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RE: JJ E34L vs Mullard EL34 (Reissue) vs SED EL34

I just got through replacing OEM EL34's in a 1994 Matchless guitar amp. I tried both the JJ E34L and the Svetlana (=C=) EL34, both 1995 vintage tubes. The amp is push-pull, two EL34's, cathode biased, Class "A".

The JJ E34L had a better bass, maybe a lot is due to hotter idle bias of the E34L type tube over the standard EL34. If your amp is FIXED BIASED, you'll need to bias an EL34 slightly cooler (more over-biased) than the E34L (whether they are Tesla or JJ made).

The midrange of the E34L seemed warmer to me, than the Svetlana EL34. More of the classic Mullard xf1 sound (to me, at least). The high frequencies were more rolled-off with the JJ versus the Svetlanas. High notes were definitely cleaner with the Svets.

The Svetlana seemed to separate the notes and overtones better. A bit cleaner. Kinda like a 6CA7-like tone with notes coming off the bridge pickup. But, I like good neck pickup tone and the JJ E34L was better in this amp.

HTH, somewhat. :^)


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  • RE: JJ E34L vs Mullard EL34 (Reissue) vs SED EL34 - FenderLover 23:02:08 04/27/09 (0)

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