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    GAStronomist DrNomis_44's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by fender3x View Post
    My main bass amp is a Carvin BX500. Carvin stopped producing amps in 2017, but up to then was pretty well known in the US. I gather that it's not that well known outside the US... Mine has class D power, with lots of tone shaping knobs (drive, parametric eq, graphic eq, treble, bass and contour and compression), and weighs in under 6lbs.

    It's mostly solid state, but has one 12AX7 tube which can be engaged or disengaged. I thought this might make the sound a little warmer, or change the sound of the overdrive. What it seems to do, however is nothin at all. I am thinking of swapping out the 12AX7 for some other tube, but I don't know much about this and wondered if anyone here had advice about that...and what I might expect by changing the tube?

    You can replace it with a 7025 (basically a low noise version of the 12AX7), an ECC83 (the European equivalent of the 12AX7), a 12AX7A, a 12AX7WA tube and they all should work fine.

    You might notice a slight change in the tone, or amount of gain you get, the 12AX7 is basically a high gain (theoretical maximum of 100) small signal twin-triode tube with a nine-pin base, it is used a lot in guitar amplifiers and some high-end stereo audio equipment.

    Best thing to do is get hold of a few 12AX7, 7025, and ECC83 tubes and try each of them out one by one till you find one that has a tone you like.
    Last edited by DrNomis_44; 17-11-2020 at 11:25 AM.

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