After getting the Mark III out and giving her a few test plays it was obvious that the old tubes needed changing. I actually had a brand new set of five JJ 12AX7's laying around from when I bought the Fender Blues Jr. I had planned to replace the tubes in the Jr. with JJ's, but I ended up not keeping that amp so I had these AX7's left over from that experiment. I replaced all five of the Boogie's preamp tubes with the new JJ's and the difference was immediate and striking. Much brighter, tighter sound and a much cleaner clean channel with a ton more headroom. I was still running old power tubes, until today...
A new batch of tubes I ordered finally came in today (I love it when packages arrive!). I ordered another set of five JJ 12AX7's (for backups) and a quad matched set of JJ 6L6 power tubes. The old Sovtek 6L6's that were in the Boogie were pretty frazzled and worn. It has been over 14 or 15 years since all the tubes were changed! ...and that was with at least 2 years of hard playing on them. They were way over due to say the least.With the new power tubes in I can tell that the amp is much brighter, has more sparkle and has less early breakup. I expect the amp's tone to "warm up" a little more as time goes on and as the tubes start to break in and get a little "softer". It already sounds
wonderful and the clean channel is just amazing. I get compliments on the sound of this amp from everyone that hears it. It's particularly amazing on my recently acquired Bogner 2x12 cabinet with the Jekyll & Hyde distortion pedal for OD and distortion tones.
Thank you for lighting up my lantern since I've tried a complete set of Groove Tubes(both preamp and power) and my Mark III sounded like crap. It became so aggressive that it was unbearable. So, I put back my old set of JJ's and there I was back with my beloved Mesa. So I was wondering if I would retube it with new JJ's and you helped me make up my mind on this issue. I will order them right away.
ReplyDelete