Tung-sol 6V6GT used with 6L6

[aureliano]

I recently had to purchase a new stomp switch through New Sensor and their minimum order was $50 so I figured I would order some new tubes for my Mark IV. I was in a hurry and in reading a bunch of the posts on this site I purchased two Svetlana EL34s and two Tung-sol 6V6Gts thinking they would work together and maybe give a unique sound. I was also curious how the EL34s would change the sound of the amp (they definitely do, but I don't really prefer it).

The amp is currently set up with four stock 6L6s. As I was changing tubes last night the manual said I can use four 6V6s for the vintage Fender tone, but the amp must be set in Class A and Tweed setting. I only bought two of the 6V6GTs and placed them in the outer tube spots with the stock 6L6s and it sounds GREAT!

Is there any potential problem from running the amp like this? The manual cites possible early tube failure in general with the 6V6s, but this doesn’t seem like a terrible price to pay if I like the sound.

 

[ursinus]

I have messed around with tubes on my MKIV and have put a set of STR450 EL34's in the outer tube sockets and a pair of 6V6's in the middle sockets and have run it pretty hard without any problems, but I actually prefer the sound when all 4 are 6V6's. As long as you are in the Tweed mode, you should be OK. Also, make sure you put the speaker plug in the 4 ohm output of you combo. This is also recommended in the manual.

 

[aureliano]

I appreciate the reply ursinus. Did you set the amp to Tweed while running the EL34s with the 6V6s? I did see in the manual to put the amp on the 4 ohm output, but had neglected to do make that change. I'll fix that immediately...