Some Nice 6L6s

If you do anything 6L6GC, the Winged C is the best tube SED/Svetlana/Winged C ever made. Their EL34s are good, but the 6L6 is stellar in Mesa and Fender amps. Think old RCA.

As you were, gentlemen. Just wanted to throw that in there!

NOS Winged Cs are selling for $125 apiece these days. When they were $30 apiece or so, while still in production until only a few years ago, they were a good buy. Not so much now.

For $25 more you can get US made Sylvanias. The Sylvanias are the choice I'd make.

I wouldn't spend $500 on a quartet of 'not really NOS' Russian tubes.

Also, lots of the Winged Cs on the market are factory seconds. You have to be very careful who you buy from if you go that route.
 
NOS Winged Cs are selling for $125 apiece these days. When they were $30 apiece or so, while still in production until only a few years ago, they were a good buy. Not so much now.

For $25 more you can get US made Sylvanias. The Sylvanias are the choice I'd make.
Sorry about that. As you know, I’ve got a stock of them and didn’t know the prices had changed that much. Disregard!

But, I’m telling you… RCA black plate with a red base. Killer tube.
 
If you do anything 6L6GC, the Winged C is the best tube SED/Svetlana/Winged C ever made. Their EL34s are good, but the 6L6 is stellar in Mesa and Fender amps. Think old RCA.

As you were, gentlemen. Just wanted to throw that in there!
I sold my Twin II with a quartet of =C=s and I wish I hadn’t. But then again, at the price I got for the amp, I could have bought a lot of replacements…at the time. Coincidentally, I sold it to a Russian guy and he shipped it to the motherland. You’d think they could get some great NOS tubes over there since their military used them in avionics until last year! (I kid…a little)
 
Coincidentally, I sold it to a Russian guy and he shipped it to the motherland. You’d think they could get some great NOS tubes over there since their military used them in avionics until last year! (I kid…a little)

The pilots took them all out of the planes and used them in their Sovtek guitar amps.

The planes have to fly with new tubes, and they don't sound as good. :)
 
The pilots took them all out of the planes and used them in their Sovtek guitar amps.

The planes have to fly with new tubes, and they don't sound as good. :)

Funny thing is that in the mid 90’s I was using Sovtek valves as a cheap replacement in my Mesa. I guess now they would be more desirable than the tubes that Mesa are marketing?
 
Funny thing is that in the mid 90’s I was using Sovtek valves as a cheap replacement in my Mesa. I guess now they would be more desirable than the tubes that Mesa are marketing?

Hard to say. Were Sovtek tubes more valuable than some of the stuff Mesa had at the time? Maybe, hard to know. Mesa had several suppliers in the '90s, and some were in Russia. But I think they were still installing a few old stock US tubes in the very early '90s. Possibly.
 
I had kept some spare TAD 6L6GC's somewhere in storage, but they may already have been donated to a guy who maintains a ham radio post who has been an acquaintance for several years. My only regret in life is that I've never been a mechanical guy whatsoever. I let my real mechanic do that work.
 
Thought I’d share…

I have these and nothing to put them in. Isn’t it supposed to be the other way around?

6l6wgb.jpg
 
What the hell does it sound like when tubes rattle?

I used to have a killer SOVTEK amp but I think I traded it in on a new MESA.
 
Kind of like fret buzz, sometimes more prominent on certain notes, or when playing at higher volumes.
 
What the hell does it sound like when tubes rattle?

I used to have a killer SOVTEK amp but I think I traded it in on a new MESA.

Probably depends on the tube, but it sounds like a high frequency jingling or ringing sound when I've heard it on any of my amps. One of the most annoying guitar-related noises ever. Absolutely kills any possibility of getting a decent recording, but I can't stand it even playing live.

What creates it is a poorly constructed tube whose internal parts are sympathetically vibrating against the glass envelope at certain frequencies. With most new-manufacture tubes, part of the problem is the low quality mica spacers inside the tube, part of the problem is that the haphazard construction of many current tubes results in the metal parts in the tubes leaning to one side of the tube or the other. Though those parts can rattle, too, if the tube isn't well made.

My experience with the Telefunken/JJs has been a 'no rattle' pleasure.

It's more likely with combos than heads, due to the tubes hanging right next to speakers. A separate cab and head isolate the tubes a lot more, though there have been times I've gotten tube rattle even with a separate cab and head.

I was able to solve the rattle on my old set of Mesa tubes with Eurotubes damping rings, but the tubes failed in a short time regardless, something I find quite common with current production tubes, without damping rings.

Interestingly, I've never had a JJ tube go bad in the past. So there's that. Problem is, I don't know if the stock JJs would rattle in my Lone Star or not, so there are no guarantees to this stuff.

The Telefunkens don't rattle, they sound good, and I'm delighted with them.
 
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Thought I’d share…

I have these and nothing to put them in. Isn’t it supposed to be the other way around?

6l6wgb.jpg

Those are some excellent 5881/6L6 WGBs, maybe the best 5881s ever made. The JAN designation is military use, you probably know this, so they were tested to be more in spec than their old run of the mill tubes.

You can't use them in your amps?
 
Those are some excellent 5881/6L6 WGBs, maybe the best 5881s ever made. The JAN designation is military use, you probably know this, so they were tested to be more in spec than their old run of the mill tubes.

You can't use them in your amps?
Being a lower plate voltage rating - though they can probably take it - I’ve been overly cautious using them in place of GCs. Almost put them in my Twin and the Bassman, but I sold the Twin and my brother has the Bassman right now. They might do something interesting in the MkIII and I’ve not considered them in the SuperD. May send MikeB an email and see what he thinks for the Boogie and a note to Doug or Jeff about the SuperD. Hmm…this could get interesting!
 
Being a lower plate voltage rating - though they can probably take it - I’ve been overly cautious using them in place of GCs. Almost put them in my Twin and the Bassman, but I sold the Twin and my brother has the Bassman right now. They might do something interesting in the MkIII and I’ve not considered them in the SuperD. May send MikeB an email and see what he thinks for the Boogie and a note to Doug or Jeff about the SuperD. Hmm…this could get interesting!

I was thinking about using some 5881s in my Lone Star at one point, and I called Mesa; they didn't have a problem with the idea, but if memory serves they recommended that I flip a couple of switches a certain way to do that. I don't recall what the settings were supposed to be.

I had some NOS JAN Philips 5881s in a couple of my Two-Rocks (they came equipped with them, but could also run 6L6s), and they sounded fantastic.

I have no idea whether you could run them in a Super D.
 
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