Leaderboard

The only Heritage I had re-fretted was my H157. It was a custom order with several upgrades, but the tiny frets were my least favorite. I had it re-fretted by Gary Brawer, one of the best guitar techs in the SF Bay area. He followed my request for "no nibs". The end project came out fabulous! Each fret end has a rounded (hot dog) shape and the guitar plays superb. Not sure why more guitar builders don't offer this as an option.

My newish Mesa Boogie California Tweed came with Mesa tubes of course. I’ve always found Mesa tubes to be consistent and good quality for tone and reliability/durability. Playing them for about a month now i decided to try some different 6v6 to see if I could really hear any difference and find the perfect match between amp/tubes and the tone i want to hear. The stock Mesa 6v6 is terrific sounding, so it is just my curiosity and no suggestion that i am not happy with how they sound. Great amp that sounds very very good right off the shelf. Tone seekers are gonna tweak, right? I’ll post impressions here as i try each different tube set. All are matched quads. First up is Mesa 6v6 vs JJ 6v6. Both very musical. Mesa is more of a classic 6v6 sound. Sweet, a little soft around the edges, soulful. JJ’s are (true to reputation) robust sounding, more focused, brighter and later breakup. Mesa’s are mildly warmer, not dark, but warmer/darker than JJs. Breakup on Mesas is far creamier. To me JJ’s are more “distortion” sounding than light overdrive sounding. To my ear, Mesa 6v6 is a very classic, musical breakup. Sustain for miles with the JJs. Mesas are good in this department, but JJs hold on longer. Both are excellent. I’ll be playing around with JJs for a bit and will post updates, as well as new posts when try the next brand set of tubes , either Gold Lion or Tung-Sol sitting on my shelf waiting for their turn in the box. Remember that all this evaluation is highly subjective and your mileage will differ. Also based on a single amp. Contrary opinions are welcome. More to come.

Another thing a lot has to do with biasing which you can't adjust with the Mesa, that's why Mesa insists on using their tubes, as they fall within acceptable bias ranges for their amps. I know that some tube sellers can find non mesa tubes in the right range for Mesa though. The less musical tone and harder distortion tone of the JJs could just be cold bias.

Stainless steel baby