6l6's vs. el34's

  • Thread starter Thread starter espskully
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espskully

espskully

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I see this has been discussed before - but I couldn't really find a definitive answer. I think I need to replace the power tubes on my single rectifier Mesa. It currently has el34's. I can switch that to 6l6's. What's the difference? What's your preference?

Thanks!
 
espskully said:
I see this has been discussed before - but I couldn't really find a definitive answer. I think I need to replace the power tubes on my single rectifier Mesa. It currently has el34's. I can switch that to 6l6's. What's the difference? What's your preference?

Thanks!
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I'm using 6L6 tubes in my rivera...I like the way they sound. A little smoother top end than the el34's..at least to my ears. ymmv. :)
 
Smooth is good. I like the Santana sound - you think the 6l6's would be better at achieving that liquidy, smooth, round sound?
 
espskully said:
Smooth is good. I like the Santana sound - you think the 6l6's would be better at achieving that liquidy, smooth, round sound?
Click to expand...

Imo, they would. Will you have to re-bias that mesa?
 
No - there is a bias switch to make the change, which is cool.

Thanks!
 
I don't know if this helps, but I was always under the impression that Marshall got some of it's tone from primarily using EL34's and Fender got it's from 6L6's.
I had a rebias switch on my Carvin amp ages ago, and switched from 6L6's to EL34's for this reason and I liked the change, but I was playing heavy music at the time.

Anyway - I hope it wors out for you. Keep the old tubes if you dont like the new ones.
Todd
 
6L6 has more head room. smoother breakup into distortion via a little more shimmer, but not smoother distortion.

I wouldn't say it will affect getting more toward Santana's sound since there are other great factors at play. Like the fact that he uses Dumble amps if I recall.

Just becuase you might use the same tube doesn't mean it will sound even more remotely close to the same as another amp.

EL84 are low output tubes, but they can achieve more of a Marshall tone in a 15 watt amp than EL34 for many people in actual Marshalls simpley because they won't have to be at 120dB to get to the sound.


But back to the 6L6 -vs- EL34 thing....if you want a little more headroom, go 6L6.

I would consider swapping pickups to what he uses before dealing with tubes. What kind of guitar are you using anyways?
 
The last few times I saw Santana play - he was using old Mesa's. One had the wicker grill - a Mark III? And he was using Mesa's at the dome here the other night.
 
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