EL84 Vacuum Tube

Question What company makes the best new vacuum tubes? also a question about cabinets?
im looking into new tubes to try out. I usually use electro harmonix preamp tubes with groove tubes power amp tubes and rectifiers, however that is largely because i dont really know other brands. for preamps i use 12ax7s, and for power i switch my biasing between EL84 and KT88 normally, but i occasionally go 6550. Not a big 6L6 fan. Im mostly working with a mesa stiletto trident (series 1) and a krank revolution (the old one, not the new one). the mesa almost always has EL84s running through it because with 150 watts, while being unreasonably loud, it has enough headroom to use EL84s without worry about early break up, but i can lower it to 50 watts when I need saturation. The krank is split fairly evenly between KT's and EL's. usually KT's in the studio to differentiate further from the mesa. rectifier is a 5ar4 groove tube. I didnt like the fender rectifiers, too warm. for the record, im not an NOS fan. I admit they sound better, but i dont think that that tiny increase in sound quality is really worth paying a fortune for tubes. for 6 power tubes (for the stiletto), i already pay about 230 dollars, along with about 80 dollars for a quintet of preamp tubes, and 60 for three rectifiers. as you can see, a pain in the *** and NOS would be murder. on another note, i asked another question once about looking for light cabs. I sold my krank revolution cab, because it weight about 120 lbs , the cost of solid wood i suppose, although it did sound amazing. I've been borrowing my friends avatar traditional 412, which is light and sounds almost as good as the krank, and as of the moment that is the cab i've been thinking about getting. anyone else know about light cabs that still sound good? i dont care about the speakers, i can change those, but for the record i prefer eminence legends and celestion g12t-75s more than i like vintage 30s. thanks guys.

Best Answer As far as tubes go, I've used ElectroHarmonix EL34's for a great midrange crunch and lots of sweet treble... in my Mesa Boogie Tremoverb, that is... although I've preferred the Mesa 6L6's. The EL34's are no replacement for that solid recto chunk, I think. I've never had a chance to mess with the KT's, always wanted to though. As far as preamp tubes, I've always preferred the JJ spiral-wound tubes. High gain, low noise. I keep hearing some people say that they're too "dark"... I dunno, I've never had any problems! I really like the tone they give me... I even like them in my little Epiphone Valve Jr... Avatar is probably the cheapest way to get a good quality cabinet with the speakers that you want. I managed to find a decent quality used 2x12 recently, but until that point I was saving up for an Avatar 2x12... for 400-something dollars the construction and wood is far better quality than the comparable Marshall-branded cabinet that cost a few hundred more! It's likewise with the 4x12... although I will say that the 1960a cab is very well made and sounds great... it's also heavy as hell! If the Avatar is lighter, that's the way I'd go. I've only got one back, after all, and it needs to last.... (which is actually why I've gone with the 2x12 route instead) And yeah, I vastly prefer the G12T's waaay more than Vintage 30's! More headroom, less speaker breakup. I like a nice solid chunk to my tone, and speaker breakup seems to interfere with that to some extent. Saul

Question What vacuum tubes...?
For a Blackheart Little Giant Amplifier? It uses a EL84 and a 12AX7...

Best Answer From memory, the EL84 is an output pentode and the 12AX7 is a high-gain twin triode. The 12AX7 is rather noisy. For lower gain and less hiss you could try using a 12AU7. The E means it has a 6 volt heater. The L means it is a power output pentode. One of the 12AX7s is probably used as a phase-splitter in a push-pull circuit using two of the EL84s working into an audio output transformer that drives the loudspeaker. The other 12AX7 is probably used as a preamplifier.