Thank you Eurotubes!

[ClassicRock88]

Didn't Marshall put TAD EL84's in these stock? TAD's are supposed to be a softer, mushier sounding tube. I replaced my stocker with an Electro-Harmonix after it blew and I thought that I had turned the amp into a buzz saw at first. I had to run my treble way back. I have been thinking of putting a TAD back in the Class 5 but I have also been thinking of trying a JJ EL84 in it because i have heard pretty nice things about their EL84's. I have been using a Mullard RI EL84 (which I think is basically a rebranded Sovtek) that I have been rather happy with. I'm finding I like Sovtek's EL84 tubes. I run them in my Blues Jr. too.

Hey Classic,

TAD = Re-branded Shugauang

CP Mullard = Produced by New Sensor Corp (AKA Sovetek). Same plant produces the following CP brands - Sovetek, Mullard, Electro Haronix, Tung Sol, Svetlana and Gold Lion.

Some Gold Lions are Chinese made (specifically some of their preamp tubes). Also, this is true. Basically all CP tubes, as I understand it, are produced by New Sensor, Tesla or Shuguang. They are contracted by different companies (such as Ruby and Groove Tubes) to produce different tubes to certain specs. For instance, I can tell an audible difference between the Mullard RI and the EH. They may just be separated out by different characteristics - I have heard a convincing argument that an EL844 is just an EL84 that didn't meet spec and was sold as a different tube, or it may have been just two different tubes having different personalities. But I think to say that just because one factory produced two different labels of tubes that they the exact same isn't necessarily true.

Sorry if I was misleading in my post. I was not trying to say they were the same tubes, only that New sensor manufactured them.

Sure! I get what you mean now. Sorry my bad. I actually kind of use the New Sensor manufacturing to my advantage. There is small music store about 8 miles from my house that is a New Sensor distributor so he gets wholesale prices from them. I can place orders for a ton of different NS tubes and he can get them for me cheaper than shipping them from TubeStore.com. The only catch is I have to wait a couple weeks for when he places his next mass order.