What's New Archive 2

What’s New Page Archive 2

Below is page two of the archive of the Eurotubes “What’s New” page taking you all the way back to December of 2003 02/05/15

10/19/06 - Weber is what's new! Yes, we have sent so many of our customers to Weber over the years that after talking with Ted we decided to take on Weber Bias Probes, Attenuators and select models of Weber Speakers. There is a Weber page describing these products and you can now find Weber products in the online store!

Click here to go back in time before 02/29/04

10/10/06 - There is now a "How to" bias video up for all you Carvin players. The video shows both the Carvin method of measuring across the standby switch and using a bias probe. These methods can be use for the V3, the MTS and Legacy amps and the older Valvemaster amps. Check it out here!

08/29/06 We just received a new shipment of the JJ KT77's which now have the larger oversize pins so you guys that have been waiting, we're ready for you! *******The High Gain ECC83S's are also back in stock now!!******* We have had a lot of inquiries from Mesa Single Rec owners about using the JJ 6V6's like we have been doing with the Dual Rec's. Well we finally got of dead center on this. Last week Eddie Spent some time with a Single Rec and we have a grade of the JJ 6V6's that will put the bias right where it belongs! This is only for the Single Rec's and Rectoverbs that are switchable from 6L6 to EL34 mode because the 6V6's should be run in the EL34 mode. The outcome? A great warm clean tone because the bias is where it should be and it drops the power down to about 25 to 28 watts so you get earlier power tube distortion! The 6V6's also have a very big low end thump when the lows are dialed up if that's your thing.

08/28/06 - We just put up the "How To" video bias page! This is something that I have been wanting to do for a while now because of all the calls and emails we get on the subject. You can find it here!

06/30/06 - We have spent some time now with the gold pin tubes in several amps and these are a premium grade tube and the main difference with them is that they are smoother in the top end and a little richer in the mids. This holds true with both the ECC83S and the ECC803S so they are very nice tubes for a V1 position for players looking for a richer smoother tone. For these reasons I don’t think they will be a popular tube for death metal or what I call screamer metal if you're after a real hard edge on your tone. In vintage Fenders these are great tubes and the ECC83S Gold pins proved out to be very nice in the Classic Peavey's and the Fender Blues, Pro Jr's and Hotrod Deluxe's. We really liked the way this tube smoothed out the Valve Jr combo amp. The Gold pin ECC803S did very well in my Dual Rec for a V1 tube and I also have one in the V1 position of my Anderson 20/45 which made an unbelievable amp even better. I also ran the ECC803S in the Valve Jr head and it was "butter!" So if you're after the best of the best in a V1 tube or across the board the Gold pin tubes are very nice indeed! The ECC83S Gold pin tubes are priced at 18.00 and the ECC803S Gold pin long plate tubes are 21.00 and we do have these in stock! As we go thru them we will be offering them with matched triodes and balanced triodes which will be showing up in the online store shortly.

05/02/06 - We just received first run test samples of the new Gold Pin JJ preamp tubes! In the pic below the tube on the left is the new long plate standard ECC802. Going from left to right the second tube is the new Gold Plate ECC81 and the next tube is the long plate Gold Plate version of the ECC802 followed by the E88CC, the ECC83S and the ECC803S. I do not have pricing on these yet and we will be busy testing these in lots of amps over the next couple weeks!

03/12/06 Here is review for the KT77's in a Peavey JSX, thanks Michael! From: Michael Boyer [mailto:boyer@cfl.rr.com] Sent: Saturday, March 11, 2006 5:48 PM To: Bob Subject: Re: Peavey JSX Tube SOS Bob, I just wanted to give you a quick update on how my Peavey JSX head sounds. I had the amp biased and retubed by a local tech. The head came stock with a quad of JJ EL34’s and EH 12AX7’s. The tubes were replaced by a quad of your JJ KT77’s, three high gain JJ ECC83S’s, and one graded/balanced JJ ECC83S for the phase splitter (V4). First of all, let me say that the difference is night and day! I am soooo pleased with the tone I am now getting. I liked the JSX before, but some days were great while others left me guessing. That is not the case now. The bottom end is tighter, thicker, and deeper (as promised). The mids have the great EL34 crunch, while the highs chime with lots of head room. I feel the amp now has a better attack too. I am simply blown away at how this head growls. My JSX is NOW a tone machine! Lastly, I just wanted to thank you for putting out such an informative website. Not to mention responding to emails in such a prompt fashion. With out the information and visitors posts, I honestly believe I would still be searching for that dream tone. Possibly dropping a few grand more on another head, when a hundred bucks in replacement tubes did the job. If you have any other customers wanting a great modern voicing out of their JSX, mention the above tube combination…It definitely worked for me! Thanks Again, Michael Boyer

03/01/06 Here is another review for the KT77's. thanks Marks! -----Original Message-----From: msmith@comcast.net [mailto:msmith@comcast.net] Sent: Wednesday, March 01, 2006 2:09 PM To: Bob Subject: KT77's Bob, Put a pair of KT 77's in my Blueverb 40-112 combo amp. This was a great sounding amp with JJ EL-34's in it, but HOLY MOLY! This amp sounds better than ever...more singing feedback, more chime at clean settings. The amp sounds richer in 2nd order harmonics, sweeter all around. Smitty(Blueverb Builder),said these are some of the best sounding tubes he's ever heard. I have to agree with him. WOW! The tubes have about 24 hours on them and have settled in well. Thanks for getting these tubes made, Mark Smith

02/28/06 Here is another review for the KT77's. thanks Jason! -----Original Message-----From: Good Jason [mailto:soulcrusher@yahoo.com] Sent: Tuesday, February 28, 2006 9:00 PM To: eurotubes@cnnw.net Subject: KT77 review Let's see, matchup tonite: JJ KT77 vs. JJ E34L vs. Mesa/Electro-Harmonix EL34. The two rings: Mesa/Boogie Stiletto Deuce, Peavey JSX. The JSX has had it's JJ E34Ls for almost a year now with no problems, chugging away it's song. They are by far tighter and meatier sounding than the EH EL34s they replaced, but the JJ KT77s took it a step further. They ALMOST have the girth of a 6L6 in this amp, but still retain that awesome EL34 crunch. The tone from these bottles is nice and thick: nice fat, highs....thick, crunchy, mids, and a tight, deep bottom end that never fell apart. I'm sure the two JJ ECC803's and two JJ ECC83s's in the preamp helped too, but who's counting? On to the Mesa. The stock tubes seems WAY too mushy to be in a nice amp like this. On the gain channel in "Fluid Drive" mode, the stock EH tubes seemed to compress too much and totally mush out. With the JJ KT77s in place the amp totally woke up. The bottom end was much tighter, bigger and fuller. The mids were more present and cutting, and the highs didn't feel like icepicks in your ears. I am very impressed with these tubes. I'll be sure to retube with these guys! ~Jay

02/25/06 Here is yet another review from a Hifi customer of mine Blain. He wrote me with his initial impressions and then again after a few hours when the tubes had sweetened up. -----Original Message----- From: scarey52@charter.net [mailto:scarey52@charter.net] Sent: Friday, February 24, 2006 6:08 PM To: eurotubes Subject: KT77 I JUST RECIEVED MY JJ KT77S TODAY.. NOW I DO NOT USE THESE FOR GUTAIR AMPLIFIERS BUT FOR HIFI USE. I INSTALLED THEM IN MY VELLEMAN 4040B 90 WATT PER CHANNEL AMPLIFIER. AT FIRST THEY WERE A BIT STERILE BUT DIFFERENT THAN ANYTHING I HAVE HEARD.. SHORTLY THEREAFTER, WOW.. I COULD NOT BELIEVE HOW BIG MY SOUNDSTAGE WAS.. EVERY ASPECT OF MY SYSTEM WAS NOW DIFFERENT. SOUND WAS MUCH CLEARER MORE DEFINED, BASS WAS TIGHTER AND HIT A BIT LOWER WITH AUTHORITY THAN MOST OF THE 6CA7 TYPE TUBES. NOW I HAVE OWNED TELEFUNKENS THE REAL ONES WEST GERMAN ONES. I HAVE OWNED MULLARDS XF2, 3, AND 4 TYPE. I HAVE SPENT SO MUCH MONEY ON ALL THESE SO CALLED SPECTACULAR NOS TUBES. NOW I WISH I HAD NOT. THESE TUBES SOUND MUCH BETTER THAN MOST OLDER TUBES 70'S AND OLDER. AND AT 1/20TH THE PRICE.. SO I ENCOURAGE ANYONE WHO IS AS BAD AS ME AT TUBE ROLLING TO SELL THERE STOCK AND BUY THESE. MAYBE USE THE PROFITS TO TAKE THE FAMILY ON VACATION. ALL IN ALL I RATE THEM A 11 OUT OF 10. NOW I AM JUST WAITING FOR JJ TO REVERSE ENGINEER SOME GOOD OLD SYLVANIA 6550'S. -----Original Message----- From: scarey52@charter.net [mailto:scarey52@charter.net] Sent: Friday, February 24, 2006 9:21 PM To: eurotubes Subject: kt77 Bob The 5 hours have now passed... one word to sum it all up SPOOKY. Listening to Jack Johnson on his accoustic guitar sounds so real it is not even right... in other words it does not sound like recorded music. that is why i say spooky. I love em never will i buy another el34 type again.. i guess i am done searching. I have found my TONE..

02/25/06 The new JJ KT77's are now available in the online store! Everyone on the waiting list has ordered them and I have some more of them in stock and ready to go!

02/23/06 OK!!!!! My phone has been ringing off the hook more than usual and my email is at 200% instead of it's usual 150% capacity and the reason is because of the statement below about the KT77's settling in and sweetening up after about 5 hours of use. I have never seen a statement cause so much trouble! So if you have left me a phone message or an email about this here is your answer. All power tubes will sweeten up after about 5 to 10 hours of use even after the 24 hour burn in that they receive. This is normal, I repeat, this is normal! DO NOT LEAVE YOUR AMP ON FOR 10 HOURS!!!!! Just play as you normally would!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

02/23/06 Another Hifi review on the KT77's From: Pieter Franken [mailto:pieter@tkb.ne.jp] Sent: Thursday, February 23, 2006 6:07 AM To: eurotubes@cnnw.net Subject: Re: Tubes Bob, the stuff arrived yesterday in good shape. I ended up listening till early morning after installing the KT77 in my 'reference' 8B (heavily tweaked). Well, I was quite surprised by the sound. Especially the bass is extremely powerful, and overall the sound is from bottom to top clean and very fast. Compared to the Philips Metal-base, they're doing extremely well, if not to say better in power, and this is only after a few hours of break in. Also the bias is very stable, just what you expect from a Mullard or Telefunken -- no drift after doing the initial bias routine. Thanks for your great service and hope more folks find out about these! Cheers, Pieter

02/20/06 I have been getting quite a few calls from you Hifi guys about the KT77's so here is a review from one of my Hifi customers Ken. The question was asked about a burn in and the answer is yes! 24 hours, but as you noticed they really settle in after an additional 4 to 6 hours. From: ken r [mailto:ear_me@yahoo.com] Sent: Monday, February 20, 2006 11:30 AM To: Bob Subject: KT77 impresions Hello Bob, Not knowing if the KT77's had previous burn in, this is my take after ~ 20 hours. Sounded like an EL34 up until the 5 hour mark at which time they came to life. The KT77's are much more high definition, better harmonically with lots of texture, and the sweetest, purest, most extended highs I've heard. The 77's let all the low level detail shine through, almost transporting me to the studio on well engineered material. Don't know if it's a distortion product but the EL34' I've used (NOS Mullards, Sventlanas, dimple top slimmies) all sound grainy in comparison. This is one great tube and one I predict will kill the NOS EL34 market as well as the new EL34 market - why buy a 34 when the 77 is so much better? Thanks again for the tubes and if it's not too much to ask - can I buy another quad? Regards, Ken

02/17/06 The KT77 reviews are starting to pile in here are a couple of them. The first is from John S. He is using the 77's in his Genz Benz El Diablo 100. He included a pic and it was so nice I just had to put it up! From: 47driver@comcast.net [mailto:47driver@comcast.net] Sent: Saturday, February 18, 2006 3:58 PM To: Bob Subject:Hi Bob. I received my set of KT77s for my Genz Benz El Diablo 100 and all I can say is WOW!!! Before this amp was grainy, alittle harsh in the mids and was just sluggish. The clean channels lows are big and round, not flabby and overpowering. Mids are rich and creamy and not brittle what so ever. and the highs are nice and sweet and chime like a bell. Pushed and it has a nice plexi breakup. Let her rip on the Hot channel and oh my god... A huge fat, tight low end, mids crunch up with a sweet airy haze. And the highs just sing with such warmth, it melted some of the 2 feet of snow New England has gotten last weekend. This amp is a monster now. Thank you for the great tubes and wonderful service. Thank you John Sambitsky. P.S. I enclosed a pic..

The second KT77 review from today is from Roy V. -----Original Message----- From: Roy Villa-Agustin [mailto:metalhead@msn.com] Sent: Saturday, February 18, 2006 9:03 PM To: Eurotubes Subject: Thank you! Bob, I just want to let you know that I got my KT77s for my Carvin X100B and I could not be happier. Not only are they chunkier, creamer and rounder then my JJ E34Ls but they also smoother. It cuts like a hot knife through butter. I am so impress with them. My Carvin already sounds very good but now it sounds great! I am speechless. All I can say is wow and double wow! Thanks again, Roy

02/10/06 The first full production run of 1000 of the new KT77's has just cleared customs! All of you that I currently have on my waiting list are covered! I will be busy contacting all of you this weekend while the 77's are being matched up and graded. The plate current draw on the new ones are exactly the same as the EL34's and E34L's so they are compatible will all amps using EL34's like Marshall's, Mesa's, Laney's, Traynor's and most all other amps. Those of you who have called me this week are on the list for the next 1000 pieces that are scheduled to leave the JJ factory next Wednesday 02/15/06 and should clear customs by the 23rd at which time there will be enough of them for me to list them in the online store!

01/25/06 For everyone asking about the KT77's I still have a waiting list for the third batch that is on the way right now! If you are not on the list and want to be, you can email me here. Please let me know what amp or amps they are for and how many you would like. They are 32.00 a pair and 64.00 a quad. The KT77's on the way now are expected to arrive on about 2/10 and should clear customs a couple days later. The first test run and the pre-production run of the KT77's were very hot grades but JJ has dialed them in now so that they are coming in right where the JJ EL34's and E34L's are so they are compatible with virtually any amp using EL34's.

01/24/06 The 06 NAMM show was fun as usual and you can read a review here!

01/08/06 A few of the latest KT77 customers are getting back to me with reviews. Here is one from Tony using the KT77's and ECC83S's in his Mesa Dual Rec. Thanks Tony! ----- Original Message ----- From: tony ramirez To: Eurotubes Sent: Sunday, January 08, 2006 1:12 PMSubject: Re: KT77's! Hiya Bob, Man the kt77's sound friggin' awesome in the dually! ( Mesa Dual Rec ) This thing sounded good with the mesa 6l6's but now it has some serious cajones,louder,punchier and yes some real nice chunka-thunck and absolutely NO flub. The mids are full of british bark but not at all harsh and the nice high end sparkle really helps cut through a loud #%!* drummer and bass player. It now seems to have a smoother yet more aggresive lead tone and the clean channel is sweeter both normal and pushed to good ole plexi...here we go...crunch!! I can't wait to hear how this thing tracks as I'll be finding out soon. I just want to say thank you so much for taking the time to listen to my requests and helping me by hand picking the right combo of pre,power and rec tubes for this rig. You'll definately be hearing from me when it's time to retube my Dr.Z. Thanks again for such an awesome service bro. -Tony

12/22/05 This just in, Crunchmaster Chris test drives the KT77's! goerizer@rcn.com> To: <eurotubes@cnnw.net> Sent: Wednesday, December 21, 2005 8:19 PMSubject: KT77s in my V3 Howdy Bob, HOLY GUACAMOLE these KT77s are SOOO cool in my Carvin V3. I'm not as eloquent at giving reviews as MK, all I can say is they have made this amp an absolute crunch monster! And the cleans, yeeehawww!! I'm not into country but I just might have to with the kind of twangy, gritty, bootkickin' ruckus these things make. WOW is damn near the best thing I can say. Thank you for the opportunity to be among the initial recipients of this new tube, and I agree with MK... YOU RULE! ...Crunchmaster Chris...

12/20/05 Just tried another combination of tubes which might interest you Mesa players. The pic below of my Dual Rec shows a pair of the KT77's in the outside holes along with a pair of the JJ 6V6's in the middle two holes. This was a great combination of tones combining the heavy chunk of the 77's and the fat cleans from the 6V6's. At a little higher volumes the 6V6's broke up first which sounded very nice while the KT77's were fat warm with a great sizzle on top. A quad of KT77's in the DR yielded a killer clean channel that simply roared at higher volumes and I hate to use this very over used term but they had almost a Plexi grind to them. The drive channels ( my DR is a three channel ) sounded very fat and the lows were as deep and punchy as any 6L6 so the KT77's will even fit the bill for fans of dropped tune Metal.

12/13/05 So I promised a report as I cycle the new KT77's thru different amps. If you have been around the Eurotubes site you probably know I have a Block letter 5150 that I have done a split bias mod on so that the inside two power tubes can be biased independently from the outside pair. In the past my favorite combination of power tubes have been two KT88's in the outside sockets and two E34L's in the inside two sockets. ( As a side note, the amp is completely stock except for the bias mod, the amp still has the factory 100 ohm screen grid resisters ). I now have a new favorite! I think I will rename the 5150ex ( originally named for 5150 "experimental" ) to the 5150KT! I'm now running two of the JJ KT77's along with two JJ KT88's and it's even more brutal than before! It can go from a mild mannered crunch to the thickest tone I've heard yet from this amp! Here is a pic! I will be running some KT77's in my Dual Rec over the next few days so I will report on the compatibility!

OK, it's 12/10/05 and here it is!

Here is another shot. So here's the scoop, for those of you who are not familiar with the KT77 it was designed and introduced back in the mid 70's by MO Valve to be the king of EL34's. It has a slightly shorter plate structure than an EL34 but as you can see by the pic's the plates are a lot larger and just clear the glass. It's capable of a max dissipation of 32 watts and has an extended low end response and a crunch that is more of what I call a chunk! It's very tight and thick sounding with a very crisp high end presence. It can be used in most any amp that uses EL34's for a different flavor. I sacrificed a pair of my NOS Genalex KT77 to JJ for them to use for R&D on this tube and JJ has done a beautiful job recreating the incredible sound of a legend. Over the next few weeks I will be addressing the use of these tubes in lots of different amps for you. I have a very limited quantity of them which is spoken for but I will be getting the first full production run by the last week in December so if you want on the waiting list just shoot me an email. The price will be 32.00 a pair and 64.00 a quad. A couple of weeks ago I sent out a test quad to a good customer of mine Michael Klein for review because Michael is not only a guitar player but also a tube Hifi guy. Here is Michael's review of the new JJ KT77. Good morning Bob, Fortunately, I've been blessed with the opportunity to spend more time with the test-batch quad of KT77s that you graciously sold to me. The "official" results and findings are in, and I'll go into more detail below, but all I can say is WOW! My Hi-Fi stereo is an Antique Sound Lab AQ1003. I just recently purchased this amplifier and was running it with a quad of "hand-me-down" Electro- Harmonix EL34-EHs. My speakers are PSB Image 4Ts. My CD player is an NAD, my turntable is a Music Hall MMF, my cartridge is a Goldring Elan, my phono preamp is a Pro-Ject, and my interconnects and speaker cable are all Audioquest. Not particularly "upper crust" Hi-Fi, but a great sounding system at a reasonable price. After installing the new JJ KT77s and biasing them to about 35ma, the improvement in every sonic aspect was startling. Immediately, it was clear how much more balanced they are across the frequency spectrum. The bass extends lower than before, but is tighter, punchier, and more natural (i.e. - less boomy) than I've ever heard on a stereo in this so-called budget range (approx $1k). The harmonic richness in the midrange frequencies was just stellar. Instruments not only sounded more life-like dynamically, but harmonically as well. On well-produced albums, this was particularly evident. The treble response that the KT77s added gave me a permanent smile - brass instruments sounded less clamped than before, and again the harmonic richness of things like cymbals was just phenomenal. The background noise with these tubes was non-existent. At high volume levels, the KT77s never lost their definition or clarity...and fantastically the frequency response remained constant and linear. Whether you listen to primarily orchestral music, jazz, blues, rock, metal, hip-hop...these tubes have the linearity, richness, and headroom to deliver in spades. I will NOT search for a different EL34 for my stereo. As for guitar, my rig is relatively straight forward. My guitars are two dramatically different PRS's, a Gibson Flying V, and a Fender Eric Johnson Sig Strat. My amplifier is a THD BiValve, and my cabinets are an Avatar open-back 1x12 (w/ Celestion G12H30...used primarily for jazz and blues) and an Avatar closed-back 2x12 (w/ Celestion G12H30 and Vintage 30...used for everything else). My pedal board is a little more complicated, but I feel its irrelevant to the KT77s. Cabling is George L's. I used eight different preamp tubes for this: 2x JJ ECC83s (120 gain), 2x JJ ECC803S (105-110 gain), 2x JJ ECC81 (120% gain), 2x Mullard CV4024. Power tubes I compared the KT77s to are (I only selected from my EL34-types): Mullard EL34s (Xf2), Matsuhisha "fake Mullard" EL34, Amperex Bugle Boy EL34, JJ E34L, and Electro-Harmonix EL34-EH. With conviction, all I can say is a resounding WOW!!!! These KT77s are literally my favorite tube that I have of any type, including some of the late greats like the aforementioned or the RCA 6L6GC Black Plate, Brimar 6V6...and the entire line of JJ tubes. Not necessarily that they're better than the other JJ's, they're just more what I'm looking for sonically. Clean, these tubes have a fantastic deep low-end extension that isn't the least bit boomy, but instead chunky and defined. The midrange is EXTREMELY rich and incredibly musical. The treble frequencies are articulate, glassy, and very very sweet. They worked great for everything from fingerstyle jazz comping, to Strat-toned jazz blues, arpeggiations...everything just jumped out of the speakers with authority and musicality. Lots of sweetness, gobs of harmonic overtones, PERFECT frequency response. Just insane.... Overdriven, the KT77s have probably the coolest crunch of any single tube I have. They have the midrange focus of EL34s, but they don't get harsh in the high-end, nor do they lose any bass. If anything, they get thicker as you crank them up. They were extremely dynamic and linear...I was able to control them easily with my playing dynamics. Extremely musical...and have a certain "Hi-Fi" overdriven sound in that they are so rich yet balanced. Cranked, the KT77s DELIVERED. Talk about a huge, yet singing tone. I guess the words "Marshall-esque" or "British-sounding" apply, but the KT77s give much more than the midrange crunch those phrases describe. They give bass CHUNK, and somehow give a sweet, angelic treble response in the process. It's as if my favorite characteristics of 6L6s, 6V6s, EL34s, and KT88s were all wrapped up into one tube, and then balanced with each other so they work in harmony. I'm sorry this is SOOOOO long, but there's so much to praise on the new JJ KT77s. Someone could give me $5,000 to spend on any EL34 type ever created, and I wouldn't look past the JJ KT77 (although, in honesty it does have me curious about the original Genalex :). Thanks for the opportunity to get my hands on a quad of these early. Its been fantastic, and I can't wait to get the other pair dedicated solely towards my BiValve. You rule! - mk

12/03/05 During talks with JJ Electronic in January I was asked the question "what tube should we build next?" JJ had responded to one of my last requests which was the JJ 6V6, and as everyone who has tried these tubes knows, they knocked that one WAY out of the ballpark! So my answer was simple, I said what we need is a *******! Well, they have done it! It's a wonderful tube! I have been testing them now for about a week and it's another BIG time winner! All you Marshall, Mesa, Laney, Carvin players just to name a few, get ready!! I will be getting a limited number of these in the end of next week and the first real production run will be here between Christmas and New Years which I'm sure won't last long! We are so excited about this tube that you will see the first ever Eurotubes add in the February issue of Guitar Player! Here is a sneak peek!

09/09/05 For all of you guys that have been after me on this, the new Eurotubes T Shirts are FINALLY here! These are vivid nine screen beauties ( Yes! Nine screens! ) depicting what else? A tube powered Earth! We all know that tubes make the Earth just a little warmer and more beautiful so here's your chance to show it! These are available in black only in regular T's and tank tops in the online store for 15.00

08/10/05 The new JJ EZ81 has arrived! This is a rectifier tube that replaces the 6CA4 which is used in a lot of older Hifi amps and smaller guitar amps. This is a great sub for the new 20 watt hand wired Marshall.

04/30/05 Here is another option for you Mesa Dual Rec players! I have been wanting to get around to this for a while and with the help of my son Eddie who has become more involved with Eurotubes over the past couple of years we finally got to it! This option is running the JJ 6V6's and GZ34's in the Dual Rec! The pics above show a quad of the JJ 6V6's running with two of the JJ GZ34's. These are running in the EL34 bias position and the Bold setting and in the tube rectifier mode utilizing the two GZ34's which gets the plate voltage to 450 volts and the current draw to 28mA per tube which is perfect! Using the solid state rectifier gets them a little too hot. Using the GZ34's will get you that tube rectifier sound without the saggy feel that the stock 5U4 rectifier tubes give you so it's like playing in solid state bold but you get the rectifier tube dynamics. The sound? Very cool! The JJ 6V6's have a very big low end that is tight and well defined. The mids and highs are thick, sweet and harmonically rich and at higher volumes they crunch up like only a 6V6 can do. To date this is the warmest clean tone I've heard from a Dual Rec. So if you want to get a little more of that cranked up tone a bit earlier and want a great clean to go along with a very warm and punchy drive tone from you Dual or Triple Rec the JJ 6V6's and GZ34's may just be what your looking for! As a side note the preamp tubes we used were three of the graded high gain ECC83S's in V1, V2 and V3 with a standard ECC83S in V4 and a high gain balanced ECC83S in V5. This is the most popular set of Mesa front end tubes that we do and they are available in the online store under the title "Mesa high gain front end".

03/10/05 Another review of the new ECC803 from Chris Holtz who was on my waiting list for the first batch! ----- Original Message ----- From: "Chris Holtz" <zedzed@gmail.com> To: <eurotubes@cnnw.net> Sent: Thursday, March 10, 2005 4:55 PMSubject: ECC803 Performance Hello Bob, I got the tubes 2 days after ordering them. Thanks for getting my some of these great tubes to me on such short notice. I have 2 amps I use for testing: a Fender Bronco/Vibro-Champ and a high-gain monster that I built called Jezebel. First into the Champ: GREAT clean tone, total classic rock and classic country. Compared to a diamond base Telefunken in the same amp I heard a sweeter, more fluid tone from the JJ ECC803 as compared to the hard metallic snap of the Telefunken. The JJ ECC803 has a broader sweet spot. I notice this with ALL of the JJ tubes, a very large and predictable sweet spot of compression leading into saturation. Clean tones have a liquid sparkle and driving tones have a singing sweetness. Next into Jezebel. Jezebel is a 2 channel monster with a classic Fender/Marshall clean channel and a modern Soldano/DualRect/5150 high-gain channel. Again: the clean tones are sweet and liquid, driven tones on the first channel are classic rock & honky-tonk. On to the High-gain channel: WOW...even at HIGH GAIN I can still heard the attack of the note on the string. I can hear right through the saturation down to the core of the string. The sound was soooooo goood I was into a total shred. Again that liquid-fluid transparent sweetness even at HIGH-GAIN settings. I just have ONE question: WHEN CAN I GET MORE JJ-ECC803's??? Peace, Chris Holtz: Toob Freek, Custom Rock Hardware So to Answer this question, it won't be long! JJ is ramping up production of the ECC803 and I will have more coming in about a month!

02/08/05 OK, so we have been stuffing the new JJ Long Plate ECC803's into everything we have and I have a few out to some tone hound friends for review. So far what we have found is that the 803 is not quite a hot gain wise as the ECC83S's. The 803 is however right between 105 to 110 on my VTV Characterizer which is right where the vast majority of my Telefunken and Mullards measure so it's not whimpy by any standard. We did find that the silver plate 803 was not quite as smooth and fat sounding as the Gray plate and I'm happy to announce that JJ has decided on the Gray plate with welded construction. Here is a little closer look at it. I get lots of email everyday asking "is it a Telefunken copy?". So the answer to the most asked question is no! The plates are longer and the construction is different, as for the sound yes, it is probably the closest to a Tele I've heard and it's the only 12AX7 type tube that we have NOT been able to distinguish from a Tele with any amount of accuracy in a blind test. The second most asked question is "how does it differ from the ECC83S?". The answer is that there are a lot of similarities in the tone, especially in the low end. Both tubes are very deep, tight and defined with no flab. The differences start to become more evident in the mids where the 803 is simply thicker sounding. The highs on the 803 are pretty close to the ECC83S but the 803 has a little more pronounced high but with no tendency to get brittle and this is where it most resembles a Tele. So for darker voiced amps like Mesa's this would be great tube for V1. So far where the 803 has shined the most is in vintage amps like old Fenders and Marshalls where it's fat tone sounds great. It breaks up very nicely in the tradition of the ECC83S. Here is a couple of excerpts from reviews so far on 803's that I have out for testing. "What can I say.......the highs never got nasty and always stayed cutting but sweet. The mids were so flexible I could control their crunch factor with pick attack alone..... Pick softer near the neck=smooth and warm. Pick harder near the neck=creamy!! Really dig in at the bridge and it could almost cut you...move up a little w/med attack and the mids went "crunch" I could go on and on, but I know you know "exactly" what I'm trying to say. Sustain? Damn, I think I'm still holding a note from Saturday night!! LOL Excellent Sustain! (even in the upper registers) So far, I LOVE IT! Thank you again for this nice opportunity....." Here is another comment! "WOW! What took them so long! Very smooth with the best mid and high that I have heard from any new production tube ever, it destroys my GT 12AX7M's... Don't know if you want to use my comments or not because I'm already a big JJ fan.

It's 01/25/05 and we are back from NAMM! Here are some pics of the first JJ Long Plate ECC803's!! The pic on the left shows the silver and coated plate ECC803's. The silver is a classic crimped plate like the Telefunken and the gray plate is a welded plate style. I didn't have much time to really A/B them hard yet but my son Eddie and I both heard a nice thickness and richness in the mids with a brilliant top end. They are nice and quiet with a pretty high gain structure. The plates are about 1/16" longer than any long plate style 12AX7 I have. The second pic shows them next to a Telefunken and a Mullard just reference. So far there has been no difference from the silver to the gray plate in tone but we will be doing some extensive listening and comparing soon. Jamona is deciding between silver, gray, crimped or welded for production so let me know what you think.

It's Tuesday 09/14/2004 and I just returned from clearing everything thru customs! I will be up all night testing and grading tubes so all of you who have patiently waited with back orders for the ECC81's, your orders will ship first thing in the morning! The new 7591's are also in!

09/02/04 OK, the latest!! YES! The new JJ 7591 is a reality and I have some on the way! They should clear customs by about the 10th. I already have a waiting list so if you want to be on it just shoot me an email and I'll let you know when they are matched, graded and ready to ship! The word from Jamona at JJ on the new long plate ECC83 is "close but not yet". Have patience, good things take time. If you want on the waiting list for these tubes just shoot me an email.

07/27/04 It has finally happened!!! You can now order online at Eurotubes! Yes, it has been a three year struggle with more dips and curves than I could have ever imagined but it's finally done! The Eurotubes online store is NOT a third party add on so no one else will be looking over your data! I still encourage you to call and email me with you questions or as many of you like to do, simply shop online!

03/04/04 OK it's been a month now since I've been hammering on the new JJ 6V6's and I've now got them running in about half a dozen Hot Rod Deluxes and Devilles so I feel very safe in saying that these are a very viable alternative for HRD players looking for a little earlier breakup and that upper mid range crunch that only a 6V6 can get so if your after that cranked up Deluxe Reverb vibe here it is!

02/29/04 OK, the latest JJ 6V6 news! Hang on... I have been torturing the JJ 6V6's in my 66 Bassman head now for several weeks at 460 plate volts biased at 22mA per tube and they sound GREAT! Jamona told me that they would run at up to 500 plate volts so I decided to give them a thrashing and they are holding up just fine. I also have a pair in a friends Hot Rod Deluxe at 445 plate volts and 24mA per tube and this is a gig amp for him so it will be a good test. So far the JJ 6V6's make a surprising amount of power and tend to breakup a little earlier with a mid and upper end crunch that is VERY cool! I'll keep you all posted on how they do over the long run but so far I'm very impressed! This should be a nice option for players looking for a little earlier breakup and that classic 6V6 crunch in bigger amps.

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