Tube Talk - JJ Electronic ECC83/12AX7 types. Which one to choose?

Going through different types of current produced JJ Electronics Ecc83/12ax7 tubes, talk about them and see what options you have in a current production and some sonic proprieties about them.
Hope you enjoy this video, find it informative. Subsrcibe and enjoy :)

[@mikewrightify]

I use JJ's back in the 90s 2000s. 5 years ago I've had a high failure rate and bass amps with tried all their different models of tubes I will say I'm back to my old sylvania's from the 1960s black play and grape late they been in my amp for years with no failures and they sound great the sound real I've tried to 606 j&j power tubes I might get like 10 gigs out of them and one of them sovtek 6l6wxT plus last about 2 years

[@Radio478]

Thanks for interesting video 👍

[@ecc8344]

Thanks to you for watching :) 👍

[@zbaby82]

I like the JJ ECC83S the best myself. I like the high output.

[@ecc8344]

If it works for you, great :)

[@yaniv-nos-tubes]

hi, great video. i think that if the prices for modern tubes will continue to rise ,nos is a no brainer

[@ecc8344]

Yes absolutely, funny enough, got some great deals on NOS, it costed me the same or even less then modern produced ones :)

[@Mike_HuntizWet]

@@ecc8344. Is there a best place to find NOS or is it one of those things that you just have to search everywhere and find what you find??

[@nickaslanidis6156]

It's odd but I've avoided the ECC83 JJ for years because they get a lot of negativity. I've run a few NOS tubes but definitely tried all the other current production options like Mullard, Tung Sol, Svetlana, Sovtek and EH and recently I decided to just try the JJ's for something different in V1 of my Marshall JVM and I was blown away by how much quieter it was. It was a little on the dull side, but suddenly everything sounded cleaner even on high gain settings. All I really had to do was turn up my global presence control on my amp a couple of notches and for me it didn't seem muddy. Edit: i did try the e83cc in v1 and for clean and classic rock sounds it was beautiful. It didn't quite work for heavier stuff. I've just orded the MG to see if it can be a nice middle ground. Having presence and resonance controls probably helps with the JJs though.

[@charlespeck886]

I choose any tube but JJ's!

[@haythamchannel3553]

Thanks for the awesome video. By the way where can I find ecc83 jj or other tubes. Because I'm working electronic maintenance especially radio tubes and TV. Thank you for your time

[@ecc8344]

JJ's are not hard to find, depends where your located ..But on TubeAmpDoctor.com or tubestore.com you should be able to buy JJ models👍

[@mottosierra1372]

Hi good video ! I recently bought a Marshall SL5 Slash and I would like to install new tubes. Which brand would you recommend? I want to preserve the original sound because I think the previous owner installed JJ and it sounds strange, dark and without gain, nothing like what I heard before about this amp.thank you

[@ecc8344]

You probabably have the JJ ECC83S, which are muddy, dark and yet brittle on top end, try JJ E83CC or ECC803s, completely diffent story...or even ECC83MG.. otherwise im sure that reissue Tungsol 12ax7 should also do just fine :)

[@J_Braz_]

Hi. I've got 4 JJ ecc83s's and three Marshall branded JJ's that came with my dsl20hr. The one that came in the v1 socket had a marking on it. A little spot of yellow paint on the the top of the tube. I'm curious why that would be? Was that tube more important? I know the first and last preamp tubes are important. The first needs to me the least microphonic and the last tube needs to be balanced. This leads me to main question, if may? How do I tell whick preamp tubes are balanced? I already known how to tap tubes, gently with a wood stick to hear for pinging noises, ect.

[@ecc8344]

Hi! Usually the marked tubes with paint would mean that they are specially selected from the factory ...for example..Telefunken had blue and red markers i believe which were chosen tubes for medical equipment or some high demanding military application. I do not know what that could be on JJ, I could guess was also marked as better perfoming tube. To know your tubes are balanced you need a tube tester in which you would have to measure both triodes to perform equally...I do have balanced JJ and I cant exactly tell the difference between balanced and non-balanced one...it suppost to perform better in your application but the sound difference is not really there...most of the time you can destinguish the difference is between the heavily used tube and new or barely used..:) also I have experimented with balanced and non-balanced tube in phase inverter and also have noticed no difference in tone :)

[@J_Braz_]

@@ecc8344 thanks for the response. Much to digest. I have many tubes but don't know which are best for v1 or phase inverter. I got 6 Mesa 12ax7 Russian 2's. 1 old Hammond 12ax7. 4 JJ ecc83s's. 3 Marshall branded ecc83's. 14 in total. There's a electronics shop down the road the guy has a tube tester. Could a tube tester tell which ones are balanced?

[@ecc8344]

@@J_Braz_ yes, if you want to know if its balanced or not you will need to put in on the tester and both triodes should be tested in the very close range :)

[@jonathanhorne6503]

I’ve been leery of JJ tubes, with 5AR4 and 6L6GG I’ve had experience with infant mortality. My experience with the fore mentioned tubes makes me go to other small signal options. I love the old Tesla tubes.

[@lambisstratoudakis]

So i have a fender ramparte that came with 2 12ax7 china and a Ruby l6l. Tested jj 83s kind better but not a lot. What would you recommend me to try. Most want to have a clean varm channel and for the gain kind off varm fuzzy harmonic tone

[@ecc8344]

I'd say go for JJ ECC83MG :)

[@lambisstratoudakis]

@@ecc8344 for both channels? I was thinking ay7 for v1 and 83mg for v2

[@vovagreen7414]

спасибо...просмотрел с интересом!🙂

[@madduxhemrich810]

I just bought the MG variant (non gold) from a guitar store for the preamp in my marshall ill reply with how i think it sounds compared to an electro harmonix

[@madduxhemrich810]

Sounds much much better for rock and metal. Solid overdrive and good tome, the electro harmonix was great for clean but didn't hold up with overdrive

[@DeibyAviles]

Wich tube is better for vocals? I heard 12DT7 is good.

[@ecc8344]

Probably a Telefunken tube :)

[@temporoboto]

thanks for sharing

[@01left]

Hi Ecc i need new Preamp Tubes for a EVH 5150 what would you recommend, the CC? thank you so much! I do Metal.

[@ecc8344]

Anything will be METAL in EVH 5151 because its has alot distortion by itself, so I guess anything JJ will work for you!

[@megatoneamps]

the EVH amps are transformed by replacing all the preamp tubes with JJ E83CC, , much lower noise floor, way more musical and clarity in spite of very high gain. you will not believe the difference!!

[@americolouro2822]

😮

[@BlueBs72]

ecc83 jjs have more gain than ecc83jjmg ? thanks

[@ecc8344]

Perhaps the same, MG is a better choiche imho

[@BlueBs72]

@@ecc8344 That's what said a professionnal to me

[@ecc8344]

Then why are you asking me hehe :) you can do your own listening test and decide what works for you , thats the only way to figure it out what your looking to find in your own sound

[@BlueBs72]

@@ecc8344 there is so much tubes and so much variations, every answers is interesting

[@manintoynenam]

Get svetlana if u want a premium sound.

[@louaguado995]

I'm a metal guy, so I prefer the long plate tubes. But the problem with more gain is they usually also have more noise. Surprisingly more guitarists are just using digital amp modeling pedals or daw vst's. JJ's are the only tubes not being made in a communist country.

[@ecc8344]

They are made in ex-communist country though, Slovakia.. Which was once part of communist state of Czechoslovakia... So technically the old Tesla toolings which are now used in JJ factory were made by former "commies" LOL. And to responce to your tube preference, I find long plate 12ax7s to be less likely good in metal as short plates.. Why do I think so? Because long plates have little more resolution and headroom which takes away the gain factor for a few hairs.. On the other hand short plates seems to have a little more in gain department and nice compression thats right upfront.. I think JJ E83CC could be a good answer to you, almost dead quiet, nice "fat" low mids and cutting gain if set so :)

[@will523]

Lou Aguado I am a hard punk metal guy. I too prefer long plate tubes. I have a long plate RCA in my main chugging amp and the low end and gain is impressive. I find that short plate tubes just get muddier and muffly faster. I build my own amps and I can say that long plate 12AX7 tubes are the way to go for metal. Yeah commies they are useless. Forget the rest of the tube manufacturers in their commie countries. Did you know Western Electric is planning on making USA made common guitar tubes again? Im excited. America needs the GE and RCA tubes in production again but I will take Western Electric any day!!!

[@user-qt4nc2on7n]

У них значительно больше модификаций.

[@frankgeeraerts6243]

In my experience and other people who know tubes for more than half a century .........JJ tubes are crap tubes !

[@rexmasters1541]

JJ tubes suck and thats WHY they are so damn cheap. I bought out several old electronic repair stores back in 1986. Just out of high school and I have more tubes than I will ever use of get rid off.