what brand of power tubes are you using? You should get a solid 3 to 6 months of decent tone with JJs depending on how heavy your performance/recording/rehearsal schedule is

and the FX loop is just silly in this type of amp, my matchless has a solid Hi Z FX loop on each channel but its pointless since the its upstream of the master volume and I am 99% sure the maz amps are the same basic design where its a Hi Z preamp out/preamp in 0s type of thing with a psot-phase iverter master so its really kidna foolish for using it in the modern way of gain-banging, channel switchin' amps with loops. But that's not why you bought something in the vox camp. Is it?

I Use the JJ's, but so far I have not been lucky with them. After about one hour of playing it for the first time, one of the tubes shorted and blew my fuse. After replacing them with JJ's, one tube had a microphonic ring.

The pair that is in now sometimes refuses to start. Power down and cool down and then it works again. Amp is only 1,5 months old. I read similar reports from other Maz owners...

And you're right, the effects loop is pretty pointless in these kind of amps. Don't know why they put it in.

whoa e you buying them from?

Haar Guitars in The Netherlands is the distributor. They replaced my tubes twice and even changed the Greenback speaker I didn't like for a G12H, free of charge. No complaints there...

you didn't like the G12H? okay then... so they supply your tubes? Talk to KCA NOS tubes. They do current production and the guy is super reliable. When he says tested and burned in he means it. Tubestore and Tube Depot are reliable in that department too but lack personalized service and aren't exactly right on it if you have a problem or a concern. I would recommend Triode Electronics out of Chicago but the international shipping would kill you.

oh wait, read that backwards, you didn't like the G12M and got an H instead. They are both 'greenbacks', that term doesn't refer to anything but the cosmetics. It used to e that only old ones had greenbacks and mostly the ones with pulsonic cones (and the early kurt Mueller's after pulsonic burned down) be they L, S, M or H weight magnets, lead or bass cones but the G12M got reissued pretty early on to go with the 1st plexi reissues around 1988 and half the people out there think only the medium magnet with a lead cone should be called a greenback causing much confusion for everyone. Especially now that half the varieties have been reissued. For instance, I own some early ceramics that are labeled G12S and are probably more similar to an early, coveted G12M than anything made by celestion today but they don't have the green paint so they're not actually greenbacks! its nuts

Haha, you certainly know your speakers! I mean the Vintage 70th anniversary 30W G12H Special Edition (gold back). Much warmer and more depth to the tone than the green back that had only harsh mids...

I'll look into the KCA NOS tubes, thanks. Shipping costs from the USA to The Netherlands indeed are a b.tch...

KCA might be based in Europe, I forget.... last time Iordered from him I bought so many old Mullard and Miniwatt EF86es that he comped me shipping... but I don't wanna run out before I die. But yeah, check KCA, stick with JJ, although the TAD EL84 is also pretty cool, very durable with a little bit of a 6V6 creaminess in a vox or voxalike amp