Kissmybass Posted April 10, 2014 Share Posted April 10, 2014 (edited) Hi all, I am fairly new to the bass world and have just bought my first amp head (been borrowing kit for a year). It's a Trace Elliot ah350smx gp12 and sounds amazing to my inexperienced ears. The guy I bought it off said he does not think the valve has ever been replaced. I was hoping that changing this would give a bigger/better valve sound, as it only has minimal presence at the moment. I assume a new valve would improve this?. I am not worried about putting the original type in. What I would like to know is has anyone experimented with different types or know what would go really well in this amp. Don't know how to describe the sound I'm after, just that I want the wow factor if that's possible (naive way to describe it I know) Thanks so much for reading...... Edited April 11, 2014 by Kissmybass Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hamfist Posted April 11, 2014 Share Posted April 11, 2014 Your amp's valve is in the preamp. THese types of valve can last for decades and only need to be replaced if faulty. Having said that, if you are careful changing them there is no harm in trying different ones in search of different tones. I believe your amp's valve is a 12ax7, of which there are huge numbers of different types to potentially try out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Japhet Posted April 11, 2014 Share Posted April 11, 2014 Watford Valves were very helpful when I had to change the valve in my SMX. Have a chat with them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kissmybass Posted April 11, 2014 Author Share Posted April 11, 2014 Cheers for info guys.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 13, 2014 Share Posted April 13, 2014 Watford Valves do a valve for that head along with other TE models. It takes a while to find the specific one on their website though. I bought the cryo treated version of the valve for a 350smx I had at the time and to my ears it didn't sound any different to the one that was in it to start with. Stick a 12ax7 in there and enjoy the amp, it's a cracker !! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thodrik Posted April 13, 2014 Share Posted April 13, 2014 I don't think that the valves in the SMX amps really do that much other than add a little bit of added 'warmth' to the sound. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markorbit Posted April 15, 2014 Share Posted April 15, 2014 As already mentioned, a tube swap in this amp won't yeild radically different results. The GP12SMX is my favourite Trace pre. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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