Best make of valve

[Nick Allan]

Hi everyone,

I am about to change the original valves that came with my AC30 CC2X, some 18 months ago. Any views as to the best, or your preferred, make of valve for this amp? Watford Valves recommend Harma Retro's (their own brand, I believe) and I am aware a lot of people on this site say good things about Watford Valves, but I would value your opinions.

All the best,

Nick

[keithmantle]

Hi Nick ,when i replaced the valves in my AC15 Heritage i bought them from voc rock guitars(Google it) i upgraded to gold plated on the 3 same valves , and just upgraded on the others, they offer the same valves as Watford but are cheaper, think they where all Electro-Harmonix

[Nick Allan]

Hi Keith,

Thanks for that. I had heard about Voc Rock, but I did not know they were cheaper. What make of valve did you go for?

All the best,

Nick

[flingelbunt]

Hi Nick

This is always very subjective, but I use JJ Tesla's in my AC30, and I'm genuinely pleased with the overall sound I get from them- and they're usually available at a reasonable price! Try eBay for a cost effective purchase- the one's I bought were matched and they give me a warm, rich overall tone with a bit of bite when needed. Just an idea.... if you type 'Bungleflint into Youtube, there are some vids at Warwick Shads Club where my JJ loaded AC30 was in use.

Maurice
'Bungleflint'

[roger bayliss]

Nick

I bought some Harma ones from Watford for the output valves and rectifier on my AC30 Heritage and they have performed well for over a year now. Apparently they were made for Brian May and the We Will Rock you Show . The price at the time was very good and I did not bother with 'Cryogenic' as I think it is Bull****

Clearly price dictates but reliability is another contention and these are good ones thus far for me.

HTH

[rapidsguitars]

hi guys , i have been using jj tesla valves in my vox ac 30 hand wired for some time now , great valves, but i am thinking of trying some gold lion valves a little more costly but a very warm organic sounding valve, some say this is the best new production valve of it,s kind , there pre amp tubes are also sound great. you could also check out hotroxs uk for valves, they also do amp repairs and maintainence and tour back up if you are gigging.

[keithmantle]

Hi Keith,

Thanks for that. I had heard about Voc Rock, but I did not know they were cheaper. What make of valve did you go for?

All the best,

Nick

All Electro-harmonix except a Tesla JJ EZ81

[Nick Allan]

Thanks everyone, Keith, Ian, Maurice and Roger - most helpful. I had heard that JJ's were well thought of, and I agree with Roger that it is very subjective, but I respect the views of this community so it is enlightening to hear your thoughts - many thanks.

Nick

[Nick Allan]

Sorry Maurice, it was you who said it is subjective !!

Nick

[geoff1711]

Hi

currently using Tesla, but a few years back I got a set from Watford valves, which they reckoned, was what S R Vaughan used which had a higher clean headroom, they sounded very good indeed.

Although despite what you might think a lot of the early Shads sound had a fair amount of distortion going on which gave the sound a nice saturation to it, think of the opening notes to Man of Mystery, and certainly a lot of Hank's later stuff was far from clean, of course that could have been the echo units overdriving the front end of the amp, or just purely overdrive within the echo unit itself.

Either way to get your guitar singing the amp needs to be "cooking" to some degree otherwise the sound is too acoustic and the sustain drops off too quickly, and muted notes are too quiet, at least that's my view.

All the best

Geoff