6L6's vs 6V6's?? Whats the difference in tone?

[tele_jas]

I've been playing my '70 Deluxe for a couple of years now with what I though were 6L6's.....I just cleaned out my closet and found the box the tubes came in and the label on the front says 6V6gt (or something like that). Up until about a year ago, I didn't know the difference in a rectifier tube and a power tube but now I'm pretty versed in the different tubes but I'm not familiar with the 6V6.... How do they compare with 6L6's?? Are they lower gain, or darker sounding or what?

I love the tone of my Deluxe and I'm wondering now what the 6V6's would sound like in my Road King or if the Road King will even handle these?

Thoughts........comments....... trade my RK1 for your RK2?? (had to slip that in there).

 

[ibanez4life SZ!]

6V6s are lower wattage tubes....they will reduce a 100 watt amp to about 60 watts.

They apparently give a slightly fatter tone at lower volumes....but at more extreme levels, I would go with 6L6s for the extra articulation in tone....

 

[RR]

Yeah, 6V6s start to sound splatty and tubby when you start to push them hard. I think they're fidelty is limited compared to 6L6s, and they're not good for metal, shred (in my opinion).

But when it comes to 60 rock 'n' roll, blues to some classic rock or just pushing them to just break up, to me they're some of the sweetest guitar tone.

I have a '68 SF Princeton and an Allen Ampifier 5F1+ (hot rod Champ) using 6V6s that great for room level volume.

So tele_jas you probably wonder: "My Deluxe sounds so sweet, its a keeper even though I have my share of Boogies." That is the reason why.

I'm not familiar with the compatibility issues of an RKII using 6V6s, whether there's a switch or change the cathode resistor to bias correctly with 6V6s and what happens to the output transformer are the impedance tap are the same? etc ...

Basically I would stay with amplifier w/ 6V6s than trying to experiment with a 6L6s amp trying them out with 6V6s.

But that just me, hope other would chime in.