EL34s in an Archon

[nussbajh]

About a year back, I decided to upgrade my American made PRS Archon 25 Combo to an American made Archon 50 head and 2x12 Big Mouth cabinet. I found a new old stock head from a dealer and got a great deal.

While playing the amp today, I noticed that it has an EL34 badge on it and then looked at the paperwork to see that it came with EL34s from the factory instead of the 6L6s. It sounds great and does a different rock tone that I like in comparison from my other amps. Anyone know anything about Archons with EL34s in them? How do they compare to Archons with 6L6s?

 

[Simon Says]

I never seen or heard of EL85 in a guitar amp. Are you sure you got it right? It looks like EL85 in noval style, where 6L6 is octal; there's no way they are a direct replacement

 

[ViperDoc]

Jaw hits floor. When you say paperwork, what do you mean? A factory user manual?

EL85 tubes are low-power EL84s that dissipate about 6W in Class AB. So about 2/3 power. A 6L6 will generate almost 3X that. You have to get into powers of ten to double output volume (loudness and power are logarithmic), so if somehow you have an experimental EL85 Archon, it's likely to be quite loud, especially if it has 4 power tubes. How many does it have? Are you suuuuure???? Because there's no way your "Archon 50" makes 50 watts of power with EL85s, unless you're using 8 of them, and that's just ridiculous. I want to know more.....

 

[nussbajh]

Sorry, it’s EL34s. Was rushing and not paying attention enough. Clearly I’m not the brightest on talking about amps. Still, anyone know how EL34s to 6L6s in an amp?

 

[Greywolf]

there are a variety of choices in the 6L6 Family which also include the 5881, KT77 and of course the EL 34's , you may have to re bias . I retubed from EL 34's to Gold Lion KT77's in my Blue Sierra 50 ..they are more typical in the audiophile world, they have more sparkle which helped clean it up enough to be my go to ... love them

fyi :

Amps with 6L6 Tubes​

• Fender 59 Bassman
• Fender 65 Twin Reverb
• Fender ’65 Super Reverb
• Fender 68 Custom Pro Reverb
• Fender ’68 Custom Twin Reverb
• Fender Blues Deluxe Reissue
• Fender Hot Rod Deluxe
• Blackstar CV30
• Blackstar St. James
• Blackstar HT Club
• Bugera Infinium
• Friedman Twin Sister
• Soldano Super Lead
• Laney Iron Heart
• Marshall JCM900 4100
• Orange Marcus King MK
• Peavey 6505

Amps with EL34 Tubes​

• Marshall JCM800
• Marshall Silver Jubilee
• Marshall JVM
• Marshall Origin
• Marshall DSL
• Marshall SV20H Studio Vintage Plexi
• Marshall Studio Classic
• Marshall 1987X Vintage Reissue
• Victory
• Orange Rockerverb
• Peavey 6534
• Laney Lionheart

 

[ViperDoc]

Aha. EL34 makes a big difference from EL85. Both 6L6 and EL34 tubes have similar output power, but break up a bit differently depending on the circuit. EL34 is usually the high gain output tube of choice, but there are plenty of famous rock amps that use 6L6, like the Mesa Boogie Mark 2C. They are not direct replacements for each other without a rebias, and they require different primary output impedances for optimal operation.

NOTE: One detail on this amp, if your amp is designed for EL34 which has a control grid grounded on pin 1, you can trade-in 6L6 tubes with a rebias. But if your amp is designed for 6L6, which has an unused pin 1 often used as bridge for a gridstopper, you can't swap EL34 in that case. You have to pull the chassis and look to see how it's wired.

 

[PRSAK]

The Archon came from the factory in both configurations. You could choose 6L6 or EL34. It seems like 6L6 was more popular. I have an EL34 version retubed with KT77s. Purple. I absolutely love it.

 

[Greywolf]

Nice to see another KT77 guy!

 

[ViperDoc]

The Archon came from the factory in both configurations. You could choose 6L6 or EL34. It seems like 6L6 was more popular. I have an EL34 version retubed with KT77s. Purple. I absolutely love it.

Nice to see another KT77 guy!

I mean, if you're going to use tetrodes, make them kinkless, man.

EDIT: Sorry for the super nerdy joke. "KT" in a power tube model stands for "Kinkless Tetrode", a design that involves a concentric approach to aligning grid holes through which electrons pass inside the tube as opposed to the "L" variants that allow for non-concentric pathways, thus making their theoretical path of their electron from grid to plate bent, or "kinked", as they negotiate their journey. I'm a huge KT66/JTM 45 fan. The cleans are sparkly and bright and the overdrive is classic rock to the nines.