JJ's ECC803 reliability?

General discussion area for tube amps.

Moderators: pompeiisneaks, Colossal

Synchu
Posts: 523
Joined: Sun Mar 11, 2012 5:24 am

Re: JJ's ECC803 reliability?

Post by Synchu »

I recently got a gold pin one (labeled premium from banzaimusic.com) in V1 of a #102 clone. Sounds good and didn't have problems so far (80-100 hours).
Sound good as well.
Niki
User avatar
BTF
Posts: 194
Joined: Wed Oct 18, 2006 2:27 pm

Re: JJ's ECC803 reliability?

Post by BTF »

If you've got a Presonus or ART MP preamp, a 12AY7 or the ECC803s will very much help the tone produced by the preamp. I like the 803. It doesn't quite make it in my JCM800 preamp, though. Sounds pretty fine in an SLP.
iknowjohnny
Posts: 1070
Joined: Thu Apr 24, 2008 2:10 am
Location: los angeles

Re: JJ's ECC803 reliability?

Post by iknowjohnny »

It seemed a coincidence i saw this post just now. I just started using a 803 i had for a while now but never thought it sounded as good as the tung sol RI's i've been using for about a year. Before that i used the old 80's chinese i have a stash of. I liked both those tubes most of all the AX7's i've used over the years, but there was always one issue i seem to have in every marshall amp i've had and now my jcm style (similar but not too close) homebrew. When i'd turn the guitar down to clean up the top end would get this staticy kind of nasty distortion. Lowering or not using a treble bleed removed it, but then the tone was much too dark when i cleaned up. For years i've tried to figure this out with every guitar i've had. I just threw that 803 in the other day and wow....that issue is gone ! Amazing. And once i started using it and got over the usual shock of my sound being different, i now feel that not even counting that issue, my tone is just all around better now. I only have it in V1 and still have a TS RI in the PI and an old chinese in the CF slot and they don't cause that issue there.

So i hope these things are reliable for me because i haven't been this happy with any amp. The bonus beside the better overall tone is the dynamics are now way better ! Never thought i'd be so happy with any JJ because i generally never like JJ's with few exceptions. But the 803 has literally removed the last problem i have with tone and left my rig sounding pretty much like that sound in your head. My tone controls are now much more usable too which is always a good sign things are in balance.
Post Reply