So I tried out a Bugera 6260, really liked it, and will be mine in 2 weeks(picstory to come). My question is, can amp manufacturers use different tube brands? For instance, can Peavey amps use Mesa tubes?
Total noob tube question
- Thread starter Rick
- Start date
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Ramsay777
Is an A7X fan
I believe they can 
metalmike550
metalmechanic!!
if i am correct, Mesa Peavey and Marshal dont manufacture tubes. they use tubes from an actual tube supplier. like groove tubes or something like that. are you wanting to mod it for the rectifier type sound? i think you can just slap in the correct tube combo and re bias the amp for that.
playstopause
Contributor
Hey, that's great news Rick!
Why, thank you. It appears that I've joined the DARKSIDE. 
Peavey, Mesa, Marshall, Fender, all use other brand tubes re-badged with their names, in their amps. Usually Sovtek or Chinese tubes. Mesa tubes won't make your amp sound like a Mesa, etc.
Groove Tubes rates and re-badges other manufacturers tubes as well.
Groove Tubes rates and re-badges other manufacturers tubes as well.
Mesas tubes are just within fairly tight tolerances is all. you wont get "mesa" tubes in a peavey ever, but you could potentially get the same tubes without the mesa name
Well, pretty sure the Bugera has a bias pot, and I've had "Mesa" powertubes in my Laney no problem.
Thanks, dudes. Appreciate the love. 
Scali
Banned
There are a few brands, like Mesa and Koch, that colour-code their tubes.
The advantage is that you can directly replace tubes with the same colour-code without re-biasing the amp.
Other than that the tubes generally come from only a handful of suppliers. There's a few Russian and Chinese factories, and there's the old Tesla factory, which now creates tubes under the JJ brand. That's pretty much it (so basically we have Communism to thank for keeping tubes alive... the Western world phased out their tube production decades ago).
A separate class of tubes is the NOS tubes (New Old Stock). These are generally Western-made tubes (like Philips, Telefunken, Mullard and such) that have long been out of production, but were left unsold in a warehouse somewhere. You generally won't find those as stock tubes in a production amp however.
The advantage is that you can directly replace tubes with the same colour-code without re-biasing the amp.
Other than that the tubes generally come from only a handful of suppliers. There's a few Russian and Chinese factories, and there's the old Tesla factory, which now creates tubes under the JJ brand. That's pretty much it (so basically we have Communism to thank for keeping tubes alive... the Western world phased out their tube production decades ago).
A separate class of tubes is the NOS tubes (New Old Stock). These are generally Western-made tubes (like Philips, Telefunken, Mullard and such) that have long been out of production, but were left unsold in a warehouse somewhere. You generally won't find those as stock tubes in a production amp however.
Thank you communism.
