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Post by premiumplus (Dave) on Dec 27, 2018 19:34:34 GMT -7
I've got a new to me 1981 Carvin X100 amp coming in a week or so, and I need a quad of good 6L6's for it. I'm pretty sure that the Carvins of that era didn't have adjustable bias, but the first thing I'm going to when it hits home is put the chassis on my bench and install a bias control pot, clean and tighten all the connections, pots, etc.
Who is making the best 6L6's nowadays, is it still JJ? I know that my Therapy shipped with JJ output tubes back in 2014 but I thought I'd check in considering the inconsistent nature of tube makers nowadays. Thanks fellas!
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Post by sharkboy on Dec 28, 2018 4:04:49 GMT -7
I may be a little outside the norm here, but since Winged C closed, I’d pick the GT6L6-GE or the TAD 6L6 (I can’t remember if it was the wgc or the gc variants) a little bit above the JJ offerings- but those aren’t bad. FYI: my last shootout was in a D*mbl* clone (Fender derivative) and most of the tubes I tried were better at something than other tubes. I also liked the Tung-Sols. The Chinese and other Russian ones were good too. I don’t think I tried any pair that sounded bad. Seems like the 6L6 is the tube that most manufacturers get right.
To me, there is much greater variation between EL84 and 6V6 tubes of different makes- and that isn’t all good.
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Post by zpilot on Dec 29, 2018 11:02:02 GMT -7
I just replaced the 6L6's in a customer's amp. I used JJ's because I've had good luck with them. This time I used their "double mica" version because they claim they are more rugged. It makes sense to me but we will see. Of course they are a little more expensive. Anyway they sound fine so that is what I recommend.
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Post by premiumplus (Dave) on Dec 30, 2018 7:53:40 GMT -7
Thanks fellas,
I've got a nice quad of JJ's and I also ordered a quad of Tung Sol 6L6GC STR RIs. Still waiting for the amp, meanwhile I found the schematics for it. It's way different from the X100B, and has a good looking platform for a little bit of amp revoicing. Here's the schematics, for the technically inclined:
Only the first two pages are valid for this particular amp. Page three is for the "Series III" amps
One thing that strikes me right away is the huge interstage coupling caps: .047 is pretty big, and that along with 22uf cathode bypass caps are going to make this thing sound pretty bass heavy. It also has some interstage filtering between V1 and V2 that is interesting... I don't think it'll have any trouble getting a fat tone! I'm going to go over it and make sure it's running great stock first, then I think I can do a little tuning. I've seen some clips of modded X100B amps that sound really good.
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Post by LT on Dec 30, 2018 15:38:21 GMT -7
I'm a little late here Dave, but I've had good luck with Mesa STR's.
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Post by zpilot on Jan 1, 2019 1:01:40 GMT -7
I'm a little late here Dave, but I've had good luck with Mesa STR's. Of course the STR's are re-branded JJ's or Sovtek's or whatever Mesa has chosen to use currently. Anyone know what they are using right now? JJ's? If so, I prefer to get them from Eurotubes.
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