Musicians Roadhouse

I have a quad of SED EL34's leftover from my Cornford RK100. My 2550 SJ currently has 2 x GT EL34 tubes, which sound quite good. They are supposedly Mullard EL34 duplicates. I haven't tried the SED's in the SJ, yet... If it's not going to be a noticeable difference, I won't bother with putting them in. Does anyone have experience with these tubes in a Marshall?

For me are the best for my TSL100. I think the svetlana of the late nineties are very good. I have the ones that were originally from my TSL100 (1998) and they are still working, although they are very exhausted.
Now I play with a pair on my JCM900 and also are great, for my taste better than GT or TAD.

I'll toss them in tomorrow. I actually have two sets, since the 2550 is a 50 watt amp.

MacFangus wrote:I'll toss them in tomorrow. I actually have two sets, since the 2550 is a 50 watt amp.

Does the valves wear out too much? You can sell them. There are blues musicians who like to use heavily worn valves.

Roger wrote:

MacFangus wrote:I'll toss them in tomorrow. I actually have two sets, since the 2550 is a 50 watt amp.

Does the valves wear out too much? You can sell them. There are blues musicians who like to use heavily worn valves.

To be honest, I've never noticed much of a difference between new vs old tubes... Not unless they're beginning to fail, of course. Not being able to get what I consider to be great sounding tubes at a reasonable price has motivated me back to using solid-state, and tube amps that require the least amount of tubes as possible. A 50 watt Marshall (3 x 12AX7's and 2 x EL34) is as far as I'm willing to go.

I agree with you that it is difficult and expensive to find good valves. I feel differents in volume with old vs new tubes. I have the feelings that the old ones need more time to sound good, to warm. Difference when I put new valves like the old valves, same brand, same type. If they are not very used, I can not see and feel difference

I've always let my tubes cook for about 1/2 hour before playing, which may be why I don't notice the difference.