Tungsram 12ax7

Tunsgrams are ok, they are most certainly better than any of the new production stuff, I would say they are in the middle of the road of the NOS population along with the GE and Sylvania. Regardless of brand, a good tube is a good tube and a bad tube is a bad tube.

 

My experience with Mike suggests that if he tells you they're going to sound great, they will!

Srini

 

True dat.

 

I have lots of Tungsrams and lots of loads of other 12ax7's..The Tungsrams to me are WAY BETTER than any Sylvania 12ax7 I've used. No competition for any functional scenario. (my opinion) .. As for GE's , some GE's are hi-gain monsters and others are ok like the Sylvania's.

All my Tungsrams are creamy . They're great for bright amps, as are RFT's. Tungsrams are medium gain to me where RFt's are higher. Tungsrams are warm creamy and balanced.. To me that makes it a great tube and they last a long time just like most old 12ax7's... I like 'em for Fender applications and marshall applications.. Every tube differs tube to tube of course and I'd agree with Jwr's stmt preferring them to any current production tubes, but I'd put them a good deal above Sylvania!

ERIC

 

IT's funny that I posted on this thread without looking at your post mentioning the types of amps you bought them for. Tungsrams are PERFECT for a DR RI.. had a Blond DR RI myself for over 5 years and that's the only amp I have regret about selling in the past 15 years. I also regretfully sold an old particularly great sounding 1971 Superlead and those are the ONLY 2 amps I miss that I sold.
ERIC

 

Ken Fischer thought so as well -I've seen two EXPRESS amps w/Tungsram pres', and Siemens-34s. Not bad sounding amps

 

I have one in V3(inverter) in my JCM-800 and it's great.

 

Hey cool! Maybe his ears aren't so bad after all , as they agreed with mine! Oh damn, I just morphed into Tag for a minute! Haha, and certainly just kidding.. .. I love the Siemens el34's also as those are the best I"ve owned. I have 3-4 pairs of those in different amps.

ERIC

 

I have had a different experience with my Tungsram ECC83, and would not compare them with RFT in performance (I'm not picking on you Eric, I just have experienced these two tubes as sort of opposites on a spectrum). Not that one is better or worse, just that they're quite different. I've tried over 30 different NOS preamp tubes in clean and gain positions of my Triaxis, and in several other amps (including a Traynor YCV20, a homemade Deluxe, Lexicon Signature 284, and others), and I've got to say that I find the Tungsram to be one of my favorites.

Tungsram ECC83 differ from RFT in three ways, in my experience: they break up later, they're more articulate, and they are brighter (actually, they have more solid lows too - I guess "extended frequency range" applies). The brightness is along the lines of a short-plate Mullard 12AX7A (I63 type), but the Tungsram has a more percussive/well-defined low end (which is not as fat as an RCA short gray-plate 12AX7A). Both Tungsram and the Mullard short-plate share similarly congested mids when compared with older Mullard long-plates or RCA and Raytheon long black-plates.

All in all, Tungsram ECC83 make for a fine general-purpose tube that allows for chiming cleans, punchy chords, and singing leads.

Oh, and as for Sylvanias: I'd gladly trade any Sylvania gray-plate for a Tungsram ECC83, any day (agree with you on that, Eric). That goes for GE gray-plates as well. Savrohr, Mike did good by you.

- T

 

Hey TW, thanks for your great and articulate info. You very nicely described the differences between all of those tubes and which amps you've demo'd them in . I have so many different amps and so many different preamp tubes , and I'm not in one of my 'experimental scientist ' phases at this point but still know what I like based on much research in the past! I agree with you on all 3 accounts of how the RFT and Tungsram differ. You're right on. I'm not sure as to why I mentioned RFT and Tungsram in the same sentence (twice!) to be honest. THere's just a certain smooth quality that both have. YES , though they are very different tubes. I also have some Bugle Boys and Amperex labeled Mullards that share some characteristics with the Tungsrams and probably are closer than the RFT's.. .Rft's are great for hi-gain with bright amps. Tungsrams are balanced and excellent for everthing... there ya go

ERIC

 

Bwwaahahahaha!

Every moment is an experiment to the mad scientists of tone!!