20 year old power tubes. STR-416 and 6L6GC info help?

[Ed Mullins]

The tubes in the photos below are from my '88 blue stripe Mk-III. These are the original tubes with very low hours. The EL34s are marked with STR-416. Not much info on the 6L6 tubes. Ultimately I'd like to determine the manufacturer and value of the set. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[212Mavguy]

The 6ca7/el34's are Sylvania, the 6l6's appear to be russian, but not sure. Am very sure on the Sylvanias.

 

[Ed Mullins]

Thanks for the info. Is it possible that the 6L6GC tubes are Mesa's STR-415? They should be the same age as the EL-34s since they come from the same amp. I think the 6L6s used to have the Mesa stamp on the glass but I may have cleaned off the remaining paint a few years ago. Does anyone know what these guys are worth?

 

[crane]

Nope, they dsn't look like STR-415.
I have both in my 295 (STR 415 and 416), and they are pretty the same (expect they aren't the same tubes :mrgreen: )

 

[94Tremoverb]

The 6CA7s are definitely Sylvanias.

The 6L6GCs are Russian or other East-European (they probably came from the same factory anyway, but you often see supposedly "made in" Poland, Hungary or DDR labels on them) junk tubes. I'm very surprised they are original, I didn't think Mesa ever used those. I would get them out of that amp and put in some real USA-made 6L6s...

 

[Ed Mullins]

Thanks for all the help and info guys. You've helped me to uncover a terrible mistake. I bought and sold a green stripe MkIII head a couple years ago. While digging through some digital pictures of my gear I found proof that I had mistakenly left the original STR-415 tubes from the blue stripe in the green stripe head prior to selling. Oops. I realize now that the 6L6 tubes pictured in this thread aren't original to the blue stripe and are instead from the used green stripe MkIII I breifly owned a couple years ago. To whomever bought the green stripe with the STR-415s.....you're welcome. Arghh! Stupid is as stupid does.