Groove Tubes

I'd like to meet:

I'd like to meet? You! Below are some of our friends that we work with on a continual basis. They are some of the greatest players, engineers, producers and talents today. We'd love to work with you as well! If you have any questions regarding amps or studio gear or tubes in general feel free to send a message or comment here and one of the GT staff will get back to you quickly. Heavy tone? The sound of today's rock. Zakk is a player that defines hard rock every day whether he is on or off a stage. Marshall amps and GT tubes including the SAG-MHG kit. His small rig is 14 Marshalls. What more can you say after that?

You can see more of Zakk at www.zakkwylde.com

For the last three or so years, Brad Paisley has brought home the top awards at the CMAs, ACMs, CMTs, and more. Record of the year, song of the year, video of the year, album of the year, artist of the year, and more ... year after year. Dr Z amps and GT tubes. His new CD "5th Gear" is considered by many to be his best one yet and his new video "Online" is already at the top of the charts. Brad currently has 5 nominations for the 2007 CMA awards that will be shown on national television October 31 2007. There is a lot of info on the Brad Paisley website including info on the gear he uses, his tour information and more at www.bradpaisley.com

Foremost L.A. session player. The guy most folks hear everyday if you turn on a TV, watch a movie, or hear a radio commercial. Just about every amp you can imagine is in his tonal palette and all outfitted with GT tubes. Check out his latest CD "Take One Step" and his award winning DVD "Rumor Mill". The DVD has a ton of bonus material including a section showing him playing and explaining some of his vintage guitar collection. www.carlverheyen.com

John 5 below in two great videos. More on him at www.john-5.com

Check out his instructional DVD - "The Devil Knows My Name" at http://www.john-5.com/store.html

THE 928PR FROM GROOVE TUBES Turn your grid biased amp into a cathode biased amp and drop the power output by more than 50%. Plug and play ... your amp is now two different amps. This great video was done by the folks at www.aztechmusic.com who are top notch.

Below - The GT MD1B in action

Music:

If you are a musician, band member, guitarist, record producer, engineer, etc., and would like to be considered for addition to the GT Friends and Relations list at http://www.groovetubes.com/f-n-r.cfm just send an email to [email protected] (Rick Benson). You will need a bio and press kit.If you are an amp builder or amp tech and wish to be on the list at http://www.groovetubes.com/oem.cfm send your info to Rick Benson at the above email address as well for consideration. Rick can be reached via phone toll free at 1-800-459-5687.

Above - SuPRE. A great stereo preamp. For more info CLICK HERE Above is the Glory Comp. People are waiting in line for this one and if you CLICK HERE you can see a lot more and learn what top names have this piece of gear in their studio arsenal. Above - The ViPRE. I don't even know what to say about this mic preamp. Every A/B test against any other mic or instrument preamp has had this one come out as a winner. You will not find a lower signal to noise ratio, full differential signal path (the only one on the market that has this) and more. This is the pinnacle of preamps. CLICK HERE to learn more, download the owner's manual and check the features against ANY other preamp past or present. Above - "Marshall" high gain kit from the GT SAG (special applications group). Originally developed with Marhalls in mind as they were the hard rock amps of the past. These are now favored by folks with Bogner, Mesa, Soldano, Marshall, and even Fender folks that want a more agressive tone. There are three tubes in this kit. If you amp has four, five, or more preamp tubes no worry. Those other tubes are for things such as reverb or effects loops. V1, V2 and the matched phase inverter is all you amp needs to be everything it can be if you are looking for an agressive tone. For more info CLICK HERE

Above - GT EL34M. There are tubes today with the "Mullard" label on them but they don't look much when held up side by side to the original. The Gt-EL34M is a replica of the classic XF2 dual getter Mullard. It is the best EL34 tube I have found. In most amps with between 450 and 500 plate volts bias at 36-38mA as a great starting point. DUETS and QUARTETS Above - the GT-6L6GE. My favorite 6L6 tube. Period. If your amp has between 450 and 500 plate volts bias at about 30-32mA as a great starting point. In Mesa amps go for #5 or #6 rating to keep right in the Mesa fixed bias range. Plug and play in the Mesa amps! DUETS and QUARTETS but keep in mind that all GT output tubes can be ordered as matched sextets and octets at no extra charge. Also keep in mind that GT tubes are dynamically matched across the entire operating range of the tube not just at idle or one specific voltage and bias point. What does that mean? Well, if it were a car it would mean the car would run great at all speeds not just idle nicely.

GT-6L6CHP high performance black plate. GT exclusive design high performance 6L6 Black Plate with heat sink wings like the GT E34LS and KT88SV. Very strong, smooth, and linear. The tube that many feel is THE chouce in the Fender Hot Rod Deluxe and Deville. Other fans that love this tube are players who use the Mesa Rectos and Marshall amps that use the 5881 / 6L6.

In a Mesa Recto use these in a #6 rating for a great bias result with the stock fixed Mesa bias design.

In a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe or Deville use the Fender test point and adjust to 60mV for a perfect bias.

In Fender Tolex era amps bias at 30-32mA.

In Soldano amps these love 32-34mA.

For your particular 6L6 amp if you want a little bias chart send an email to the techsupport email address from the below link and just ask.

For matched Duets: CLICK HERE . For a matched Quartet CLICK HERE .

Movies:

This section on Myspace is called "Movies". I cannot easily change that so think of this section on this page as:TIP OF THE WEEKThis was an article on tube manufacturers and how the "Groove Tubes" 1-10 scale could be used for tubes that were desired for a Mesa Boogie amp which has a fixed bias.Tech Tip 021402 - Groove Tubes vs. Mesa Boogie TubesIn the case of Groove Tubes, they use a rating scale of 1-10. Mesa Boogie uses a color code system. Here is the cross reference to use the same "grade" of tube if you switch from one vendor to the other:Mesa Scale crossed to Groove Tubes scaleRed 4Yellow 4Green 5Gray 5Blue 6White 6The reason for Mesa's narrow range, is that their amplifiers do not have an adjustable bias. This way if you have one of their amps, you can use any of their tubes safely.For amplifiers without an adjustable bias, if you want more headroom and/or power as an example ... and you amp had a #5 or Mesa "Green" tube in it .... and had an idle dissapation of about 50%, you would just go to a "White", "Blue" or a Groove Tubes #6. You will see your idle dissapation go up to maybe 55%. This is a way to fine tune your amp.In the case of Fender/GT tubes .... Blue silkscreen are GT 1-3 range, White is GT 4-7 range, Red is GT 8-10 range.Preamp tubes .... a few bits of info:I received a question from one of the folks here who wanted to retube his whole amp. For his objective I felt it was not necessary to replace every tube. He was making some classic mistakes and after giving him some guidelines and suggestions I felt that some of what I wrote might be beneficial for others.On preamp tubes ... this is all personal preference but you DO NOT need to change them all. Experiment with V1 ... the tube most close to the input jack. This is 85% of the tone and gain in your amp and has the most effect.Again ... this is personal taste but a little guideline here is:12AX7R - lowest gain and darkest. Generally better in current driver spots such as effects loops or reverb circuits rather than in the front end. This tube is also known as the Sovtek 12AX7WA and Sovtek 12AX7WC. The gain of the WA is lower than any other 12AX7 type. The gain of the WC is about average compared with other 12AX7 types.12AX7R2 - smooth but not bright, sort of mid range in response. Average gain. Great in phase inverter positions too. Also known as the Sovtek 12AX7LPS. How a phase inverter breaks down and passes signal to the output section can affect the tone and feel of your amp. I know some say the phase inverter has no effect. I disagree and am happy to demo this to others and let them decide. In any case, my personal preference in many cases in a longer plate tube for the phase inverter in amps that use 12AX7 phase inverters. This is also a great front end tube.12AX7R3 - bright and articulate. Average gain. Can sound a bit thin to some ears in some amps. This tube is also known as the 12AX7EH (Electro Harmonix) and with a slightly different internal structure also known as the Tung Sol Reissue. These tubes are all over the map on specs so if you buy a EH or Tung Sol version get them from a trusted vendor that tests them well. If you get these in the GT Gold Series they are already tested for noise, output, etc. and will be within a good spec range.12AX7C - Chinese 12AX7. The most smooth and linear of the 12AX7 family. A lot of Marshall folks swear by these and in Fender type front ends are really nice. Make sure you use generation 9 only. Generation 7 and 8 are not as nice. Some early generation 4 tubes are prized by some high gain amp folks. There are a lot of "Chinese" 12AX7s on the market and lots are Gen 7-8. There are also a lot of Chinese tube companies and co-ops such as Sino. The only Gen 9 folks I know of at the moment are GT and Ruby. These are a great all around tube. These are also the tube I select for tube preamps or amps with tube front ends and solid state power sections. This is also my pick for bass amps with tube front ends.ECC83S - This is the JJ produced tube and has a short plate design that is very free of physical microphonics. These have a different mid range response than other 12AX7 types. They are the most gainy of any of the 12AX7 family and the tubes that have the highest percentage of ones that fall in the 85+ actual gain spec. The gain of a 12AX7 should be 100 at 250 plate volts with a 2 volt bias but most tubes made today are 75-80 or so. Many of the ECC83S tubes exceed a gain of 90. Just a five point drop in gain in the front end of many amps will turn the amp into an OK amp rather than a great amp as this is the main tone and gain stage in many amps. These have a classic British response; Vox, Marshall, Selmer etc. These are what I use to build the SAG-MHG kits after hand selecting for gain, current output, transconductance and plate resistance.12AX7M - We have re-tooled this tube almost a dozen times in the four or so years since it's release to make it more consistent, more stable, and just better in every way. They were out of stock for a long time and will be back in December of 2007 with any luck. The gain is now on par with the ECC83S. They are smooth and in Fender tolex era amps are just terrific and with a Tele will tame the brightness. There is a following of Marshall and 5150 folks that love these in their amps in the past and they look to be much more stable now. This is the tube that I use most often in the SAG-MHG kit as the phase inverter, the third tube in that three tube set. This is a GT exclusive tube.5751M - Think of this as a lower gain (about 70) 12AX7. This is a tube to use in V1 when you want more clean headroom and a smoother response. This was one of SRV's tricks in the first gain stage of some of his Fender amps. This is a GT exclusive tube.Ei 7025 long smooth plate - Not available at the moment from GT or perhaps anybody else as Ei is getting back on it's feet but ... if you can find any of these out there they are the highest gain 12AX7 tube around but tend to be physically microphonic in many amps and if they are working nice today it is no guarantee that they will work that way tomorrow.

Television:

The GT top friends list on MyspaceThis list will be changed continually every few days. It will have a diverse mix of people, amp makers, accessory folks, bands, etc.The bands will range from the hardest rock to jazz and everything in between. There will be some of the top known professional players and people that just love music. You will see some of the up and coming bands or players too so check out their page and give them a bit of support in building their friends list and song counts if you think they have talent.Every major performer and record label has a myspace page. Myspace is the most active URL on the entire Internet and that even takes sites like Yahoo and Google into the picture.Marketing these days is done in new ways. Every major record label does not accept unsolicited material. But ... every major label has staff that do nothing but look at Myspace every day in the TOP 100 folks in each music genre. The Myspace TOP 100 is broken down into three groups of 100 each; Major label, Indie, and Unsigned. When an unsigned artist has been in the top 10 for a while and meet the criteria for an built in fan base (number of friends, number of comments, number of song plays) they just mind find they are contacted by a label. This has happened on many occasions.So ... support those groups out there who you think need some attention!

Books:

One of the people that monitor this page is GT's Tech Support and head of the SAG (Special Applications Group) Myles Rose. You can reach him from the GT website by using the Tech Support email address which he pulls email from a few times a day. If you have questions that you wish to send him seven days a week and need a faster reply just go to his myspace page at www.myspace.com/myles111 and send him a message from there. You may also email Myles at [email protected]

You can also find Myles in the bottom right corner of top friends.

Heroes:

Just a bit of info here. This myspace page was put up by a fellow named Jeff hence the reason for some of the personal info on zodiac sign and age. There are a number of folks at GT that will manage this page and answer questions. Questions sent to us here will be directed to the best resource in the GT family in a desire for us to get you the best answer.