Customer Reviews

Doug's Tubes Reviews

Customer Reviews

Forum Reviews

Talk Bass: Review #1

The Gear Page: Review #1

Return to the Pit: Review #1

Ernie Ball: Review #1

The Boogie Board: Review #1, Review #2, Review #3

Seven String: Review #1

Customer Reviews

Thanks Doug. Your site rules and I use it all the time. Some of the best customer service in the industry, too.

Thank you for fulfilling my order so quickly.  The tubes arrived today, safe and sound (good sound). I appreciate your excellent service.

We had been speaking back and forth regarding tubes for my Marshall JCM 900 amp. You advised me to replace the mesa boogie el-34's with Ruby el-34's bstr's and to use a ruby 12ax7ac5hg in the V1 positon a ruby 12ax7ac7hg in the V2 positon and a Sovtek 12ax7lp in the phase inverter/V3 position.  I purchased the preamp tubes from you, my local biasing dude had a set of the Ruby el-34's on hand that I installed. It sounds "significantly" better..thanks for the great tip!...next time I will get the Ruby el-34's from you as well.

The 6L6GCMSTRs apparently are what comes stock in the Valveking 212. The fresh power tubes got my punch back, but the preamp mix you came up with is absolutely perfect for what I like to play. I will DEFINITELY be passing your name around!

First I wanted to say that I am very happy with your recommendation of VA6550, my Fryette Pittbull sounds phenomenal with them :) I might be getting another quad soon. I am also going to put in the Svetlana's I bought late last year from you, hope they would be equally good in the amp.  Second, I have had 4 or 5 orders with you and I must say you have excellent service, knowledge and are very reliable in your recomendations and products you sell. Thak you!

I put the new tubes in my Express and cant believe the difference it made !  It sounds so good I can hardly put my guitar down.  No more hiss, hum or flat sound.  No muddiness, even with humbuckers!  I will be sure to tell my friends who use tube amps  about your website.  Thanks for getting them out to me so fast.
 

The new tubes fixed a lot of problems.  For example my amp was picking up radio stations and now it doesn't.  The last few days on those power tubes it was making weird sounds.  The new tubes make my amp like a whole new amp.  I have replaced tubes in amps before, but nothing is as drastic of a change in tone as this.  I hear the ENGL Savage 120 burns through power tubes pretty hard and this might be why the last tubes were in such rough condition.

First of all it is my privilege to work with a really amazing pro tech like you, sounds like you've got my amps there. Also you know so good my needs, this is a symptom of a great experience. I told you my problems on the amp and....tada' it is solved! I put your setup in my marshall 100w plexi Arredondo mod and now the amp screams and sounds like it's modded again, clear with a really good intelligibility. In V1 your JJ 803 plays clear, pump and fat, round tone. In V2 your jj hg ecc83...uhu uhu, hey guys, buy it! Killer tube. Also your Shuguang in V3 and V4 play really good very good balance. I repeat it again, sounds like you were here to check my amp. Your preamp stage play very very musical and hot. Power amp stage is the greatest work I ever heard. Your Ruby EL34 bstr are amazing. They play larger than life. I think you are one of the best retubed guru in the world. Super professional, kind person, and great ears and experience at really low low prices. Also the package was perfect and the tubes arrived to me in perfect conditions. The shipping cost was very low. You gave me other choices when i needed so thank you so much. Amazing work.

Thank you again I discover my best retubed amp tech, and it is my honour to work with you. You are a very important part on my own instrumental guitar cd.

I have to say you are a tube GOD! I have been playing a variety of amps live for more than 15 years and trying to get the much searched for sound that all guitarist dream of. Anyways to make a long story somewhat shortened I recently purchased a Carvin MTS 3200 head that I play through a 4x12 cabinet. I had purchased that setup because I had heard great reviews on it, I wasn't exactly impressed with Carvins factory setup with stock 5881's, it wasn't bad but it wasn't great, the better sound was on the clean side. I then had it rebiased for EL34's and put a set of electro harmonics on the power amp side it was an improvement BUT after our consultation I took your word and ordered a set of matched Ruby's EL34BSTR's for the power amp side and a combination that goes like this... on the preamp side V1-JJecc803s, V2-Tung Sol reissue 12AX7, V3-9th Generation 12AX7c, V4 and please take my word on this everyone its night and day tone in the reverb slot a NOS Mullard CV4024, and finally in V5 a balanced EH. Doug I think my Mesa, Marshall and Fender are going to collect allot of dust, with my 3200 amp I have it all. I know for a fact it would do any guitar, regardless of brand and or pick-up configuration justice. For example I played my custom Les Paul as well as my American Strat and even played an Ibanez through this amp. They all got sweet harmonic overtones at the tale of each note on the dirty side ( with no added effects peddles) and the clean side was absolutely the thick smooth cream on the cake!! Doug once again thanks man!!!

Well the SLO has been re-tubed and it sounds incredible. Everyone who heard it before and after said it sounds much better. They were skeptical before on me making a complete tube change in this amp. But they are not any more. So now I am now becoming the man to ask about tubes. But I give all the credit to you (well almost). So I'm sure you will be getting calls from my friends in the near future for tubes. They are learning from my lessons learned about tubes.

Received and installed the valves today (JJ EL84's, Tung Sol reissue 12AX7, JJ ECC803S, etc), I should have done this when I first found the amp (Crate Vintage Club 50)….the tone is unbelievable. I really want you to know that you will be the one I refer to all my friends, and continue to use please email me if you ever change your web address.

The Ruby EL-34BSTR’s, JJ ECC83S, and Shuguang 9th generation 12AX7C tubes arrived today. I put them in (Shuguang in V1 and the JJ in V2) and noticed a big difference in my Engl SE. It had more mids, seemed louder, the gain seemed more organic and refined with a tight bottom end. The fizziness the amp had is now gone but the amp’s original voicing and character is still there. I am definitely going to recommend this setup to anyone that has an Engl. Thanks for the great service and advice. I look forward to doing business with you again in the future.

( Peavey XXX -- Ruby EL34BSTR's, JJ ECC803S, JAN GE 5751, 2 Shuguang C9)

Just wanted to let you know I received the tubes yesterday and am very pleased. The 2 dirty channel's have more punch and better note definition, and the clean channel is really fat, but it's more like an overdriven clean, in other words, not very clean at all. That's ok though, because I like it like that for live use. Plus, if I want a good clean I've got a Classic 50 for all that, and who buy's a Triple X for the clean anyway. Back to the dirty channels... The crunch channel has a modded Marshall feel to it that is just ripping. You nailed my description right on the head with this one. The ultra channel is more modern sounding with the gain a little looser that the crunch channel. I guess I would consider this channel in the Boogieesque area. It pulls off a good "scooped" tone, but still cuts through really well. Overall I will have to say I am very pleased! Keep up the great work!
 

I bought the JJ's from you and had the amp biased properly and it's like I didn't own a Bassman before, I don't know what it was, but what it is now is something on the verge of being awesome. Thanks for the preamp tube recommendations. I'll probably place an order soon.

Just one comment. Some people think that doing business over the internet is cold and impersonal. I've had such great experiences with you and a couple of other companies, that I don't think I've ever been given this kind of service in person at a shop. Your business and other's like yours set the bar pretty high for any type of business. I wish you a ton of success and you will be my only source for tubes, internet or otherwise.

I got my new tubes on Tuesday morning (ordered on Sunday) and they sound absolutely killer. Your service was very quick and you were very pleasant to talk to on the phone. In my 5150 I previously had a quad of Sovtek 5881/6L6GC, in V1 a GT12AX7C, V2 a Mesa 12AX7C, V3 an original block letter 5150 12AX7 and then in V4,5, 2 more Mesa 12AX7's. I THOUGHT that sounded good until I put in the quad of JJ's, the C9 Chinese in V1& V5 and the EH12AX7's in V2,3,4. I almost fell over. It was like I had a brand new amp that I had never played before. I am not a "pro" player and only play for my own amusement but I had no idea how GREAT my amp could sound. The distortion is much tighter and defined. The "clean" sounds are even better. I am floored by how these new tubes have made my amp sound. I am not one who will need new tubes every 6 months but you can rest assured that when I do, I will return to you for tubes and will definitely steer everyone I know who needs tubes in your direction. You, your service and your tubes are great.

Thanks and Have a nice day

I would like to thank you for your help in choosing a set of tubes for my VHT Pitbull 45. As we discussed, it was sounding muddy and just not where a great amp like that should sound. You recommended the Sovtek 12ax7b for V1 and the Penta Labs Chinese 12ax7 for the rest. The amp came to life as soon as I turned it on. The clarity is back, tonality is awesome and the gain structure is absolutely perfect.

Thanks you for taking the time walk me thru the different choices out there, and there are many as you know. I will be telling all of my friends and business associates about your company.

Again, thank you and keep up the good work.

I just wanted to thank you for my latest tube order. When I placed the order late Friday night I had my fingers crossed that it would arrive by Wednesday (if I was very lucky). Saturday I got the shipping notification and by Monday the order had come halfway across the country and arrived at my door. It doesn't get any better than that!!

I also wanted to give you a big thumbs up on my previous order. I'm glad I took the time to give you a call because the Svetlana 6L6GC's are exactly what I was looking for. I agree that these are very similar to the SED 6L6GC and a much better "Bang For The Buck". I installed them in a Bassman100. I got that amp dirt cheap many years ago and it usually sits in the corner and collects dust because I was never that impressed with it. Now with the Svetlana 6L6GC's installed the amp sounds fantastic!

I got the tubes today. I put them in and the Laney amp sounds great! I couldn't put the guitar down the amp sounded so good. I practice at home on the GH50 L and I changed the preamp tubes but I would also like to change the power tubes to a el34 from the 6l6(I have that bias switch -to 6l6 to el34s and visa versa-on the back which I am sure you are well aware of) but was told that playing at lower volumes changing the power tubes wont make a difference. Is this true? And if it isn't and you would recommend changing power tubes, what would the recommendation for el34s be? And if you think something is good but out of stock I will wait and get those. Mullards comes to mind. But you are the expert so let me know. I cant thank you enough you are amazing to deal with. Thanks.

Got the tubes last night. They arrived safely in their packaging and fired up sweetly in the Boogie. That Tung-Sol is one sweet little pre-amp tube. The SEDs give me great punch and tone compared to some others manufacturers that Ive tried. Awesome stuff Doug. Thanks for the great service. Im sure well be doing business again.

I just wanted to thank you again for the great personalized service that you provide. I ordered a matched quad of power tubes(KT88EH), one of which happened to be a manufacturers defect. This problem didn't rear it's ugly head until I was close, if not beyond, the ninety day return policy. You quickly and accurately analyzed the full quad, and got me up and running in no time, without hassle. My amp sounds as good as I have ever heard it. Again, thank you for running such a class act.