Voltage thing.
You can get a 6L6 to break up
at 20 watts or 40 watts.
Big beam tetrodes
or basically normal bigger pin spacing.
Think it is a blues thing.
Cause most the amps are preamp distortion.
And my little tweed on the edge of breakup
was sweet with my Tele. No preamp
fizzle sizzle. Just 1x12 and one the edge/ touch sensitive
you controlled with the guitar volume if needed.
The touch sensitivity of real amp breakup
did best with 30 watt pair. 6L6
1x12 or 2x12
EL84 was fun if you just actually pushed them.
not bedroom stuff actually cranked studio work
or in rehearsal the breakup is a little mean sounding.
No 2nd harmonic nonsense magic.
Blaring 3rd harmonic...crunch
More about the usual gain and sustain.
Million ways to do it in a recording...easy
Just a transformer coupled amp in the room
feels different. Recordings, not hard.
And the clank of the open backs and tank
for reverb kinda stuff. Much different in room.
You can get a 6L6 to break up
at 20 watts or 40 watts.
Big beam tetrodes
or basically normal bigger pin spacing.
Think it is a blues thing.
Cause most the amps are preamp distortion.
And my little tweed on the edge of breakup
was sweet with my Tele. No preamp
fizzle sizzle. Just 1x12 and one the edge/ touch sensitive
you controlled with the guitar volume if needed.
The touch sensitivity of real amp breakup
did best with 30 watt pair. 6L6
1x12 or 2x12
EL84 was fun if you just actually pushed them.
not bedroom stuff actually cranked studio work
or in rehearsal the breakup is a little mean sounding.
No 2nd harmonic nonsense magic.
Blaring 3rd harmonic...crunch
More about the usual gain and sustain.
Million ways to do it in a recording...easy
Just a transformer coupled amp in the room
feels different. Recordings, not hard.
And the clank of the open backs and tank
for reverb kinda stuff. Much different in room.
I mentioned "It includes 8 X metal 6V6s that are still shiny" that would likely be the output tubes in MetallicAmp. Last night I bought 5 "NOS" metal 6L6 tubes on Ebay, so if they work, the actual output tube could be either....or both.
I made the comment of EL84's rocking, and 6V6s singing the blues based on the characteristics of the tubes themselves and my personal experience with both tubes and many others dating back to the 1960's. Of course there are lots of other variables, with the room, speaker, amp, and playing style differences being the biggies.
The 6V6 has a 2.835 watt heater in a skinny cathode. The electron cloud it puts out starts to thin out as the plate current increases. This causes some softer saturation than seen in tubes with a larger heater in a bigger cathode. A fully saturated tube may still drop nearly 100 volts from cathode to plate in AB1. Attempting to get more power in AB2 doesn't buy much since there just isn't enough emission. The softer saturation characteristics tend to impart a bluesy character to the sound in a typical push pull guitar amp.
The 6L6 types have a 5.67 watt heater in a larger cathode than the 6V6. It has enough emission capability to pull its plate down into the 50 to 60 volt region in AB1, and There is some reserve emission left to support power gains in AB2. Beat them hard enough and you can get a tube arc from cathode to plate. I have found this point to be about 110 watts per pair in AB2 on 500 volts into a 3300 ohm load. The test amp was clean making about 3% THD at 100 watts. The tubes being tested were old 6L6GA's from the 1940's. Modern 6L6GCs should do better, but nobody beats them that hard. 6L6 types tend to be clean up to the point where the electron cloud starts to thin. Yes, this can be 30 watts or less depending on the chosen operating point.
For big loud amps I tend to prefer TV sweep tubes with 15 + watt heaters. They will really ROCK.
I tought no one is interested by metal tubes, unfortunately they are not so cheap here in EU..
I've prototyped a PPP 6V6 with 6AC7 driver and "schade feedback" a few years ago, it sounded nice but bass control was not very good.
I wonder if metal output tubes are sturdy, steel is better for heat conduction than glass, no? or internal structure doesn't allow this.
The idea of a "stealth" weird looking amp with all metal tubes is nice, but at the same time it is a little bit frustrating to not be able to see any heater..
I've prototyped a PPP 6V6 with 6AC7 driver and "schade feedback" a few years ago, it sounded nice but bass control was not very good.
I wonder if metal output tubes are sturdy, steel is better for heat conduction than glass, no? or internal structure doesn't allow this.
The idea of a "stealth" weird looking amp with all metal tubes is nice, but at the same time it is a little bit frustrating to not be able to see any heater..
I got the 5 "NOS" metal 6L6 tubes yesterday and tried them in a test amp that was already on my bench. All worked fine, but some are more NOS than others though. These are the best looking pair, but all made at least 50 watts on 400 volts of B+ without issue. I don't plan on running them that hard since most of the guitar speakers that I have are rated for 25 to 40 watts and my current guitar amp only makes 4 watts.
The old metal 6L6s contain the same guts as a glass 6L6G or 6L6GA. The old data sheet I have shows operating conditions that result in up to 60 watts of audio power output from a pair. I'll probably go with about 30 watts depending on what I can find in my collection for a power transformer.
No heater glow? Think of these things as the "control rods" in a nuclear guitar amp!
When I get around to building a high powered guitar amp, it WILL glow, but probably not as much as the amp (barely) seen in my avatar. The filament in that thing consumes 100 watts! The plate is dissipating about 300 more watts in this picture.
I do have some 4D32 transmitting tubes that I have been saving for almost 20 years. A pair of them should look pretty cool......or HOT!
The old metal 6L6s contain the same guts as a glass 6L6G or 6L6GA. The old data sheet I have shows operating conditions that result in up to 60 watts of audio power output from a pair. I'll probably go with about 30 watts depending on what I can find in my collection for a power transformer.
No heater glow? Think of these things as the "control rods" in a nuclear guitar amp!
When I get around to building a high powered guitar amp, it WILL glow, but probably not as much as the amp (barely) seen in my avatar. The filament in that thing consumes 100 watts! The plate is dissipating about 300 more watts in this picture.
I do have some 4D32 transmitting tubes that I have been saving for almost 20 years. A pair of them should look pretty cool......or HOT!
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