So I Bought This Old Tube The Other Day

[Elias Graves]

And I put it in my Champ.
What do you think I heard?

EG

[goshawk]

With a JAN 5751? I would guess a nice, creamy tone with a good amount of headroom.

[Elias Graves]

You got it. Man, I was skeptical, but my amp guy gave me a good deal and a money back guarantee, so I figured I had nothing to lose.
Couldn't believe the difference. Had a JJ ECC83 in there before and the OD was thin and fizzy. This one is much cleaner, the OD is super fat and far more pleasant sounding. The bass output doubled.
I had a hard time believing I was hearing the same amp.

EG

[goshawk]

In my experience, what Randyc used to say is right: vintage tubes are flat-out better than current production. And the 5751 is my favorite replacement for the 12ax7/ECC83. To my ears, the 12AT7 tends to sound dull, but the 5751 is just right in the V1 spot, particularly for jazz and blues.

[Elias Graves]

It's very fat sounding. Lovely bass.

EG

[mangotango]

Originally Posted by Elias Graves

And I put it in my Champ.
What do you think I heard?

EG

White noise that turned out to be Dennis Quaid on a wireless transmitter from 1963?

[Elias Graves]

1967. Actually, I think it was David Crosby.

EG

[henry b]

What Champ do you have ?

[Timbell]

What is the average price of an unused tube this old?

[goshawk]

Originally Posted by Timbell

What is the average price of an unused tube this old?

Average? Not sure. You can probably find NOS JAN 5751s for $20-$25. Doug's Tubes, a retailer I've used before, currently has GE JAN 5751s for $24. Some brands or tubes with certain features may be considerably higher. Mullard tubes, for example, generally command a significant premium, and some people seem willing to pay more for "black plate" tubes.

In case you're not up on some of the acronyms you'll see associated with tubes:

NOS = New old stock
JAN = Joint Army Navy, meaning tubes that were made for military use.

[mangotango]

Originally Posted by mangotango

White noise that turned out to be Dennis Quaid on a wireless transmitter from 1963?

Frequency (2000) - IMDb

[cosmic gumbo]

Those older tubes were better, because NASA was still using them in spacecraft back then.

[Eddie Lang]

Originally Posted by Elias Graves

And I put it in my Champ.
EG

When you say Champ, do you mean a Champion 600? I have one of those and your "mod" sounds tempting enough to incite me to do the same. The 12ax7 is the tube that you replaced with a 5751, right?

[Elias Graves]

Yes, I have a modern Champion 600. New Jensen Mod speaker, JJ power tube and now the JAN GE 5751. I paid $25 for it, which seems about the going rate. The JAN tubes are military spec and very rugged.
Aside from just a touch of transformer hum, I love this amp. It's not overly bright and sounds good with darn near anything plugged into it.
I'm about to start on a new cabinet for it to upgrade to a 10" speaker and I'm considering a transformer transplant.

EG

[Elias Graves]

Yes, replaced the 12AX7 with the 5751. I believe it's rated at about 70% as much gain as a standard 12AX7. The amp doesn't break up til about 7 now, where it started overdriving at about 4 before.
I can't say there's any additional clean headroom, just that it starts breaking up at a different place on the dial.
Once it gets loud enough to fill a room, however, it's overdrive city. I can't gig with it, but it's a super amp for practice and recording.

EG

[fordfanjpn]

I was just poking around in some old parts and I found an NOS RCA black-plate 5751 just waiting to go in one of my amps. My lucky day!

Bill