In V1 I tried a variety of new and old tubes, GE & RCA short plates, an odd Delco, Sylvania long plates and a new JJ ECC803. While they all sounded better than the Psavane, nothing struck me as better by a wide margin. The two long plates, Sylvania and JJ ECC803 seemed best, perhaps a slight edge to the Sylvania. I went with the ECC803 and I'll save the more pricey Sylvania for somewhere it makes a bigger difference. I'm not surprised by the ECC803 - it is my go to new tube for V1 when I'm not using old stuff.
V2 is on when overdrive is selected, so it only makes a difference there. The Psvane was harsh with some unpleasantness in the high end. A JJ ECC83 shortplate was better. Smooth high end but a little fuzzy. An old Penta (Shugang) was loudest and not unpleasant sounding. But my favorite was a JJ ECC83 MG (midgain). It had the smooth highs without the fuzziness of the other JJ and good clarity and enough gain to make the amp sing nicely.
I wasn't expecting the phase inverter choice to make much difference, but I did try a few different 12AT7/ECC81's. The JJ ECC81 i started with sounded fine but a Sylvania and Raytheon were a little better. But the best (by a pretty good margin) was a very old RCA 12AT7 that's been rattling around my tube box for years. A note on the box said it had some noise issues, but none were evident here. And the amp really came alive with sweet singing feedback and better touch sensitivity. I'm surprised - I haven't found PI tubes make that big a difference in other amps.
Here's a picture of the settings I was using as I tried out the tubes, Plugging into normal with bright switch on with humbuckers (an Explorer) and the FET channel with the bright off with singles (a Tele).
