Blue Angel impedance revisited?

[Natman]

Hi all,

I've harassed you all over the years with my tiresome questions but here's one more for the pros:

The BA manual says to take the speaker down one jack when using only 6V6s.

Now I use the 6V6 setting exclusively and I have a 4 ohm load (currently plugged into the 4 ohm jack).

What could be done internally to make the power tubes "see" the proper load and therefore last longer?

I am sure the engineers had to make some compromise for the simul-link to happen, but what if the EL84's are removed completely? (I even considered removing the fan)

Thanks if you know?

On a final note, after extensive speaker swaps (both pairs and mismatched) I have 2 WGS Green Beret 10s that take the cake!

 

[austin sonar guru]

Great question. I went back to my manual and just as you say on page 4 towards the bottom is the line, I clearly forgot about this for the 27 years I've owned and played my Blue Angel.

For at least 90% of her life my 2X10 Blue Angel has used the 8 ohm output only.

The vast majority of her life I've used the 6V6 side only. During the first four years of her life I gigged several times a week. As I recall, I would only use the El-84 selections in simul-link (full 38 watts) when playing larger venues which was maybe only a third or quarter of the time.

For the longest time after that, I pulled a 6V6 only playing on one tube.

I had a pair of GE 6V6's (still in a drawer today) laying around in 95 when I purchased the amp, which came from an old stereo amplifier. I used those until two years ago when I purchased a matched pair of NOS 6V6-GT/G VT-107A SC278A (old US Army Signal Corps supplied) that I bought from a fellow in Virginia that is a reliable dealer of these types of items.

So I've replaced the 6V6's once in the life of the amplifier and not because they failed.

Here's the point:

1) 27 years - 8 ohm output predominantly - no 6V6 failures, most used simulink selector "6V6 only". Still on the original filter caps even though I have a full spare set of F&T's in my bench for whenever. I have used the 4 ohm out to 4X10 cabinet at times.
2) Only replaced component is a 1 watt 100 ohm resistor with a 2 watt version, which as I remember was to kill the "pop" that I was experiencing when using the bright/fat switch. The original was fried.

I hope this sheds a little light with regard to tube life when not shifting down to the 4 ohm output when using 6V6 selection. I currently use two Celestion Gold 16 ohm 2x10's in the amplifier.