New Rocket Build

[donzoid]

Cool thanks Dave and maybe I'll dig out my 803 and try it.

I like long plate tubes for tone. The only place I don't use 'em is in little combo amps 'cause those are torture chambers for tubes. For me, short plates with higher gain usually just don't have enough spatial effect and note separation. But, as you say, they are MUCH quieter!

[Blackburn]

You should give these TADs a shot sometime. They really did surprise me, but I'll give them another go and see if I still feel the same way. I normally just use modern tubes as beaters and don't prefer them in any of my amps. This Rocket just happened to be a good place to try out a few I'd been curious about, such as the EL84Ms, TAD 7025s and that JJ. The TAD 5AR4 is also a very robust tube and highly recommended.

[donzoid]

I agree its tough to find a decent sounding new production tube....I actually gave up on the preamp tube side and am focused on power tubes since A/NOS are way too expensive for me or any of my potential clients.

All my friends are gigging musicians who grind through a set of power tubes every couple of years. And of course they have all kinda guitars but no money

So I tried the (non gold pin) JJ when I saw that it was a very long plate. It's "ok" for the PI but I had higher hopes it would be closer to an OS long plate...and this one is well matched and tested. But I am going to try it in V1 now, maybe I gave up too soon. I know TeleFunken is rebranding these now as theirs (which to me of course is a joke). Thanks!

[donzoid]

Huh...I just zoomed in on those triple-mica's and was kinda surprised to see they look like chrome plates (similar to the old stock Mazda's from France or some of the EF86's).

Are they? Or is that camera glare?

[Blackburn]

That's just the triple mica look. They usually look like that, I think.