to add treble and presence via the effects loop tube stages and sometime the PI in the power amp section. EH's are good for that. For PI, sometimes the AT's and AY's work better than the AX's in bringing an amp to life. I have no idea why.

I've had really good luck with the yellow and green Baldwin tubes in different situations, and they're great value for the money.

So, in total, the various tubes give you the ability to 'micro-eq' your tone as the signal passes through the different stages of a circuit. Learn how your amp is designed, what each tube stage does. It's an awesome power to turn any amp into a tone monster.

ziggys said:

Just adding my two cents about JJ's. Why all the love for these hunks? (Preamp tubes that is.)

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I forgot to mention that when I first got into tubes, the JJ's seemed to be the fashion, and I bought a load of them. Dark and unmusical mud.

I've never been able find a use for them in Mesa amps.

Tommy_G said:

I forgot to mention that when I first got into tubes, the JJ's seemed to be the fashion, and I bought a load of them. Dark and unmusical mud.

I've never been able find a use for them in Mesa amps.

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The only place I have used JJ's in my MKIV is in the V2 and V3 slots. I use a Tung-sol (RI) in V1 and a Mullard (RI) in the PI slot as well.

I put a very strong NOS tube in the cathode follower/tonestack driver position of my Lead channels, and those channels went up 2 notches on the 10 point satisfaction scale.

The NOS are a lot stronger and can handle those high gain positions with a lot more definition and authority.

AS for the holy grail of V1 tubes...an VOS RCA....I like my Groovetubes Chinese Gold better in V1...maybe I just lucked out on a seriously awesome Newpro tube.

KH Guitar Freak said:

JMO, but those JJ preamps in Mesa aren't that good sounding. Perhaps try something like a Sovtek/Electroharmonix or even a Tung Sol...

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That's true... I swapped the old tubes in my Single Recto for some JJ's and the tone became muddier and darker... I went to Tung-Sol, EH and Sovtek for preamp and kept the JJ's for power amp... MUCH BETTER!!!!

Tommy G:
Thanks for the info.
Can you tell me more about:
'Also, don't use LPS's in a cathode follower situation"
Would this be a certain tube position?

Thanks

Read here for more info on the cathode follower issues:
http://forum.grailtone.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=25102&start=19

BTW- The Mark Series does not use cathode follower positions.

Dom