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Well I was playin through my amp earlier today, and I heard a few pops and stuff every now and then, so I looked in the back and sure enough, only 2 of my tubes were glowin. I've never bought tubes before so I'm not really sure what I'm looking for. I think I'm looking for.. um.. the Power amp tubes? The big ones. My amp is a Carvin MTS3212 Combo, and I'm not really sure what kind of tubes they use. Any suggestions on what tubes I should get? Where I could get them? And how much they cost? Thanks
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My tubes glow all the time when I play Sovtek tubes are great.
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I would say no to the Sovteks. They are the cheapest, but also known to have the worst tone in the large majority's opinion.
I have heard great things about JJ tubes at eurotubes.com
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Anyone else? I'm really in the dark about tubes. No clue whats good, bad.. if you need a certain type for different amps? Or what?
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ok...your amp uses 5881 tubes (those are the big ones). according to www.thetubestore.com these can be replaced by 6L6s and KT66s. for the time being i'd probably go with some Sovtek 5881s or with Tesla/JJ 6L6GC tubes. there is also a bias switch on your amp that will allow it to handle EL34 tubes which might be a good choice if you want more of a Marshally tone out of your amp.
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the guys at the carvin board are real helpful if you have any amp questions
they tend to lean towards JJ's
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Originally Posted by PianoMan I would say no to the Sovteks. They are the cheapest, but also known to have the worst tone in the large majority's opinion. I've used them before, they aren't bad at all.
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I think the Sovtek reputation goes back to the 80's or whatever, that was over 2 decades ago. Some of their tubes get great reviews, and if you really search around the net, you will find amp techs and others that like 'em. I personally like the ones I've got in my amps - the 5881's, and EL84's. I have compared the 5881's to Svetlana C logos, and some older used tubes including RCA's. I have two identical amps with EL84's, 1 Sovtek, 1 JJ. In both cases the Sovteks sound as good as brand X.
You can't always see the preamp tubes glow, depends on which kind. With some the glow is just hidden with the parts in there. I just encountered that a few weeks back - "hey that premp tube ain't glowing!" It was working fine, I had to turn of the light and get the right angle of view. If your amp is working they have to be functional, and glowing. The popping thing is certainly something to look into, could be a couple things:
Sometimes removing the tube and re-seating it will fix that (with the power OFF), the culprit of intermittant stuff like you describe is just a less-than-perfect connection of tube terminal to the socket. Try that first.
Often you can pinpoint a bad tube by tapping on each one with the amp up fairly loud, but don't have the gain ridiculously high. Use the eraser end of a pencil. All tubes are somewhat microphonic, so expect a little noise with the tapping -look for one that really stands out. Too much gain can make one appear to be bad. If you use a lot of gain, the microphonics issue becomes a lot more serious. You can turn up the gain and use this method to find the least microphonic tube out of a batch for each position the amp -usually preamp tubes are the problem with high gain stuff. When I buy tubes (mailorder), I usually get an extra or two, very often you will hit a bad one out of the box.

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Alright I'll check the tubes and make sure their in good.. hopefully thats the problem and not something serious.
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Originally Posted by Mattlock I've used them before, they aren't bad at all.
Sure they are decent. I have them in my Traynor right now. What I am saying is that there are tubes that give much better tone out there.
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Hey JC_music07,
What style(s) of music do you play? Some tube models/brands compliment different styles. Having the option of the 6L6's, 5881's, and EL34's can give you a variety of tonal differences. You could even use 6CA7's for a more aggressive 'Marshall' type tone.
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Some blues, hard rock and some heavier styles. I woulnd't mind a Marshall tone, or atleast try it and see if I like it. But I definatly need some that have a good rock sound. Also to take tubes out.. do you just pull them out? or do they unscrew? or what?
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Originally Posted by JC_music07 Some blues, hard rock and some heavier styles. I woulnd't mind a Marshall tone, or atleast try it and see if I like it. But I definatly need some that have a good rock sound. Also to take tubes out.. do you just pull them out? or do they unscrew? or what?
for that sound, i'd definitely go with el84s
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Originally Posted by Jc_Music07 Also to take tubes out.. do you just pull them out? or do they unscrew? or what?
Tubes fit into tube "sockets" with straight metal "pins" (the number of pins depends on what kind of tube it is). The pins are usually about 1/2 inch long and stick straight into the tube sockets, no twisting/threading motion. I've always found that to remove tubes, a gentle side-to-side rocking motion helps get things started.
Nate
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The EL34's will give you more of a Marshall type tone (not exactly, but ballpark). The 6CA7's operate like the EL34's (i.e., can be used in place of) and have a little heavier tone (get the Electro-Harmonix 6CA7's). I do recommend that you have a tech do the tube swap and bias-- your amp will thank you.