Tube Substitutions.

There are a lot of amps that can use different tubes to change or improve their tone for different styles of playing.

Since there are no decent 6V6 tubes being made currently WHAT!! Wait a minuet!! Who says?? Thanks to Mark Beach ( a loyal customer of mine who reminded me that I needed to change this page ) there are now two solutions for Fender Deluxe amps. I used to routinely re-tube all of the old Fender Deluxe’s with the JJ 6L6GC’s but since the JJ 6V6S has arrived ( 11/03 ) you can go either way. The JJ 6V6S's are a VERY nice 6V6 and sound stellar in any 6V6 amp or for a little more headroom the JJ 6L6GC's will fit the bill with a simple bias adjustment.

The JJ 6V6's are so robust that I have been using them in lots of amps including several of my Blackface Bassman amps and in my Mesa Dual Rec. By choosing the proper grade these can be run in the EL34 and have the best clean tone I've ever heard from my Dual Rec. They also have a deeper thump and breakup earlier than 6L6's do. I have over 100 customers now using the JJ 6V6's in their Fender Hotrod Deluxe and Deville amps with great success.

The JJ KT77 is a drop in replacement for any EL34 type tube for a little different flavor. The JJ KT77 is not quite a tight as the E34L but tighter than an EL34. The 77's have even a bit more low end extension than the E34L's and they have a nice sizzle in the top end that is not brittle. The clean tone is very fat and full and the crunch has more of a chunk to it and it's very punchy but not quite as aggressive as the E34L.

Another great substitution is replacing the 6550’s in 800 Marshalls with the JJ KT88’s. This really fattens them up. The KT88’s also sound great in the late 70’s Marshall Mark II amps in place of either the EL34’s or 6550’s

While we’re talking Marshall, about 90% of the 900’s that I re-tube locally leave with the JJ 6L6GC’s in place of the stock EL34’s. This substitution gives the 900’s some low end punch and smoothes out the mids and highs. Watching the look on the owner’s face when they A/B the 6L6’s to their EL34’s is a lot of fun and well worth the effort. Most of them can’t believe how good the 6L6’s sound.

The JJ KT88’s also sound excellent in the Hot Rod 50, Soldano amps. I even run a quad of the KT88’s in my Twin and it is fat!

If you want to add some real thunder to your old Ampeg SVT then the JJ KT88’s are the tube. They are big, fat, round and very dynamic.

Basically any amp using 6550’s can use the JJ KT88’s. They really sound nice in Leslie’s.

I’ve retubed several Bogner amps which usually come with EL34’s and by using 6L6’s they get more of a Fender type tone and with the EL34 they are more British sounding. The Bogners sound great either way so it’s a matter of choice. A good friend of mine (Brian Hadley) has had two different Bogner amps and I set him up with 6L6’s, EL34’s and KT88’s and the 6L6’s were actually the most versatile.

I will occasionally use a 12AT7 or a 12AU7 in an amp that has a gain channel that’s over the top like my 5150 or Prosonic. In the Prosonic gain stage I use an ECC81 (12AT7) to calm it down a little but I stay a way from subbing a lower value tube in the clean channel because it usually takes away the sparkle and even adds a little noise. An ECC82 (12AU7) in place of a 12AT7 in the reverb is sometimes nice if you don’t use a lot of verb.

If your trying to cut the gain in your amps drive channel you might be interested in a hybrid tube I'm using in my Prosonic and 5150 to cut the gain, it's called the JJ ECC832 which is a 12DW7. This tube is half of an ECC83S ( 12AX7 ) and half of an ECC82 ( 12AU7 ). I one of them in my Prosonic in V2. This actually sounds VERY nice in amps that cascade the gain through several preamp tubes. It cuts down the gain by about 40% but retains a nice crisp attack and warm tone where just dropping down to a 12AT7 seems to dull the tone a bit. The JJ ECC832 tubes are 10.00 each. I've got lots of players using the ECC832 in one or two of the gain stages in everything from the Mesa Triaxis to Peavey Triple X amps with great results.