What are the earliest-breakup 12AX7s you guys know about?

[kerc]

I want to give my Amptramp an earlier preamp breakup...Right now it has some Russian 12AX7s in the preamp section and an Electro Harmonix 6L6 in the power section (nice tube, BTW!).

So, anyway, what's the earliest-breaking 12AX7 you guys know about?

[Cranium]

Check out http://www.eurotubes.com/index.htm Im sure you can find some help there.

[duhvoodooman***]

My understanding is that preamp tubes don't really "break up", like power tubes do. Instead, they supply gain to the back end of the amp and generate distortion in that way. So in general, the higher the gain factor on a 12AX7, the more distortion it is capable of generating. Send Bob Pletka at Eurotubes.com an e-mail and tell him what you're tring to do, and he can give you graded JJ tubes to max out the break-up. Probably a "hot" 12AX7 for your preamp gain stage and and early break-up power tubes for the power stage.

[kerc]

Thanks guys. I'm still sorta of a "toob noob", so trust me, leading me in the right direction helps a lot!

[Justaguyin_nc]

Send Bob Pletka at Eurotubes.com an e-mail and tell him what you're tring to do

First off..I havent a clue on what tube is what... with that said:

I sent Bob a note telling him about all the G.A.S. happenings around here with the valve jr.. and told him I had an old Harmony H-410 I would like to see how much better it could sound (although I think it sounds good now) with new tubes before getting yet another small amp (ofcourse I probably will get one anyways..heh).. Well the man is very helpfull and quick on replys.. I wanted to see how clean and how bluesy this lil'feller could get before setting it to the side, seeing I love the tremolo on it.... I wanted from Jazz to Blues... ofcourse means tubes for each style... sent him the layout in jpg and he took some time to look it over...and sent his suggestions: I now have some tubes comming from EL84 cooler for jazz to EL84 Hotter for Blues with early breakup (Sounds like the EL84 does the breaking up instead of the 12AX7?).. A standard ECC83S to replace the 12AX7, A NOS RCA 5Y3 just because it doesn’t get any better than that. and some used but still very good 6AU6’s thrown in, two or three different brands that test out nice so I will have some more variety. All my tubes are the stock Harmony marked tubes at present.. so anyway I look at this.. it will be an experience in seeing what new tubes do to an amp. thanks for pointing out Eurotubes.com DV so far a nice experience. ofcourse all these tubes adding up did approach half the cost of the Valve Junior Head.. which they might end up in someday..

[TS808]

I want to give my Amptramp an earlier preamp breakup...Right now it has some Russian 12AX7s in the preamp section and an Electro Harmonix 6L6 in the power section (nice tube, BTW!).

So, anyway, what's the earliest-breaking 12AX7 you guys know about?

A 12ax7 will definitely distort better than a 12at7 , etc. If I remember correctly (it's been a while since I bought tubes) Groove Tubes made different 12ax7s with some that distorted better than others.

If you crank volume even on a clean channel, you will get some pre-amp distortion from a 12ax7, so again, check out the different preamp tubes from Groove Tubes as a suggestion. You can also get some break up with different speakers, power tubes, etc. I've seen folks buy speakers rated at 100 watts max and put them in a 15 watt combo, and wonder why the speaker doesn't distort.

A simple solution is just get an overdrive pedal to push the preamp tubes a bit.