Posted: 3/2/2008 1:53:34 PM EDT
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Let's get more discussions going here, we been posting less here! Post favorite and what brand you prefer. Me:  12ax7 ARS (Chinese) I found that the Russian ones were too boomy and the US ones only had great mids going for them. The Chinese ones were the most satisfying by far. These things take so long to burn out and give such great tone. |
The thing you will notice most quickly is the tubes other than the 12AX7 & 12BH7 are all lower in gain then the 12AX/BH7. This is why you usually won't see them in amps other than those designed for clean tone or older Fenders. With as much gain as is dumped in the typical amp between stages to prevent blocking distortion (bad distortion that is uncontrollable and sounds like crap) the other low gain tubes could be used to provide high gain tones but the commercial paradigm is to use the 12AX7. There have been a few experiments on the AX84.com site to get high gain tone out of low gain tubes but I have to admit I never followed the results of the experiments. The 12BH7 is a high gain tube with higher current capability that the 12AX7. There is a mod to the P1 Extreme project on AX84.com that uses two tubes to get a Marshal Plexi sound, a 12BH7 and El34. You won't find the 12BH7 used in any new amps because they are not currently produced AFAIK. No manufacturer would want to rely on the NOS tube market. The tubes I use in my preamps are a supply of NOS Raytheon 12AX7s salvaged from an old tube organ kit that was never completed. (7-8 tubes per tone generator, 12 tones  )
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