Which 12AX7?

[guitarrob]

I want to pick up a set of 12AX7 for tube drive pedal experiments.  I am looking for cheaper but not the lowest of the low.  I was told to avoid Chinese tubes for whatever reason and they seem to be the cheapest priced.

I received recommendations for (in no order)
1. JJ
2. Sovtek
3. Tungsol
4. Sino
5. Groovtubes
6. Electro-Harmonix.

On the low end for prices I was looking at JJ, Tungsol and Sovtek.  Can you tube heads offer any opinions?
BTW, I know there are many higher end tubes but I am looking for good tubes for testing.
I appreciate your help.

[Somicide]

IME, JJ is reliable, cheap, and sounds excellent.  Cheapest usually, in fact.

[iccaros]

Any of the tubes you list would be = good.
Grovetubes is not a brand, they re-brand other tubes
Chines tubes can be good, and some you listed are make in China.. There are only a few factories in the world.

Just pick one, if they are marked 12AX7 they should behave in the speck of a 12AX7. Sadly the specification is large and wide so different makes sound different, but they all work in the same design, unless the design poor.
Word of warning, most tube pedals are starved plate and the 12AX7 in my experience has issues with low voltage, no matter what brand. I start to like the sound at 30v, but 80v is better.

[petemoore]

  12au7 or any letter you can find to fill the blank: 12a_7 is worth checking into, lower gain and ability to drive more current, pin for pin compatible, but the 'x' version is the highest gain of all the 'later letter' 12a_7 types.
   Something that has recently earned good field reports is always a decent thing to bet on.
   There are the 'these'll makit work' type tubes...these make it work better tubes, and then premium and overpriced tubes [someone particular and certain application may see improvement worth 'overpriced' remark, I found them hard to leave untried until I happened upon them for free one day {6v6's and 6v6GT's}..they're really nice for stereo and the top end is slightly different for guitar...but I tend to look for >improvement using <buxx.
   For my guitar amps in particular, that means 'has to be robust' [true especially for combo amp], and sound nice.
  A box of 'starter tubes' on the shelf holds the ones that didn't fall off the end of the bench during swap-outs, it was pretty easy to hear and see how the tone smoothed out and the volume control worked differently when the 'starter-tubes' were upgraded.

[guitarrob]

Any of the tubes you list would be = good.
Grovetubes is not a brand, they re-brand other tubes
Chines tubes can be good, and some you listed are make in China.. There are only a few factories in the world.

Just pick one, if they are marked 12AX7 they should behave in the speck of a 12AX7. Sadly the specification is large and wide so different makes sound different, but they all work in the same design, unless the design poor.
Word of warning, most tube pedals are starved plate and the 12AX7 in my experience has issues with low voltage, no matter what brand. I start to like the sound at 30v, but 80v is better.

Ah, didn't know that about Groovetubes.
When I said chinese I just meant generic units that seem the cheapest and just listed as "Chinese Tubes" at the various distributors.
I am working with a high voltage design, not a starved plate but thanx for the info.

  12au7 or any letter you can find to fill the blank: 12a_7 is worth checking into, lower gain and ability to drive more current, pin for pin compatible, but the 'x' version is the highest gain of all the 'later letter' 12a_7 types.
   Something that has recently earned good field reports is always a decent thing to bet on.
   There are the 'these'll makit work' type tubes...these make it work better tubes, and then premium and overpriced tubes [someone particular and certain application may see improvement worth 'overpriced' remark, I found them hard to leave untried until I happened upon them for free one day {6v6's and 6v6GT's}..they're really nice for stereo and the top end is slightly different for guitar...but I tend to look for >improvement using <buxx.
   For my guitar amps in particular, that means 'has to be robust' [true especially for combo amp], and sound nice.
  A box of 'starter tubes' on the shelf holds the ones that didn't fall off the end of the bench during swap-outs, it was pretty easy to hear and see how the tone smoothed out and the volume control worked differently when the 'starter-tubes' were upgraded.

I am buying a set of 12AU also for a different design and prototyping also.  I am just looking for good sound to price tubes.
I can see already that I am gonna end up buying multiple sets for testing.

[amptramp]

There are some comments on tubes here:

http://thetubestore.com/12ax70ectyp.html

Not quite the range of comments that the old Lord Valve site used to have, but useful nonetheless.  Each tube has a description that leads to a "more" link that carries a full description.  Some of it is subjective, but some things like microphonic tendencies should be taken into account.

[candidate]

Who makes Mesa Boogie tubes?

[iccaros]

Mesa Boogie test tubes to meet their Amp specifications and relabel them. They look at math and not opinion. 

[defaced]

Yep.  When I had a triple recto, it had "Russian II" tubes in them.  Pretty sure they were Sovtek.  Last time I looked at a (what I'm pretty sure was a new) Boogie, it had JJ power tubes, which leads me to suspect it probably also had JJ preamp tubes.

[slideman82]

JJ are pretty good. Some guy who is my tube dealer told me EHX are the last in the selection line. They're almost all from Russia. I've got a Marshall ECC83 that used to come inside a Valvestate 8080, and it's the same as a Russian one.

[R.G.]

I would get a couple of each and interview them.

There is a reason they're in sockets. 

[runmikeyrun]

I love my JJ 12ax7, 12at7, and 12au7s.  They're cheap, reliable, and sound very balanced and clip nicely. 

[puretube]

2 of the  persons on the following pic are the sole owners each of a current manufacturing tube-factory:





(hint: the lady is a German Guitar&Bass journalist...)