Dual Recto w/ EL34s

[caustic69]

I have a Roadster and love it. Especially the Dual Recto high gain sound. I have heard the Roadster is a little darker than a typical dual Recto and I am just curious if anyone has much experience with swapping out the 6L6's for EL34's since the amp can be swapped. I am asking in terms of the Roadster as well as any dual recto.
Just curious what differences anyone may have noticed both for clean and high gain tones.

Of course, if it's not broken, don't fix it but just curious.

Thx

 

[stephen sawall]

Cleans are not as good with EL34. The bass moves about a octave up and is slightly tighter. You get more upper midrange.

I like both for what they do. I ran EL34 in my Tremoverb about 15 years. Recent years I went back to 6L6.

 

[caustic69]

Thanks for the reply. The slightly tighter bottom end and upper mids might be worth giving it a try.

 

[stephen sawall]

Both are great. I switched back to 6L6 because I am using highgain a lot less these days. Clean and lower gain stuff that I am doing it just works better for me. I always keep a set of both around.

 

[silentbob]

As mentioned EL34s sound great under higher gain, less so as the gain comes down. I can get my Road King bright enough with 6L6s and almost never use the EL34s at all.

 

[stephen sawall]

I like the point of breakup with EL34. EL34 does OK cleans in a Rectifier. I just prefer 6L6 these days for most of the stuff I do.