Quote Originally Posted by DrNomis_44 View Post
I've got three Genalex Gold Lion gold pin ECC83S preamp tubes installed in my Marshall MA100C amp and they've been really good so far, I bought them online from Evatco, they are a little expensive but the way I see it, it's worth paying a bit of extra money to get decent tubes for guitar amps since cheaper tubes are only going to give you trouble later on down the line....definitely don't skimp on tube quality.


https://www.evatco.com.au/

https://www.evatco.com.au/12ax7gg
The Tung-Sols got a good review (Cost $24.50 each from Evatco) and are used happily by lots of people so I don't think they are inherently poor quality. There must be something else going on for all of them to fail so rapidly.

A colleague offered the suggestion that the base of the new tubes are perhaps under stress when seated in the older 1960's sockets (which are supposed to be tighter than newer sockets) and when hot, they expand enough to fracture the glass. This could explain why the older used and NOS tubes are OK.
Anyone got an opinion on this supposition?
Cheers.