“The ‘holy grail’ of NOS preamp tubes. I’d never heard one of these before, so I was interested to see what all the fuss was about, and I wasn’t disappointed. This tube gave a very warm and open clean tone, which was also very harmonically rich, with a lot of very nice ‘chimey’ overtones. Plenty of headroom to be had here. …” Read
NOS Millard and Reissue Dissection 🙂
Wow. Another fantastic tube. I’ve been lucky lately and picked quite a few fantastic tubes and this is one of them. Very clear, very warm. The mood of the singer changes into relaxed. Imagine, sunny afternoon, English cup of tea, cookies – the mood is delivered by the tube with shinny colors. Very well rounded.
One of my favorite 12AX7 tubes. The Mullard box plate is my hands down favorite 12AX7 Mullard, but these tubes are that quintessential vintage Marshall sound just not quite as much as the long plate version. The tones are a tad softer and almost like a very smooth creaminess is poured over a nice staging and presentation. They worked great in my Orange Hustler 100 watt combo, & other hi power combos. I also find they work well as hi fi & stereo. I have used them in compressors, expandors, phono preamps, & a Marantz model 7 based DIY custom to go with two model 9s. As a fist stage they are awesome in combo amps for guitar or bass. The short plates will take the vibration with little or no issues. I used to pick these up cheap untested and take my chances, but those days are gone it seems. Now even marginal tubes sell at high prices. These are one of the finest you can get for vintage UK made combo guitar amps! If 100 watts into a small box with a speaker holding the tubes won’t make these howl, ring or squeal they are indeed a wonderful valve, & they still have that vintage JTM-JMC tone.