Mesa Mark IIC+ preamp tubes

One of the preamp tubes in my Mark IIC+ went microphonic. It was in the V1 position. I replaced it with an old Mesa 12AX7 Russian 2 that I had lying around. Still sounds good, but I'm thinking about trying out some others and also keep a few more as back up (I do have some JJ's too). As you may know, Mesa used Tungsram in the past for this model. A lot of people recommend them, but they are pricey and out of production (a few NOS ones on ebay). I want to try something from current production. What is a good modern alternative for the Tungsram or do you have other suggestions to look into (for 80's metal)?

Thanks.



ps I know that there more posts about this, but the NOS stuff gets mentioned a lot and I want to limit my search to current production without weeding through countless pages.

current production

JJ Electronic in the Czech Republic
Shuguang in China
New Sensor in Russia-(Sovtek, Electro-Harmonix, Genalex, Svetlana, Tung-Sol)

I still Like RFT, RCA, Tung Sol, JJ.

Tung Sol are for me the best actual manufactured tube , make sure you get a matched triode tube!

The thing is if you go down that route, you will end up trying a lot of different tubes because of curiosity. Anyone can say what they like best but you will never know until you've tried it yourself. Different things play an important role, like playing technique, how you dial your amp, how much gain you use, speakers and cabinet, which guitar, wood and pickups. But it's a fun road to travel, though it will cost you. Good luck.

tony777 said:

The thing is if you go down that route, you will end up trying a lot of different tubes because of curiosity. Anyone can say what they like best but you will never know until you've tried it yourself. Different things play an important role, like playing technique, how you dial your amp, how much gain you use, speakers and cabinet, which guitar, wood and pickups. But it's a fun road to travel, though it will cost you. Good luck.

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Haha, I agree. That's why I want to skip the whole NOS tube thing. For now I need to settle on a modern tube that can easily be replaced. I'm not afraid to try out a few, but will certainly limit it to a handful. The factors you mentioned matter most, yes. That little tube in V1 is just the icing on the cake. You know, a small nuance in the feel of the amp.

Some of the new old stock tubes are rated at 10,000 hours, you wouldn't need to replace it very often. Also, the tube in the third position makes a big difference to your lead tone. You can get confused by tubes that are high output and tubes that are high gain. A tube that sounds great in one amp can sound really bad in a different amp even if it's the same Mark III stripe. The power tubes are the tubes that run out of juice quickly.

laurens said:

tony777 said:

The thing is if you go down that route, you will end up trying a lot of different tubes because of curiosity. Anyone can say what they like best but you will never know until you've tried it yourself. Different things play an important role, like playing technique, how you dial your amp, how much gain you use, speakers and cabinet, which guitar, wood and pickups. But it's a fun road to travel, though it will cost you. Good luck.

Click to expand...

Haha, I agree. That's why I want to skip the whole NOS tube thing. For now I need to settle on a modern tube that can easily be replaced. I'm not afraid to try out a few, but will certainly limit it to a handful. The factors you mentioned matter most, yes. That little tube in V1 is just the icing on the cake. You know, a small nuance in the feel of the amp.

Click to expand...

tung sol new sensor matched triode tubes are the most reliable on tone from new production for pre amp, JJ are awefull , ice picky very powerfull without details, mullard 12 ax7 are not bad, but far from NOS tone quality , sovtek are sovtek, not bad not great, LPS serie is great as PI, EH are i think the weakiest tube here, svetlana are close to Mullard!

Chinese tubes are chinese tube , i don't know how many tubes Mesa sort from china before they get 1 very good , lot of waste to my view
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boGZoURRQ3Y
wathever you get, buys only balanced triode!
NOS pre tubes were balanced at manufacture output, today chinese russian cheap tubes its supposed to be, as they are mainly sorted by patented brands, 30% are refused, GT like brands, and amp builders, they sort it as best gain, balanced and microphonics free triode ones , it make the difference!

Mesa uses JJ for pre's and Chinese for 6L6.

Dont waste your money on "matched triodes".There is absolutely no reason to use one in a tube guitar amp.All the components in your amp are +/- 10 to 20% tolerance.This means a 1500 ohm cathode resistor can be anywhere from 1200 ohm to 1800 ohm.So lets say you put that "matched triode" in the V1 position.V1A has a 1350 ohm cathode resistor and V1B has a 1650 ohm cathode resistor,and thats a close 10% tolerance, just how "matched" is that tube now? Matched triodes are sought out by hi-fi guys,and usually only for the PI position, because they use components that are very tight in tolerance since they are going for true sound repro,guitar amps are quite the opposite we dont want strict linearity in our sound so tube amps have a very wide variance in component values.Dont waste the extra money on so called "matched triodes",it wont be matched when you put it in your amp.

I don't agree , matched triodes makes your tubes works well together and longer , all mesa stamped tubes are triode matched because with brtand new production tubes its well over 20% difference mostly !

throught out signal path mesa component are silver or gold stripped , meaning at least 10% , put in it a JJ or EH or whatever with a 30% delta and your tone is affected, and more, a triode is so weak it will not last, generate hum, and its all the tube that's dead, you'd better add 2 bucks for a balanced one, you don't change pre tubes every year !

now you might get lucky and all time find great tube, but GT Mesa tube depot and most sellers are so fed up with poor quality they sort their tubes to avoid disatifaction of thier customers ! they are right