6V6s..

[fdesalvo]

Brimar makes some sweet little 6V6s.

 

[212Mavguy]

er, made 6v6's, Brimar has been out of production for a while...and wonderful cleans and blues tones come out of mine. :wink:

 

[fdesalvo]

Yeah, you know what I meant. Mine lasted forever in a 5E3 clone I made around 2000.

 

[Guitarzan]

I've not had the best of luck with new production JJs.

You too? I'm not too happy either. There was atime a few years back when I raved about them. I'm having to retract my previous feelings about them. Hunt down some NOS 6V6's if you can.

 

[212Mavguy]

I've not had the best of luck with new production JJs.

You too? I'm not too happy either. There was atime a few years back when I raved about them. I'm having to retract my previous feelings about them. Hunt down some NOS 6V6's if you can.

Have tried a lot of vintage 6v6 in coke bottle and smaller gt and gta versions. No need at all to get new old stock, used vintage is fine if they test strong. I like tubes to match within 5%, I think it would be helpful for most Mesa users contemplating vintage or NOS 6v6 to purchase a bias measuring tool with a pair of sockets/adapters matching the output sockets in your Mesa amp(s). That way you could determine the curent draw of each mesa tube within a given push pull pair in your amp and have a baseline to start with. Vintage 6v6's whether new or used vintage, have differing current draw that could lead to problems if just blindly socketed in an amp that has no user fixed bias feature. Output tubes sometimes behave differently in an amp than a tube tester measurement might lead one to believe, too. After collecting a bunch of vintage power tubes of a given type one can group them together by current draw and have some very nice tones exhibiting some of the sonic characteristics of each tube if different brands of vintage tubes happen to be paired together by current match. Some vintage 6v6 blends sound great! Vintage tubes and speakers done right will bring the Mesa tone out of the amp, not hide it. Peace.