Guitar Gear Forum

So after watching the following video yet again with James Brown discussing the differences or lack thereof in the Block Letter and the Sig. I wonder why Block Letters don't get listed as Lawsuit models like older Japanese copies of guitars. Also find it interesting that James and Dave both hear (they have the ears) differences in tubes. Another much heated debate.


Start around 47:00 minutes in

https://www.youtube.com/live/PzOhq3-3d90?feature=share

yeah that is a good episode. I really like the Tone Talk show, I think I watched all of them.

They always list them as block letters, though...so sort of the same effect as listing it as pre-lawsuit.

ibenhad wrote:Also find it interesting that James and Dave both hear (they have the ears) differences in tubes. Another much heated debate.

i just went to the area amp genius around here thats a mesa tech and asked him what he thought about tubes as i happened to notice a box filled with mullards and other expensive popular old brands, he thinks its all overblown and said the difference in price dosent equal the difference in tone and to just get JJ's i told him he would upset the internet very much with that kind of talk. i cant say ive noticed much difference in my limited tube rolling, i see guys that seem to think tubes completely transform their amp which seems kind of crazy to me but whatever keeps your rocking i guess

RaceU4her wrote:

ibenhad wrote:Also find it interesting that James and Dave both hear (they have the ears) differences in tubes. Another much heated debate.

i just went to the area amp genius around here thats a mesa tech and asked him what he thought about tubes as i happened to notice a box filled with mullards and other expensive popular old brands, he thinks its all overblown and said the difference in price dosent equal the difference in tone and to just get JJ's i told him he would upset the internet very much with that kind of talk. i cant say ive noticed much difference in my limited tube rolling, i see guys that seem to think tubes completely transform their amp which seems kind of crazy to me but whatever keeps your rocking i guess

Tune rolling can be extremely subtle. But I’m the case of the current EVH 5153, I can say someone would have to be deaf AND dumb, lol, to not hear the differences. There is sumthin really strange with that amp in that it was specifically designed, or at least Eddie chose, the JJs for the amp. And I’m sure all the final tweaks were done with JJs in it. So I guess it could be considered designed with JJ. But that amp can sound broken using other brands. It’s pretty crazy and also not cool, because it truly only sounds right with JJ preamp tubes. I’ve had a one or two other be fine for awhile and then I start hearing this harsh midrange and I realize I have a different pre tube, pop in the JJ and there it is. Those weird frequencies smoothed out and balanced out. I’m sure there are other amps that also react like this. And I’m sure there are amps, like the old PV 5150 that change with different tubes, but definitely not enough to waste money on

Yeah it depends some amps are more sensitive to tube changes than others. It depends.

JJs do seem to work well in most amps though so maybe that's what your tech was alluding to.