How's this for rambling on...
Well, the wife is out scrap-booking w/ her friends, so I have the house to myself. Well, myself and our four dogs. Sucks that I have a cold and everytime I take a breath I hack up a lung,
. But... At least I can play a bit...
Tonight I have been playing around with that
RCA 12AX7A.
First, since I have had such success with the
1961 GE 12AX7 and the
Westinghouse 12BZ7 in slots V1 & V2 (respectively), I figured I'd pull the GT out of V3 and try the
RCA tube in there. With this arrangement there is a wee bit of hum... Not the microphonic feed back I got before w/ that other bad tube, but hum coming from the speakers. There were some very interesting warm and round kinda over tones coming into my chords that were pretty cool, and with the neck pickup it was a pretty sweet dirty bluse kind of sound, but... Muddy. Actually it was too muddy for my taste on either pickup. Too bad, because overall for the sheer uniqueness of the sound, this was the spot I liked the RCA in best. It was just too noisy and too muddy.
So... I proceeded to try it out in all the other spots too. I next put the
Westinghouse 12BZ7in V3 and the the
RCA 12AX7A in V2. Better, less muddy, but the high strings were too brassy. Not my thing, as I hoped more for a brighter version of what it sounded like in the V3 slot.
Next up... I put the
1961 GE 12AX7 in V3, the
Westinghouse 12BZ7 in V1, and the
RCA 12AX7A in V1. Still no go. I think the tube has potential, but I'm not sure if it's right for this amp... But...
Undeterred, I figure, well... I know I like the sound w/ the
1961 GE 12AX7 in V1, the
Westinghouse 12BZ7 in V2, and the
Groove Tubes ECC83/7025 12AX7R in V3, so... Now I pulled out
JJ ECC83S 12AX7S out of V4 and popped the
RCA 12AX7A in. Better. Much better. Especially when I actually can turn it up past 1! Suffice to say any higher than 3 and being in the same room becomes pretty uncomfortable. I guess now I'll try a direct comparison in V4 between the JJ & the RCA... But not tonight. I need to get some rest. I have to get my hide up in the morning.
Cheers!