EF86 Tubes???

[PUCKBOY99]

Anyone have any experience with EF86 tubes?

What exactly is the difference between an EF86 & a 12AX7, without getting too technical??????

[Curly]

EF 86s have more gain

[RGN]

Truly a miserable little tube in my book. I have one for the reverb in my VHT and at least 75-85% of them have microphonic problems that makes the reverb really, really suck. They are also pretty hard to find and expensive. I'd avoid... I have heard Groove Tubes has completely stopped selling them due to their extremely poor reliability. Groove Tube told me it take 15 or 20 to find a single one that works. I have had three different EF-86 tubes for my VHT and all were bad out of the box.

[Luke Duke]

From Dr. Z's website

"The incredible timbre of the EF-86, along with gain that's 50% higher than the hottest 12AX7, virtually inhales the tone straight through your guitar cord."

Luke

[the guy who invented fire]

Up until recent years a good EF86 was very hard to come by. I used to have several little Premier combo amps from the 60's that used them in the front end, and due to not being able to get a good one for a good price I sold the amps (really wish I hadn't done that!). To prove a point, the last 2 I bought...one was NOS RCA and it was over $100.00 and the other one was a new no name tube, it cost about $8.00 and died with in 2 weeks (it also sounded like **** for the full 13 days!). If you have an amp that uses an EF86 I don't think that there is any type of replacement...at least that I know of. They have lots more gain that a 12AX7, but tend to be a little darker overall in tone...the earliest AC-30's use them as well as several new amps trying to get that old Vox vibe...I for one love them and ever since the new (good) ones have been availible I heve been thiking about getting another amp that uses them!

[Hoss]

(note to self...stay away from ef86 tubes)

[Kelsey]

The Bad Cat Black Cat and I believe the Matchless C30 series use them in the second channel of the amp. It's a pentode-based instead of triode-based tube like the 12AX7. My Bad Cat Cub only has the 12AX7 channel of it's big brother, but there's plenty of gain on tap for my needs.

[PUCKBOY99]

Kelsey gets a cigar!!!

From Myles Rose of www.guitaramplifierblueprinting.com

"The EF86 is a pentode and the 12AX7 is a dual triode. Completely different tubes and NOT interchangable at all".....

[Hoss]

when did you get the matchless!!!

and how's that Hamer treating ya!!!

[PUCKBOY99]

Matchless is on the way....sold the Splawn!!! Way too much amp.....but bad@ss nonetheless!!

The Hamer rocks.....beautiful guitar!!!! I need to take the time tomorrow & swap out the '59s for the Seths!!!!

[Jeff_H]

Who in the hell bought my splawn?

[PUCKBOY99]

I knew you'd chime in....I was duckin' you!!!!


Some guy in Maryland....

I should get the Matchless on Tuesday & I'm off Weds & Thurs!!!!!!!!!!!!

[RiffRaff]

I have an amp that's a clone of the matchless DC30 tube rectified channel, it uses an EF86 in the preamp, it had a sovtek in there when I bought it and it's still working fine.

[RGN]

This is an interesting product... I am going to buy one.

http://www.groovetubes.com/product.cfm?Product_ID=2044

[PUCKBOY99]

That looks interesting RGN.....I've got some Yellow Jackets that work pretty well (YellowJackets convert EL34 to EL84...lets you use EL84s in your EL34/octal amp).

Might be something interesting to try out & do a comparison with.

But I guess then the question is: Why pay $40.00 for a substitute when you can have the real thing for $3.00 more???

[PUCKBOY99]

O.K., I sent an e-mail to Myles Rose again about those EF86 convertors.

He said they were so bad, that they aren't selling them anymore...he won't let them out of the house. Said they MIGHT get 2-3 good ones out of 100....

SO..........NOS Dario Miniwatt EF86=$45.00 (http://www.kcanostubes.com/index.html#ef)

[PUCKBOY99]

OOOOPS.....Myles just e-mailed me with some clarification:

It was the EF86 tube in the picture itself that was bad.

The convertor was developed, by Mark Sampson, so that if your tube goes bad while playing, you can plug in the convertor & move right along!!!

I guess as a safety valve (no pun intended! ) it's a good thing, but, again, for $3.00-5.00 more, you can just have another tube on stand by???!!!

[mrfjones]

check ebay also, i can't tell you how good they are but i have seen some mullards and some other on there recently. i just bought two last night for $20.

[James Rock]

This thread is really old I know but I'm soon to purchase a Ceriatone DC30 clone and want to know what EF86's too look out for (as in which good ones are out there) the RFT EF86's seem to get more praise then others at least by shops but then again they are trying to sell them.

[PUCKBOY99]

WOW...thread from the past !!!!

Well, I no longer own that Matchless (Clubman) but I do still have & LOVE my Overbuilt Clubber, which is basically the 2 channels of the HC-30 combined. Gets anywhere from Vox clean & chime to Marshally grit & grind........

I've used the Dario Miniwatt, Mullard, & a Svetlana EF86....all were very good...I've got a NOS Mullard in there now.

I LOVE RFT ECC83s, so I would take a shot at their EF86s....the price isn't bad at KCA NOS, so............

Keep us posted