Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Guitars, Amps and Effects => Topic started by: simonp on October 24, 2006, 10:53:06 AM
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Does anyone have any opinions/experience on the various EL34s available?
I have previously used the Harma STR ones from Watford, but I see from their most recent report they highly rate the "winged" Svetlana ones, aprtly due to their nature of breaking up quite nicely. One thing my amp (Trace Elliot Speed Twin C100) lacks a bit is bottom end, so I'm thinking something that has a little more bottom end response may be the thing to get.
All opinions appreciated.
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Winged C svetlana are really supposed to be the ones to go for
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I've tried most the major brands and the SED "Winged C" are defintiely my favorites.
Here's my experiences (and knowledge of others):
Sovtek EL34WXT: These are by far much better than any of their previous offerings... they fit the same overall description as their older ones but they are much smoother. They hold their lows very well, and are voiced closer to a 6550 than probably any other EL34s. Their highs however are a bit dull.
JJ EL34 / EL34L: These are the tubes that give EL34s a bad name in terms of sounding horribly thin. They have good highs, but hold no lows or low mids. The EL34Ls hold their lows a little better.
Electro Harmonix EL34s: I've never tried these, but I believe they are the lowest noise of any of the current offerings. Typically EH tubes are a bit of an upgrade over Sovteks.
SED "Winged C" EL34s: Definitely the best quality in build terms of all the new EL34s in the sense that they will last you the longest. They don't hold their lows like the Sovteks, but still do quite well. They are a mid-heavy EL34, like the EL34s of old.
Svetlana EL34s: The cheaper versions of the SED "Winged C"... I've played plenty of amps with them (new in Marshalls) but I have never tried them in a properly biased amp so I can't really tell you much about them. They are supposed to sound like the SEDs but with less low end, and may very well suffer from not holding lows like the JJs when biased to run at the correct hotness.
Shuguang EL34-B (Ruby): Never tried these either, but I've talked to someone who used these and SED "Winged Cs" and in comparison he said these things are much more neutrally voiced, most notibly they have less midrange. I would think from that description, the heavy EL34 player might like these...
New Mullard EL34s: The new Mullard EL34s are fairly similiar to the SED "Winged C" EL34s with a little less midrange growl and the high end doesn't have the sam clearness to it.
Ei (E.I.) 6CA7/EL34: Never used these. Ei tubes typically sound good but tend to not take heat and be noisy... I've read some reviews that said the opposite, but I just read watford valves reviews which strongly confirmed this.
I can recommend SED "Winged C" EL34s as a good all around EL34 from experience, as long as you like the heavy midrange.
Edit: Do not get the Ei EL34s. I've read some reviews that make them look very intriguing, but I just read the watford valves review and they said they took little time to show signs of arcing and customers have also had problems with them.
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Mullard.
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Ruby, great tube.
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Mullard.
Yeah, right £60 a valve, and even at this Watford have sold out of teir NOS stock!
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Ruby, great tube.
I have some Ruby tubes, had them 5 years in protective boxes, go to use them the other day, and they take out the HT fuse! Probably just a rogue, but doesn't give me much confidence.
It looks like the "winged" ones it is then.
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Ruby, great tube.
I have some Ruby tubes, had them 5 years in protective boxes, go to use them the other day, and they take out the HT fuse! Probably just a rogue, but doesn't give me much confidence.
It looks like the "winged" ones it is then.
That sounds like you didn't get the amp biased to me and it put out too much voltage for the tubes or something perhaps?
Most Rubys EL34s are Shuguang EL34-Bs, but I've seen a lot of Sovteks and JJs in Ruby boxes as well, you never know what they are rebranding... but they usually leave the original stamp on them so you can check.
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I like JJ/Tesla EL34's
but from what i've heard the New Mullards and Svetlana Winged are the way to go, still to try them myself.
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Mullard.
Yeah, right £60 a valve, and even at this Watford have sold out of teir NOS stock!
They're back in production, bupy.
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Mullard.
Yeah, right £60 a valve, and even at this Watford have sold out of teir NOS stock!
They're back in production, bupy.
But they aren't anywhere close to the same... it's just the name now...
That said, they still are among the better EL34s available today.
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I have heard that the JJ/Harma EL34's are supposed to be the best current production valves around.
Of course, that could just be someone elses opinion...
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Ruby, great tube.
I have some Ruby tubes, had them 5 years in protective boxes, go to use them the other day, and they take out the HT fuse! Probably just a rogue, but doesn't give me much confidence.
It looks like the "winged" ones it is then.
That sounds like you didn't get the amp biased to me and it put out too much voltage for the tubes or something perhaps?
Most Rubys EL34s are Shuguang EL34-Bs, but I've seen a lot of Sovteks and JJs in Ruby boxes as well, you never know what they are rebranding... but they usually leave the original stamp on them so you can check.
I had the bias pot turned to mimimum so that shouldn't have been an issue, and the HT voltage is fixed within the amp and as the amp is designed for EL34s then I don't think that should ahve been an issue either. In fact the Ruby tubes were purchased as spares from Trace Elliot themselves, so they should have been compatible!!
I think the loud cracks and pops as soon as I turned on from standby even with teh volume down indicate a valve problem, especially since I put the old ones back in and there was no issue.
The valves obviously got damaged at some point either before or after I got them.
The new ones should be here today, I went with the winged Svetlanas, so we'll see how they are. This is when the fact that Trace put 2 probe holes and a hole to the bias adjustment pot in the back of the amp pays dividends, there is no dismatling to do to bias the valves properly :D What a shame they no longer make guitar amps.
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I have the new valves in and biased, no problems. The winged Svets are definitely brighter than the Harmas with a little less bass. I think possibly I prefered the Harma ones, but I had limited choice in the timeframe I had, and I'm suer tweaking the EQ of the amp will get me the sound I want. I haven't cranked tha amp up much yet and these valves are supposed to break up reaaly nicely so we'll see how it sounds at rehearsall volume.The Svets do sound nice on the clean channel, lots of dynamics.
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^^ Abuse them a little more ;)
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I see you've got the new valves already, oh well. I was gonna suggest some 6550s for that amp - you will gain a new set of balls for that amp with these valves, more bass but TIGHT too :twisted:
You'd need to tweak the bias circuit to get them in range as 6550s need more bias voltage than a typical EL34 bias circuit will be setup for. That said, I think it's a very worthwhile move - I've had the current EH 6550s and also the Svetlana ones and the tone is great.
:twisted:
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I see you've got the new valves already, oh well. I was gonna suggest some 6550s for that amp - you will gain a new set of balls for that amp with these valves, more bass but TIGHT too :twisted:
You'd need to tweak the bias circuit to get them in range as 6550s need more bias voltage than a typical EL34 bias circuit will be setup for. That said, I think it's a very worthwhile move - I've had the current EH 6550s and also the Svetlana ones and the tone is great.
:twisted:
The amp has enough bias adjustment to cover a lot of valves, the manual lists: EL34, 6L6, 6550, 5881 & KT88.
Unfortunately I had to get something in fast for Sunday, so went with what I know, but I might try the 6550 sometime then.
Being an open back 2x12 comb it is always going to struggle for bottom end, but then I struggled getting a 4x12 cab into the house and up the stairs :lol: