An ECC83 for Every Application
We have been working to offer an expanded range of ECC83 (12AX7) compatible valves. we wanted to have an ECC83 for every application Our range seems to be increasing every week. You might wonder why. You might think it is pointless and I used to think the same and I decided to experiment trying different valves in my amp and using the best test equipment available – my ears!
Most of you probably dont look at the data specifications of valves but I do. I need to look at the parameters to set up my testers because we test every valve we sell.
Old Technology
Valves are old technology with some of the valves used in TODAY’s guitar amps being introduced to the maket in the 1930’s! The work horse of virtually every valve amp is the ECC83 ( 12AX7) and that was introduced in 1954. It is probably no surprise that the specifications are as wide as a barn door and only specify ” typical” values so the gain etc is all over the place. No minimum or maximum values are quoted so they can be everywhere. Most ECC83 specifications today do not show a recommended circuit examples and more importantly do not show any audio frequency response curves . This means that there is no way to know in advance on how to compare each of the valve types. Is there anyone reading this who has done frequency response meaurements? If so , please get in touch. This could be a nice project for students. It is on my to do list and I am struggling to find time to dedicate to the project due more folks buying our valves in increasing numbers!
You can contact us on info@valvetubeguitaramps.com
Valve Types
Click here for a summary of four different valves
Here are the individual types
5751
ECC803S
ECC83S Gold Pins
Newly introduced selected high gain ECC83S .
So there is everything from “standard” to low gain for a clean sound and high gain for the rockers. There is the rich warm gold pin versions. All are available in Supermatch balanced versions.
Click here for our blog on the testers we use, in case this is of interest to folks wondering how we test match and balance the various valves. Good original high quality valve testers are getting very hard to come by these days and so I am very happy to have two well known quality restored original testers from the 1960’s.
