high headroom 6l6s

G

Guitarplayerdan

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841
Alright so in two years i have had Jan philips small bottle 6l6s and TAD (tube amp doctor) 6l6s in my amp. I bought the tads because the jan philips went up in price and I wasn't making alot of money at the time. So today i put back in the jan philips (that barley have any life in them). BUT OMGOSH! they sound wayyyyy better. I mean more headroom but regardless the eq was now useful on my amp. To me it was night and day, because i was so upset with how my amp is sounding lately.

BTW i play a tophat superdeluxe.

Okay so im not going to cheap out on tubes anymore. Is there something that is alot better than even the Jan philips (which are my fav at the moment).

Does anyone find good use of the tads? What are your fav 6l6?
 
Blue Strat

Blue Strat

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The short bottle JAN Philips tubes are 6L6WGBs which don't produce as much power (and hence, don't have as much headroom) as 6L6GCs.

Any NOS 6L6GC will do. Sylvanias and Philips come to mind since you like the JAN Philips tubes.

If your TADs have more than 500 hours on them that could be why they're not giving you as much headroom....they (as all other new production power tubes) simply don't last nearly as long as NOS tubes.
 
SReynolds

SReynolds

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Jan phillips 7581a's will give you more headroom if you can find them. Alittle chimier on top and better, cleaner bass.
 
Blue Strat

Blue Strat

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SReynolds said:
Jan phillips 7581a's will give you more headroom if you can find them. Alittle chimier on top and better, cleaner bass.
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Good call. This assumes that the amp in question is capable of producing more power than with the other possible tubes. The power supply and transformers limit the power an amp can produce. You can put 10,000 watt tubes in a 35 watt amp and still get 35 watts. (power is proportional to clean headroom).
 
mad dog

mad dog

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Those JAN Phillips 6L6WGB are the best. Not the highest power or headroom, but they sound so fine. For highest headroom, liking regular Phillips 6L6GC lately, also Sylvania STR 387.
 
G

Guitarplayerdan

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841
vandi said:
A few ideas:

http://www.kcanostubes.com/content/nos-sylvania-6l6gc-str-415-matched-pair

http://www.kcanostubes.com/content/nos-ge-7581a-matched-pair

http://www.kcanostubes.com/content/winged-c-sed-6l6gc

I am not affiliated with KCA but I have purchased from Mike in the past and always had positive experiences. I regularly run JAN/Phillips 7581s in several different amps with great results.

cheers,
vandi
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wow those are exspensive.... are they worth it? I mean if they sound good ill do something like that. Like i said im looking at getting alot of clean AND full bodied tone. Btw im about to get a port city pearl which comes with tube amp doctor 6l6.... so ill need to grab some before i buy the amp to.
 
jabromusic

jabromusic

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Guitarplayerdan said:
wow those are exspensive.... are they worth it? I mean if they sound good ill do something like that. Like i said im looking at getting alot of clean AND full bodied tone. Btw im about to get a port city pearl which comes with tube amp doctor 6l6.... so ill need to grab some before i buy the amp to.
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congrats on getting the pc pearl. it's an incredible amp. mine came with the TAD 6L6WGC-STR's which i'm digging so far although i haven't tried any others yet. i think daniel will put whatever you want in your pearl. just shoot him an email
 
Roe

Roe

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I should have bought 7581s some years ago when mike and other were selling them cheap
 
E

edgarallanpoe

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1,453
7581a all the way. I have all kinds of NOS 6L6GC tubes and some NOS 5881/6l6WGB. When it comes to clean headroom and sweet tone the 7581s are the shiznitz. You would have to step up to some serious KT66s to get any better headroom and tone. I prefer the Phillips to the GEs that KCA is selling but you can't go wrong with either.

Worth $200 all day long...no question.

The only downside is that once you hear them you will be spoiled and having a backup pair can get expensive. That being said, they last for a seriously long time. Mine have been in an amp for over 5 yrs and still are testing at close to 100% and I am a gigging musician.
 
SReynolds

SReynolds

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Blue Strat said:
Good call. This assumes that the amp in question is capable of producing more power than with the other possible tubes. The power supply and transformers limit the power an amp can produce. You can put 10,000 watt tubes in a 35 watt amp and still get 35 watts. (power is proportional to clean headroom).
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The 7581a's have improved the headroom in every amp I'v ever put them in and that's been quite a few over the years, and the tone considerably. Best tube for these style amps IMHO.
 
G

Guitarplayerdan

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Messages
841
okay i for sure had jan philips 6l6wgb in my amp then replaced them with tads. Then yesterday put the JANs back in. They didn't seem to die on me this time they worked all day. WHen I bought these JAN PHILIPS were they NOS.

Im so confussed about tubes. But are we going to run dry one day. Because that would suck.
 
G

Guitarplayerdan

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Messages
841
jb70 said:
congrats on getting the pc pearl. it's an incredible amp. mine came with the TAD 6L6WGC-STR's which i'm digging so far although i haven't tried any others yet. i think daniel will put whatever you want in your pearl. just shoot him an email
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i think me and you will be the only port city pearl owners on the gear page. I haven't placed my order yet, but i will asap. Was going to get a two rock but i think ill like this better.
 
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