Will Tung Sol 5881s work in my Mark V?

[rmcfee]

Today one of the stock Mesa Boogie 6L6s started glowing and flashing, so I thought that I better get that one out of there. The amp sounded fine, strangely enough.
I found a slightly used set of Tung Sol 5881s and I would love to NOT have buy new tubes. Will these work?
As I recall the 5881 is the same as a 6L6, more or less?
Too bad because the stock tubes were excellent. Thanks.

 

[scott from _actual time_]

I found a slightly used set of Tung Sol 5881s . Will these work?
As I recall the 5881 is the same as a 6L6, more or less?

are they NOS or recent Tung-Sol reissues, made in Russia?

if they are NOS: no! they will not work. they will burn up.

the original 5881 and the 6L6 are different tubes that have different voltage requirements. NOS 5881s are not safe to use in a 6L6 amp.

the confusion comes because the Russians a while back started making a tube that's in between the two, that can handle 6L6 voltages, and they called it a 5881. but its specs are not the same as a real 5881. so if you want to use 5881s in any 6L6 amp, only use "Russian" 5881s. when i bought them 10 years ago, they were from Sovtek.

but the Tung-Sol name was recently bought by a Russian company. so if these are Tung-Sol reissue 5881s, they might be the ones with the Russian 5881 spec. you'll want to check to make sure.

 

[rmcfee]

Thanks for the reply. These are from The Tube Store about 5 years ago so definately not NOS.

 

[phyrexia]

for reference, mesa sells the STR425, which is a sovtek 5881, and is interchangeable for anything requiring a 6L6GC. It is by most accounts a darker sounding tube, compressing more quickly under load.
8)