EL34 question

[G.I.G.]

I've been swapping 6L6's and EL34's back and forth in my Rect-O-Verb to compare the two types of power tubes. I like the different clip the EL34's have on the second channel in the vintage and modern settings, but I've noticed it's hard to get a good, smooth, clean tone out of them in channel one.

I know a lot of you guys use EL34's in your recto's and I was wondering how you dial in a good clean tone out of them. I like what both the 6L6's and the EL34's have to offer on distorted settings but I have to lean toward the 6L6's for clean tones. What do you EL34 users suggest?

 

[jbird]

Wow, the first thing I noticed when running EL34's was the bell like chime it added to the clean setting. Have'nt gone back since. Although this is on a two channel Dual Rec!

 

[Tommyv]

I tried EL34's in my Rectoverb series II head and liked the distortion tones more than the 6L6's, but I could not get a good clean tone with the EL34's, so I ended up putting the 6L6's back in because I do use the clean channel a fair amount. The EL34's seemed to me to round out the clean tone too much and take away some of that spank you get with emphasis on the bass and treble tones that the 6L6's give you. Just for the record I tried Svetlana EL34's.

 

[G.I.G.]

That's the problem I had Tommyv. I tried Groove Tubes EL34's (I think Sovtek). I havn't tried them in my Dual Rec however and that might produce different results. For whatever reason I like the clean channel on my dual rec better than my rectoverb, probably because of the increased head room. I'll have to try a set out in that head.

 

[mrdylan]

I prefer the bottom end in the dirty channels that the 6l6's give. My Triple came with EL34's and I swapped em out that week.

I don't use the clean channel much though.

 

[Lee Bob]

Wow, the first thing I noticed when running EL34's was the bell like chime it added to the clean setting. Have'nt gone back since. Although this is on a two channel Dual Rec!

That is exactly what I noticed in the clean channel on my Tremoverb combo. The EL34's also smoothed out my dirty channel. I don't think I'll be going back to 6L6's any time soon.

 

[Dale B.]

If you want a fatter, smoother, more exagerated EL34, pick up some Ruby EL34B-STR's in the 28 to 30 Plate Current Rating. They will still be in Mesa's spec range, yet they will sound as if they are biased up a little higher.

 

[SteveP]

Im running the integrated quad on my dual with JJE34ls on the inside and JJ6L6s on the outside. Best of both worlds.

 

[cheekymonkey]

I don't mean to hijack this thread but it sounds like a lot of tube swapping but no mention of adjusting the bias for the different tubes.

I thought the bias needed to be adjusted when a different type of tube was used. Can someone shed some light here please?

Thanks

 

[FoxMustang]

The Single, Dual, and Triple Rectos have a bias select switch so you can change from 6L6 to EL34 tubes.

 

[no soul]

I posted this in another forum tonight, so one good turn...

EL34 vs 6L6:

IMO: there are 3 things that really set these two apart.

First is the high end response. The El34 has a very very glassy almost brittle sounding high end. This is what gives it that agressive piercing characteristic over the more ballanced high end sound of 6l6.

Also, EL34s break up a lot sooner than 6l6s do. This is kind of a moot point for modern master volume amps that ooze pre-amp saturation (like a XXX). Some still prefer it though, as it makes it a tad easier to get a light gain bluesy crunch sound. Conversely this can cause you to loose a bit of headroom on your clean channel, which one reason why for clean sounds theres little debate, 6l6s rule the school.

The El34 features a much quicker and tighter low end response compared to the 6l6. This is one reason some metal players prefer them to 6l6s, especially in amps like Mesas ( though Im not one em ), which have a very boomy low end voicing to begin with. However for those low end thud sounds that make you feel like your heart is going to stop, 6l6 is your tube.

Another very common thing 6l6 fans like to bring up is that that 6l6s outlive El34s. From personal experience I do believe this to be true, but from my oberservations its a relatively not that big of a difference and a small price to pay for the tone you truly want.

Also, there are many different types of 6l6s and El34s.
What do a 5881, Kt66 and 6l6cb have in common? They all clearly have different names, they look different and react very differently from eachother, HOWEVER, they are all 6l6s.

 

[cheekymonkey]

The Single, Dual, and Triple Rectos have a bias select switch so you can change from 6L6 to EL34 tubes.

Didn't know that ... thanks!

 

[no soul]

The Single, Dual, and Triple Rectos have a bias select switch so you can change from 6L6 to EL34 tubes.

the new ones do.

A good tech or EE could install a bias trim pot fairly easily though if you dont have one of the newer models.