EL34's Vs 6L6's in a MKIV

[srf399]

First off I play a newer MKIV. I was playing live on Sunday and used 6L6's for the first set... during the break I put in EL34's in the otter sockets and I was amazed at the difference. The amp came alive! with better breakup and harmonic overtones that were amazing. I preferred the 6L6's playing at lower volumes as they seemed to be smoother and tracked better with better note definition but with a band and louder volume the EL34's seemed a lot better... Has anyone else had similar experiences where 6L6's are better at diferent volumes vs. EL34's?

 

[mightypudge]

This is good to hear. I had a great time at rehearsal tonight with my Mark IV (first time with the band) and I thought it sounded great. But I am anxious to try some E34L's in the outer sockets to hear what difference that will make.

 

[RiffMaster91]

so, at 1/2 wattage its using the middle tubes?? or the outer ones?

 

[Boogiebabies]

Outer.


I just dont like using 4 6L6's. It has too much mid-high sizzle. The EL34's get cooking and have a much more pleasant top end. Even better is a true
6CA7 like the Phillips or GT 6CA7. The top end and bigger bottom on these tubes are like heaven. It's like a 6L6 without the sizzle. Other than that, I like old Svetlana EL 34's in the Simul Sockets. JJ E34L's are very nice and fat. The rest of the Sovtek family sounds like Bee's to me.
You can also run NOS Siemens in the MK IV. The plate voltage is usually around 450 under load so you will be right in the voltage range for them.
They sound soooo good.

 

[SFW]

I have a love/hate with the 6L6/EL34 combo. Some times I really like it. Some times I can't stand it. I think with a quad of 6L6s the amp sounds more aggressive.

 

[Paul Secondino]

First off I play a newer MKIV. I was playing live on Sunday and used 6L6's for the first set... during the break I put in EL34's in the otter sockets and I was amazed at the difference. The amp came alive! with better breakup and harmonic overtones that were amazing. I preferred the 6L6's playing at lower volumes as they seemed to be smoother and tracked better with better note definition but with a band and louder volume the EL34's seemed a lot better... Has anyone else had similar experiences where 6L6's are better at diferent volumes vs. EL34's?

Definitely. The first time I experimented with integrated quads was on my old Mesa 290 poweramp. I ran a triaxis into it and always had trouble dialing the sag and fartiness out of the low end. As soon as I added 4 JJ E34l's , the low end cleaned up and I gained some of the high frequencies I thought i was missing. It worked great. THis assumes that you select tubes that are hot enough to run in your amp.

Generally speaking, I think newbies will have a hard time mixing tubes in their Mesa amps unless they have a tech that can do things for them.I think all amps should have adjustable bias pots and no Mesa does that I am aware of. So you msut either know where to get the right grade of tubes or go into the PCB and change out the resistor in the bias circuit.

But yes, I have successfully used JJ E34L's in a 1st generation Recto, my old 290 power amp and a Mark 3. Combining 6l6 and El34 is cool and frankly any mesa amp can sound good with even all EL34's. But personal taste might dictate which brand of tubes are best for you

 

[scottywompas]

I am a big fan of the el34's in the outer sockets. That's how I have mine running and it is perfect.

I like the fact that I can switch it into class A and have just the el34's going. I guess Im an el 34 guy for the gain stuff.

Scott

 

[jamme61]

I'm a new MKIV guy, but when I put el34's in the outside sockets with the 6l6's in the middle, the amp came alive. i noticed a loss of some bass, but that was good thing and i got a ton more clarity. I think the second channel sounds 100 x's better now with the el34's. The hard thing was getting a hot enough pair of el34's to run with the 6l6's. The bias was way off between the two. I wish mesa would put a bias pot in. You really need two bias pots, so you can dial in the two different tyoes of powertubes together. Does anyone know if you can run all el34's in the MKIV? Mesa told me know. As long as the bias is good, I don't see a problem, but I'm not a tech.

 

[jamme61]

spoke to mesa about my el34's running really cold. It seems a lot of people don't like el34's in the MKIV, so Mesa said the newer ones have a different value resitor on the outside tubes. The resistor change in the newer MKIV's makes for a better bias match when running All 6L6's but makes the el34's run very cold. mesa was super nice on the phone, and let me know what to change, and also helped me out with the bias pot I want to add. Mesa also told me, to rember that i void my warranty with this stuff, becareful.