6L6 or 6V6 any difference?

[Ostia Man]

Hi!
6L6 or 6V6 any difference?
can I put 6V6 tubes on a marshall jcm900?
Thanx!

[timthetortoise]

Wouldn't recommend it. They have different characteristics, and a circuit mod would probably be required to keep your rig from melting down. However, you can give it a shot and let us know how it turns out.

[Outlaws]

Originally Posted by Ostia Man

Hi!
6L6 or 6V6 any difference?
can I put 6V6 tubes on a marshall jcm900?
Thanx!

6V6 use a much lower plate voltage than 6L6.

[Ostia Man]

Thanx!
and how about preamp tubes?
can i use 12at7, 12au7 inted of 12ax7?

[Outlaws]

Originally Posted by Ostia Man

Thanx!
and how about preamp tubes?
can i use 12at7, 12au7 inted of 12ax7?

No. You could probably get away with a 5751 or a 12AT7, but you generally don't go more than one gain stage below when it comes to preamp tubes. And 12AT7 is still a hefty drop in gain.

Just stick with 12AX7 and the stock 5881 tubes. If you don't like the sound of the amp, sell it.

[Ostia Man]

I do like the sound, I was just wondering why there are so many types of tubes.

[Ostia Man]

are 5881 same as 6l6?

[timthetortoise]

All of these answers are readily available on Google!

[Outlaws]

Originally Posted by Ostia Man

are 5881 same as 6l6?

99% the same. A slightly different sound. Early JCM 900's came EL34, then later models came with 5881.

[dementedchord]

you'll need to rebias the amp if you try 6V6's... they may not last too long otherwise... 5881's are industrial/mil spec 6L6's... no reason you cant sub any of the 12a?7's... ax's are highest gain... so dont expect to overdrive anything with au's aw's etc... and going the other direction if it calls for say at's you can in most cases try ax's the exception is the phase inverter tube... (usually the last before the outputs)

[ggunn]

Originally Posted by Ostia Man

Hi!
6L6 or 6V6 any difference?
can I put 6V6 tubes on a marshall jcm900?
Thanx!

6V6 ~20 watts per pair
6L6 ~40 watts per pair

Different biasing, etc; not interchangeable without other work on the amp.

[Ostia Man]

Thanx to all for the info.

[amra]

If I might hijack this thread for a second, what are the differences among 6l6 tubes - like between 6L6GC and 6l6WXT, for instance?

[dragonworks]

gc stands for Glass Case i think, I know the G stands for glass, the other I couldn't tell ya.