6L6 opinions - Ruby / EH / Svetlana??

[onetwoxu]

I'm looking for a fairly cheap quad of 6l6's to try out in my trem-o-verb.. I bought it with EL34's and its time to try out something new. I can get either the Ruby 6L6GC STR, Svetlana 6L6, or EH 6L6's for around $50 a quad.. have you guys tried out any of these? Which do you think would be best for heavy music? Thanks!

 

[R_ADKINS80]

I know you want to try cheap but please give these a try. I have both ruby (stock mesa str440) Svetlana (mesa str 454) and neither of them come as close to the awesome heavy tones I get out of my TAD 6L6GC STR's. They are $43/pair but are bar none the best 6l6's I've ever used and I have a bunch of them. I can't comment on the EH as I've never used their 6L6's.

Heck even if you just buy 1 pair of the TAD's to see and pull 1 rectifier tube, I guarentee you will love them after a good burn-in.

 

[nosajwp]

I've had great results with SED and JJ 6L6's.

 

[domct203]

+1 for the SED's.

I think I'll give the TAD's a try also, but IMO you can't go wrong with the SED's in a Recto.

Dom

 

[R_ADKINS80]

My str454 mesas are the old Svetlana's which now is =C=. they are great tubes. Probably the only tube i have in my collection that you can crank mids on and it not sound like ass.

 

[edward]

Huge +1 for the SED Winged-Cs. I liked them so much in my DC5, I put a pair in my MKIII simul. Very nice sounding tubes: warm, rich, and good indiv note detail.

Edward

 

[psmile87]

I stuck w/ rubys in my triple rec, but never really tried any others....sounded good though

 

[mik]

I enjoyed a matched JJ 6L6 quad from Eurotubes.com ... Very smooth..

Mik.

 

[cliffdove]

I know you want to try cheap but please give these a try. I have both ruby (stock mesa str440) Svetlana (mesa str 454) and neither of them come as close to the awesome heavy tones I get out of my TAD 6L6GC STR's. They are $43/pair but are bar none the best 6l6's I've ever used and I have a bunch of them. I can't comment on the EH as I've never used their 6L6's.

Heck even if you just buy 1 pair of the TAD's to see and pull 1 rectifier tube, I guarentee you will love them after a good burn-in.

Would you say that the difference between STR440s and the TAD's is in the low end or low mids?

 

[rvschulz]

my two faves are (1) SED Winged C (2) Ruby GCMSTR ... all others are not as good to my ears.

 

[MusicManJP6]

I enjoyed a matched JJ 6L6 quad from Eurotubes.com ... Very smooth..

Mik.

The JJs are very smooth and have more clarity than any other tube I've tried. I have a pair of JJ 6L6s FOR SALE if anyone is interested BTW.

I also really liked the SED Winged =C= tubes. Very thick in the lower mids.

 

[MikeK]

I don't want to step on anyone's toes and I'm not a tube expert, but I've tried JJ 6L6GC's in my Dual Rec Solo Head and found them uninspiring. They are smooth, and put out a pretty good jazz sound, but imho they just don't have the 'harmonic swirl' I get from some of the other brands. The 6L6 that did catch my attention have these side mounted getters near the base. They're marked as Mesa tubes, but I haven't been able to read much of the labeling because the silk screening has deteriorated. They came with the amp when I bought it used. I've switched tubes several times but seem to come back to use these when I want that 6L6 tone. Maybe someone can fill me in as to what the origin of these tubes are.