tubes for 18 watters etc

[cugel]

now i know this has been covered before but tube quality seems to change like the weather so...

just wondering what people are using in their el84 amps or any amp for that matter.
my 18 watt gds build is sounding anemic to say the least and its time to retube it .

would love to hear recommendations and experiences. i play from country to rock . buckers and single coils. i do recall that ei golds red plated in my build and i am now running some very used amperex '84s

[Blue Strat]

More than likely your EL84s are cooked. If the EI's red plated you probably need to increase the cathode resistor value despite any conventional wisdom to the contrary.

http://www.kcanostubes.com/categories/32/1/6BQ5-EL84-7189A.htm

JJ and TAD EL84s are favorites for new production tubes. In NOS, anything will work well.

[chris_d]

I lucked into a pair of Sylvania 7189s that absolutely kicked ass in a high voltage 18watt i had that would redplate "normal" EL84s pretty quickly. I guess they are kind of pricy if you need to buy them, but they made a fine, solder-free bandaid for that amp until i got a chance to rebuild it with EL84-friendly voltages.

Even once the circuit was back in line with 'proper' voltages, the Sylvanias wiped the floor with the JJ EL84s i had as backup. The older tubes had a bizarre massive complexity to totally distorted tones, all kinds of wacky musical harmonics compared to the JJs. In addition when played clean the sound they made just sparkled! The comparison to the JJ EL84s was not subtle at all, it was a very distinct difference, at least between the two pairs of tubes i had. The JJs were much "flatter" to my ears.

Of course, i will only be able to afford to run JJs when the 7189s do finally kick the bucket, but that is a wholly separate problem... :)

-chris

[cugel]

thanks for all of the input
i will check out the TADs and jjs since the price is good and they are readily available