Tube replacements for Shiva EL34 head

[bilbal]

Hey guys and gals.

About a week and a half ago, I became the proud new owner of a Bogner Shiva head with EL34s and 'verb. Have any of you swapped out the tubes for others? I was wondering what sounds good for these amps. I assume the tubes I have in it are the stock (not sure of the brand). What have you guys found to work best and give the amp the best possible tone it can get. IOW, I want the clean channel to be the cleanest and most headroom possible and the dirty channel I want to scream for solos with a bunch of gain. I'm not looking for industrial or heavy, heavy gain but enough.

Thanks,
Bill

 

[Blue Strat]

My customers like the Tung Sol Reissue 12AX7s and SED EL34s in their Shivas.

 

[twangbanger]

I'm running 2-tung sol 12ax7 reissues in V1 and the PI . and some of the 9th gen chinese in the other spots. SED EL34s are about the only way to go for current prod. power tubes. Oh, and it sounds great!!!!

 

[billm408]

Bill- you're already looking at a tube swap? Gearheads are truly sick individuals! We can't ever be happy with what we have.
Not sure how this would work in the Shiva, but I recently switched a matched set of KT88's for the EL34's in my XTC and the results are awesome! Much bigger tonal footprint all the way around. The XTC's clean channel (often maligned) is now very close to the tones I get from my 6L6 Shiva. I highly recommend them as an alternative to the EL34's.

 

[bluessyndicate]

Avoid JJ's 12ax7's in the Shiva like the plague....takes a great amp and makes it dull and lifeless....those same tubes in my mesa triaxis made it alive and good.

 

[Stormin]

Avoid JJ's 12ax7's in the Shiva like the plague....takes a great amp and makes it dull and lifeless....those same tubes in my mesa triaxis made it alive and good.

That's interesting. In one of yesterday's Shiva threads, the JJ Short Plate was highly recommended for V1 and V2.

I'll have to check that one out for myself...

Stormin!

 

[bluessyndicate]

If the short plate is something new then perhaps....but I tried Ecc803S and Ecc83S and it was amazingly bad....just so blah and lifeless. There were other thread back maybe a year ago where others agreed. Good tubes thought in other amps...just not the Shiva. I think Reinhold definitely had Chinese preamp tubes in mind for that amp.

 

[freaksho]

. . . I think Reinhold definitely had Chinese preamp tubes in mind for that amp.

and the website even says so.

i put a new Tung Sol in V1, a balanced EH in the PI spot (i know, i know) and 9th gen Chinese everywhere else.

edit: i should say i haven't done any experimenting to come up with this formula. i was relieved that Bogner recommends these tubes because it's too exhausting for me to go through all this. and i only added the Tung Sol in V1 cuz it sounded so good in my 2204.

 

[es125luv]

If the short plate is something new then perhaps....but I tried Ecc803S and Ecc83S and it was amazingly bad....just so blah and lifeless. There were other thread back maybe a year ago where others agreed. Good tubes thought in other amps...just not the Shiva. I think Reinhold definitely had Chinese preamp tubes in mind for that amp.

+1... I do think the JJ's darken the amp up quite a bit... it's Chinese all the way for me in this amp...

 

[StevenS]

I use Tung Sol in the pre amp, and Svetlana's for power tubes. This is a great combination that I've been using in my Marshalls as well.
Sounds clear and crunchy.

 

[the_Chris]

Go with what Bogner himself recommends and I can promise you that you won't be disappointed: Winged C Svet. EL-34 power tubes and Shuguang 9th gen chinese pres. I've tried switching out JJ's, Mullard RI pres, even a vintage Telefunken and I'll be danged if the chinese/Winged C combo isn't the best.

The beauty of the Shiva, like all of Reinhold's stuff, was designed around tubes that can actually be bought these days so going fancy with tubes actually makes the amp sound worse than with the standard stuff he recommends. You really don't want to mess with the pres because the Shuguangs give it enough gain to really sing with single coils (with other tubes I've felt there needed to be more gain). With the wattage handling of the Shiva, even though the Shuguangs have more gain, I've still found the cleans to keep their headroom at gig volume which for me is essential. I've been using an EL-34 Shiva w/ Reverb for atleast the last 3 years and I couldn't be happier with it.