Tube Swap Mark V-35 head

Wondering if any of you guys have tried any different power or V1 pre amp tubes. Someone mentioned these amps are designed with current day voltages and therefore NOS might not sound as good. Every amp I've had I've never cared for new production tube offerings in comparison to NOS especially power and V1

I'm not sure who Mesa is making their tubes and yes the amp I'm very thrilled with along with the new Wide Compact Open back with Celestion gold but always looking for that bit extra if possible. No of course I can't leave well enough alone.

Thoughts ?

In my full Mark V head I just put in a full set of Chinese 12ax7c that I had in stock. They happen to be Groove Tubes tested, but I hear the Ruby tested are good as well. I ran the head with the factory tubes for a while, then went to the SPAX7's, and yesterday I decided to try the Chinese. I'm going to stick with them, as I'm finally coming to the realization that they are the current production tube for me in any amp. I've tried current production TungSol,Mullard, & JJ in my Marshall JVM, and amps that I've since sold, and to me nothing has the character I like from the Chinese 12AX7's. Best way I can describe it is the amp feels more alive and more harmonically rich.

For power tubes in my Mark V and V:25 I'm sticking with the Mesa branded stuff for now. In my JVM I like the SED =C= that I still have a few sets of.

Hello, yes I recently put in a NOS RFT 12ax7 in v1 and it sounds fine, I cant say it sounds much different though. I would like to know exactly what brand el84's currently ships in the Mark V 35 though, from what I have read all the preamp tubes are JJ's, I wonder if its the same for the power tubes?

Bit late back to the party here haha. Any particular brand of Chinese tubes you are/were using in your Mesa ??

Any changes or updates??

I went back to the Mesa (JJ) preamps in my Mark V and V:25, and plan to stick with them. I'm done tube rolling in these heads and will stick with the Mesa branded. In my Marshall I prefer Chinese from a reliable tester such as Ruby, TAD, Groove (less so lately) or other.

Monstercastle said:

I went back to the Mesa (JJ) preamps in my Mark V and V:25, and plan to stick with them. I'm done tube rolling in these heads and will stick with the Mesa branded. In my Marshall I prefer Chinese from a reliable tester such as Ruby, TAD, Groove (less so lately) or other.

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Ya tnx Monster, I have to give credit to Mesa for doing their homework, because this is the first amp I've owned that NOS Preamp tubes don't improve on factory tone. I tried some different old RCA, telefunken, Phillips, GE and others and Mesa's tubes will remain in the MV-35 head. Now if I can figure out why such the volume drop between presets on clean channel I can die a happy musician haha.

I have a Mark V 35 i did some NOS tube swapping in V1/V2/V3 positions.
I'm using:

V1 Early 61 Amperex White Label
V2 Early 61 Amperex White Label
V3 CV4004 60's Brimar

It seems to have warmed up the low end a bit, and has given it a bit more character. The mids sound great, and overall the amp sounds a bit less brittle IMO. The harmonics are crazy good and jump off the strings. It hasn't changed the attack much, still very dynamic and responsive. I'm liking it so far. I have a friend who has a decent amount of really great NOS tubes, so I was very lucky to work out a "I'll hook you up with some games and buy you lunch for awhile" trade...It would be hard for me to experiment with tubes like this with out his help.


Just for reference I have a Mark V35 and a 1x12 Widebody Closed Back Cab.

NeuAscension said:

I have a Mark V 35 i did some NOS tube swapping in V1/V2/V3 positions.
I'm using:

V1 Early 61 Amperex White Label
V2 Early 61 Amperex White Label
V3 CV4004 60's Brimar

It seems to have warmed up the low end a bit, and has given it a bit more character. The mids sound great, and overall the amp sounds a bit less brittle IMO. The harmonics are crazy good and jump off the strings. It hasn't changed the attack much, still very dynamic and responsive. I'm liking it so far. I have a friend who has a decent amount of really great NOS tubes, so I was very lucky to work out a "I'll hook you up with some games and buy you lunch for awhile" trade...It would be hard for me to experiment with tubes like this with out his help.


Just for reference I have a Mark V35 and a 1x12 Widebody Closed Back Cab.

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Glad things worked out for you with tube swap. I've tried both outside EL84 power tube swap with NOS Tesla's and a sweet pair of old RCA's and soon as I take off Standby Switch, it popped the fuse every time. I ended up selling the head and buying a killer Canadian build EL-34 Morris Mojo head with selectable 8/18/33 watts and thankfully I kept both my wide Compact open and closed back Mesa Cabs and they sound amazing together. We demoed both cabs before purchasing the Mark V-35 head and I could only afford to buy one cab, both sounded great but I decided the partially open back wasn't as dark so I purchased the open back and stuck a Celestion Gold in there. Amazing combination. Tnx for posting

Yea I haven't played with changing any of the power tubes yet...
Guess I'll buy some fuses before I do, lol.

Only Otha that amp didn't like different NOS power tube swaps.

So after a month or two of playing around,
I've found that I like Brimar tubes in my Mesa Mark V 35.
Seems to have smoothed out the sound and tamed the highs.
I have:

1966 6057 T 12ax7 in V1 and V2
1961 cv492 12ax7 in V3 and V4
1981 Mullard cv4004 in V5

I've been flipping between stock Mesa 12AX7/Brimar 6060T 12AT7 in the Phase Inverter.
Not sure what I should keep in the Phase inverter...don't want to burn a Mullard or other expensive tube there. Any recommends?