Groove Tubes GT-12AX7-C

No big deal...just pull the old one out and install the new one...

Extremely low noise,lots of gain and sustain,comparing to my laney LV300H factory tube (made in china...honesty,if you buy this amp,tear it open and replace the factory tube...i don't know how the chinaboys have such a terrible taste for tone),mesa boogie 12AX7 and JJ ECC83-S,this one beats the crap out,believe me...specially if you play thrash/death metal!!One setback,though...this tube gives you a lot of bass,so make sure to have the proper equalization on your amp or you'll have so much bass you wont practically understand what you're playing (well...talking about your ears,of course)!!Thinking about trying another preamp tube,the electro harmonix 12AX7EH,but this is the one i like most!!Could be brighter though...

Just installed this tube today on my amp,but until now...it didn't fail to surprise me,specially on pinched harmonics (I am really addicted to those),so...i'll give it a 8!!

No opinion at all...sorry!!

Surely beats the JJ ECC83-S tube and the mesa boogie 12AX7 tube...Regarding that the Laney LV300H (Head) IS a hybrid amp...Really great!!Oh and the cleans...well,let them speak for themselves!!Really warm actually!!
Great gain and sustain also!!I think i'll keep using it to play technical thrash/death metal!!Could be brighter,as said before,but it's an ok tube,if you know what i mean!!;)

These are for the 12 axy c silver series.

so so. not great just ok about a 6 out of 10

probably reliable. a little too britle.

Nice people.

blues and blues rock.

great tube for your fender amps

this tube along with a matched set of ruby 6L6GC is the best i've heard for a hotrod deluxe amp. The amp really kinda sucked with the stock tubes. darker and lots of mud without a eq pedal. Its a night and day differents now. Even the od channel kicks ass now. Hard to believe, aint it? I bought a few backups just in case they quit making them again.

well see

groove tube or TNT ?

WHATA QUESTION round pegs in round holes.

This offering from grove tubes was "FLACID " NO GUTS NO GLORY.
* note all tests used EL34R as the main power tubes EL34LS in jcm900
They should give a better description of this chinease tube. One day i spent time trying four sets of diff grove tubes in my heads one after another and taking notes on how sound was effected. The 12ax7C was the lamest of the bunch very weak respose absolutly DE-Balled my 2204 and jcm 900 i guess if you wanted your tube head to have a clean JC120 roland sound then fine but these heads are built to fight not flee. TRY THE 12AX7M THE MULLARD TUBE IT HAS THE BEST OVERALL SOUND OF THE BUNCH.

hAVE NOT PUT IT BACK IN SAVING IT AS AN EMERGENCY REPLACEMENT ONLY.

great guys to deal with and they also turned me on to "GREER amplification products.

not great warm sound mellow barry manilow would be proud!Might be good for some Jazz players that are looking for this type of sound.

Skipit and buy the ax7m or ax7rx2 ecc83 ax7r3 all of these are far better sounding.

I play Rock and have played my 2204 since 1979 to present i am the only owner of this head and it has always given me a good read on what tubes work and which dont."Trust the master volume on this one".

Its a 12ax7 if ya can't figure it out your the type that hires out contractors to hang pictures in your living room.LOL No really just push down and turn the screening can and pull out the tube.

These are Shuaguang 12ax7s they are so/so decent tone fairly thin slightly middy and fuzzy.These are the tubes that made the famous(weather good or bad)wasp in a jar tone.If your on a close budgat I would suggest maybe a GT 7025 in V1(Ei) w/ a couple of these in V2 and V3.
If ya got $25 or more to spend per tube call Hi-Test tubes or the like and order some mid grade NOS.

I've have some older ones last several years in my Marshalls.

There so/so better than Sovtek but still a cheap new production.can't compete w/ NOS and ain't evan an Ei tone wise.

Well...

I have a Crate GXT-100 that sounds actually pretty good, and I was satisfied with. It has a solid-state power amp section, the pre-amp is working with two 12AX7. I have it since 8 years so I decided to get prepared for valve failure. The originals that I had in there were Sovtek 12AX7WA. So here is the difference it made with the 2 12AX7C9.
Clean channel: well it was better with the "WA's". The C9s don't produce the same glassy and sparkly tones, just a little bit lifeless.
Gain1: Mainly for rythm, almost no change, but the breakup point is easier to set, it happens less quickly with the C9s, it's more controlable.
Gain2: Mainly for lead or heavy distortion, this is really where the C9s are better than the WAs. They are warmer (less harsh in the high) and have a little bit more gain, but not by much. Bass was a little (little) muddy with the WAs but not with the C9s. Middle is about the same but more hairy.

I'm sure I can find better, may be ECC83s ? 12AX7-M ?

The old Sovtek are still good after 8 years, we'll see if they can outlast this.
For now let say that they do what they are suppose to: no microphonics, no hum, fair enough gain, seem to be well balanced.

No experience, I went to my local store.

I play all kind of things, I like blues stuff and RUSH, 70s and up rock/progressive rock. I play since almost 20 years.
Let say that I like them less than the Sovtek WA for Clean, and like the C9s more for Gain, so I ended up for a mix of them two. I would like to try the 12AX7-M and the ECC83s as well, I'll do it soon.

What a nightmare! First you take a hammer and break off the old tube in the socket. Then while it is plugged in and powered up lick the broken socket until you get a huge shock and a burned tounge pulling it out with your teeth..

Just kidding.

I have a champ 12 that has been modded with the torres mod and some of my own super secret tone stack mods. This champ 12 ha sno speaker and I wired a 1/4 plug box so I can run this little fender gem out to a 2x12 CBS - Fender cab loded with Fender branded big cage/big magnet 300 wat EVs.

The champ 12 has a huge amount of gain in the gain channel and is difficult to control (still need to swap pots in the gain section). So tube selection in this amp is critical. I play with ZERO inbound effects. NADA....zippo! ONly a slight bit of reverb on the amp. I long ago abandoned stomp boxes and gimmicks in favor of simplicity of a Strat and an amp. Because of this the tubes used is very critical to my tone. The 12AX7-C so far is the best I have heard in this amp.

With a Sovtex 6L6GC (5881) small base they sound quite nice. The 5881 power tube is a bit dark but low noise and warm the 12ax7-Cs are bright and provide a clear and pingy tone in the clean channel. In the gain channel these tubes have a real nice drive. When hitting complex open chords each note is distinct and clear with complex harmonics. I play a Mexican special made Fender Strat with TexMex pups. (The strat was the best I played out of a wall of strats - beating out any other i the 400-800 price range at the store). The neck pup setting and on full bore these tubes are creamy and very expressive in the bridge pup they are sometimes difficult to control and I need to back off guitar volume just slightly to bring a highend harmonic overtone under control.. Clean and in the out of phase positons on the strat they are very sweet and complex.

These tubes however require control on the strings. At high gains and distortion they can get out of control.

For my rig. GUitar - Chord - Amp, no effects I will always keep two of these tubes in reserve. There may be better tubes out there but I have not tried them yet.

I liked this tube so much I tried one in my 1958 Hammond M3 organ and it was a nice improvment to the GE 12AX7A that was in there. Less harsh and more musical.

Have blown one yet. Might not be as rugged as the Sovteks but if you aren't blowing up your amps on stage you should be okay.

Not needed any.

Good tube. Definitely get some and you might be surprised at how well they sound.

Simple as taking a crap. Take out the tube you want to replace and stick in the new one. duh.

I use a Marshall TSL122 with a Gibson Les Paul Studio Plus with the stock 490R and 498T pickups, with Monster performer rock cables, with only a Boss TU-2 and a Morley Mark Tremonti Power Wah. I play hard rock, punk rock, like: Creed, Relient K, All american rejects, Finch, Staind, and some original material for my band.
Well, this Marshall amp is gonna be noisy to some extent, the TSL is known for that, but, Once I put in Groove Tubes, I noticed a difference immetiatly from the old stock tubes.
I've had the amp for a year, and just recently I was getting crackling and loud hum through all the channels, so I decided to try to change the pre-amp V1 and V2 position with 12AX7-C's.
For all you Marshall TSL owners...the Groove Tube 12AX7-C is awesome!! I always wanted to try the 12AX7-C, and it was well worth it. I dont know how it would hold up in the driver or reverb positions, but for the tone stages, V1 and V2, these tubes are a winner. The tone is great using a Les Paul WITH the stock pickups. The tone is smooth, and they have an airy tone to them. These tubes are darker and not as bright as the stock tubes, but they arent dark in a way that you have to increase the treble or presence by a large amount. They just have a darker character, which sounds really sweet for hard rock. Over the stock pre-amp tubes, which in my opinion they are way to harsh on the treble side, not very smooth at all and the bass is not very tight. (I'm pretty sure Marshall put in Svetlana 12AX7's in the V1 and V2, and everybody knows that the Svet 12AX7 sucks big time in tone and every other catergory.) It's definetly worth the extra cash for Groove Tubes.
Overall....Great tone, not too much bass, mid or treble, the tone is evenly spread out in all spectrems. Great for hard rock. Bass is tight, and treble is crisp not harsh. Tone sounds great, even at low volumes. The stock tubes sounded like crap at low volumes.
I was thinking about getting my amp modded by Trace at voodoo amps because i had a lot of tone issues with the amp, but these 12AX7-C's fixed all my tone issues. (Yes, these tubes did make a huge difference.) And don't worry, these have plenty of gain, more than i'll need. One issue I had with the amp was that...playing a chord with a lot of distortion and then while that chord is ringing out, I add in some high notes and all that stuff. with the stock tubes, the notes would be harsh and note smooth, but these Chinese tubes made all the difference. I can play any chord and it rings through, without muddying up. I am amazed by these tubes.
Only complaint is Groove tubes cost more and my local Guitar center doesnt even have the brains to stock these awesome tubes. I had to go to Sam Ash to get these. Plus, Sam Ash and everybody else on the planet is cheaper than Guitar Center when it comes to tubes.
Everybody has their own tone in their ears, and I'm sure some would not like these cause their not extremely bright. But a darker tube like this one, solved my problems, so give em a try some time.
NOTHING is perfect and I've learned to just give a 9 rating if I really like em. I'm sure, if i cant find something wrong, then someone else will.
(I still have the stock Power tubes as well and these tubes still made a big difference.)

Time will tell if these hold up. They are Groove tubes, so they better last longer than one freakin year!! And YES I take excellent care of all my gear.
I always carry back up pre-amp tubes now. After what I went through with these stock tubes, it's hard to trust any tube.

Awesome customer support. One of the top reasons I use groove tubes, is I know I'll get help if i need it.

Like I said. Overall great tube. I've also tried the 12AX7-R and it's a sovtek, and it doesnt have much character to the tone at all. It is an edgy tube, it's great for clean tone, nice and bright.
This tube helped me to keep my mind on making great music than rather playing with the EQ knobs for hours on end. I can finally get into what I'm playing when I'm on stage, instead of worrying that the tone sucks.
Everybodys preferance is different when it comes to tone. Some will like em and some will find something wrong with em.
God Bless.

simply trade off tubes in the V1 tube socket, no-brainer type stuff.

I used this one in my Carvin Legacy amp head, sounds great! iT HAS A NICE BALANCED TONE. Not to bassy like the russian made ones, and not to midrangy like the ecc38, and not to hissy or highs like the 7025. Its simply very balanced and the notes have an "airy" quality to them. Almost like it has dimention and space. I tried all groove tubes preamp tubes, and this one seemed to have the most gain and output. this tube also has a hint of a warm side.......

so far ive had it in my amp for about 2 months......still tickin and goin!

great service via e-mail, ive never tryed to call them though......

so far my ears keept coming back to this tube, it seems to be the most versitile in tone and overall sound. any groove tube is gonna get a 10 from me, it just depends on your tastes in tone.