EL844 (T-EL844-JJ)

I have a Bugera V22 Head (I know, Uli Behringer's The Devil - whatever). I've had it for about 3 months. I've been playing for 15 years or so. This is my first "all-tube" amplifier. It sounded better than anything else I've had so far, but I believed with a new set of tubes it could sound better still. I did a little reading and put together a custom set to suit my needs - home studio & practice space (no playing out with this). Like everyone else who has purchased this tube, I was looking for earlier break-up. The stock tubes I replaced were Chinese Shuguang EL84s re-branded as Bugeras. Not bad. These are better. Very low-noise. Not only do I get less volume over-all (not as much volume drop as I was expecting, but measurable) and earlier break-up, but these sound darker. Darker in relation to what was in there. The stock tubes were a little bit shrill at full volume. These sound fuller, rounder, richer, and with more complex harmonic content. I know that sounds like the junk everybody says on forums to justify their most recent purchase. It's true though. These sound killer.

This Tube does what it says. It will reduce your volume and clean headroom, but there's a bit of shrillness and fizz that I couldn't dial out. I guess if I used a darker voiced amp this would have not been a big deal, but a Fender amp is too bright when it's stock. Maybe will work in an "Orange" amp or another darker brand.

Ok, to be honest with you, I was about to sell my recently purchased Bugera V5. Most posts stated that this amp has a dark tone, however sounded somewhat better with single coils. So, I played my 70's reissue through it, but couldn't shake that dark muddy sound. I was looking into replacement tubes and stumbled upon the JJ EL-844 and liked the "concept" of the tube. To make a long story short, I purchased one and threw it in my V5, along with a Tung-Sol 12ax7. Let's just say that I'm not going to get rid of the V5 anymore! No more dark mud!! Great crunch and sustain to die for. I didn't notice any drop in sound, only an increase in buttery stratocaster tones! The amp isn't the greatest in the world, but it sure sounds 10x better than it did before the tube change.

I purchased this tube for my Bugera amp to increase the presence and clarity. Once installed, I was very pleased with the high quality, but more so with the sound that was produced...excellent tube.I highly recommend this tube as an upgrade to any amp using tubes that will fit the JJ EL844.

works and fits fine

Tubes worked as they should and came in a timely manner.

Tried a single one of these in my Bugera V5. Yes, it reduces output but at the cost of much of the bottom end. Really does not work much better than the built in output power reducing switch which also sucks the life out of the amplifier tone. Results may be different in a matched pair output application.

I'm pretty sure this is the first review I have written on Amazon, but it is a review I feel compelled to write. My only amp that uses EL84's is a little Marshall Class 5. The Class 5 is only 5 watts, but it is a LOUD 5 watts to say the least. I had heard about the EL844 by JJ, that it has a lower headroom and less volume, so I ordered one. I wasn't expecting much, but what I got exceeded all expectations. Immediately noticeable was the change in how the amp felt. That may not make a lot of sense to some people, but those that have played a really good tube amp know what I'm talking about. There is now a smoother distortion, better touch dynamics, more compression, and yes the volume is lower. I like to run the class 5 at max volume and use my guitar's volume knob for distortion control, and I like the full volume compression so much now that I rarely ever turn it down. The icing on the cake though is the way the amp sounds now with the low volume switch engaged. With the EL84 the tone was somewhat choked with the low power switch engaged, but with the EL844 the tone is dynamic and alive. Hard to explain, but this tube makes me WANT to play guitar, the way a good amp SHOULD. Just get one, or a quad, whatever your amp requires. It is a cheap experiment and you never know, you may make yourself as happy as I did.