Tube Replacement

[TheHysteria]

Are EL84's generally cheaper than 6L6's? Or are they both about the same price and it's the brand that makes it more expensive?

And also, I currently have Mesa Mark IIB. Do I need to replace it with Mesa tubes? I think it's 6L6's.

 

[Dutchman]

Right now I have TAD 6L6GC-STR in my Mark IIB 60 watt. I really like them, I liked them enough that I left them in instead of the 7581A's. They sound alot like the 7581A's, I think they are a little mellower, and you get the power tube distortion earlier, so they don't have the headroom of the 7581A's.
They are relatively inexpensive and will save lot's of hours on the expensive 7581a's which will still be used for recording.
They sounded much better than the Mesa 454 STR 6l6GC's that I have, Just my opinion.

http://www.thetubestore.com/tad6l6gc.html

As far as which is more expensive it's all relative to what manufacturer your looking at Chinese(least expensive) Russian (still economy)
Vintage West German, Dutch, Great Britain, USA made tubes (unbelievably expensive)

Tube tone is subjective to the listener, depending on their taste.

 

[Harry the Horder]

I'm getting worried! These Amps have a fixed BIAS and are set up for different colour coded Valves I'm not to sure on all this myself suffice to say that Mesa recommend Yellow code for my particular Model I'm not sure if I can fit any others without upsetting things or changing to a variable BIAS set up.Perhaps someone can come in on this and explain it all better as I see people changing to this valve or that valve surely it must upset the BIASing of the Amps??
As for EL84's being cheaper!! Forget it! they do not fit these Amps they are smaller and without special (yellow jackets) converters will no way fit a Boogie. Harry

 

[TheHysteria]

Well, I was just wondering which one on average is cheaper. Like just in general.

I was looking through the Mesa F-Series and I heard some relaly nice sound clips.

 

[stokes]

Like Harry said you cant compare 6L6's to EL84's.as far as cost of any tube there are many factors involved.The same brand can bring different prices depending on who you buy them from,and a Mullard is going to cost many times more than a Sovtek.It is very hard to generalize,and no way can you compare a 6L6 to an EL84,as they say its apples and oranges.

 

[MesaDCLP]

I believe it's EL34's that are in question.

They are about the same price as 6L6's and maybe a bit more on the same level. Most amps run both of them in class A/B.

EL84's are not strictly class A, but most amps now-a-days run them like that.

Big difference in the classes. That is Apples versus Oranges.

 

[ylo]

Actually, most amps running EL84 tubes use cathode bias running class AB. The marketing dept in some company (Vox?) in the past mistakenly called this "Class A," and now every amp company has jumped on the bandwagon. Nobody wants to be left without a "Class A" amp, even if not really Class A.

For what it is worth, the Mesa Lone Star Special in the 5 watt mode is actually running EL84 in Class A, at least according to people that should know on the alt.guitar.amp board.

IMHO, EL84s mainly sound different because they saturate at lower power output than EL34 or 6L6. EL84s tend to have lower prices than EL34 or 6L6 -- as little as $7 each.