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Vacuum Tubes for Amps
6V6EH Taste Test
Introduction:
First off, I'd like to thank Lord Valve (email: LORD_VALV--(at)--rodigy.net) for
supplying, for test purposes, the set of 6V6EH's. Before shipment, Lord Valve
"burned-in" these tubes for over 24 hours (from what I understand, his standard
procedure) and these tubes arrived closely matched, about 2mA apart. Lord
Valve told me not to hold back in my critique - that is, he said if I thought
they sucked, indicate so, and vice-versa.
The point of this write-up is not to test the physical attributes of the 6V6EH,
rather, this is an aural exercise only. There have been numerous reports of
physical testing of the new Russian 6V6 on AGA, Ampage, and various other BBSs,
all with passing grades - I refer you to DejaNews archives for those claims.
The following list of gear is for "comparative" purposes only. This is NOT
meant to plug or praise certain
manufacturers. The guitars were plugged straight into the amps with a 10-foot
Spectraflex cord. Volume and Tone knobs on the guitars were set to full (10).
· 1955 Fender Tweed Deluxe with Weber C12Q (plate volts = 370V). I kept the
Tone knob on 10 (out of 12) for the entire test.
· Reissue Blackface Fender Deluxe Reverb with Mojo 12V30 (plate volts = 360V).
I kept the Treble knob on 8 and the Bass knob on 5 for the entire test. I
always keep a 5Y3 rectifier in this amp to keep the voltage down.
· Stinger Texas Tornado with Weber P12Q. For those who aren't familiar with
this amp, it is a higher-gain BFDR; imagine a DR that crunches up a bit more.
· Heritage Les Paul copy with Seth Lover pickups.
· Fender Strat (American) with Lindy Fralin Vintage Hots.
· Hamer GT Archtop with Seymour Duncan Custom P90s.
The Heritage Les Paul and Fender Strat were strung with D'Aquisto nickel round
wound size .012-.052. The Hamer was strung with .013-.056 of the same make and
manufacture.
Since the new EH is supposed to be modeled after an old RCA 6V6, I thought I'd
test it against that. In addition, I thought it would be good to test it
against the older Sovtek 6V6. When I tested the 6V6 tubes, I followed the same
"blind" testing procedure as I did for the 6L6 tests - so, please refer to my
6L6 Taste Tests for my procedure on randomizing the tubes.
I played both guitars through each amp for every duet of 6V6s. Both amps were
evaluated with the volume knob on 3.5 (clean) and 10 (distorted - or 12 in the
case of the Tweed Deluxe). I played for about 10 minutes on each 6V6 duet. Hot
tubes were removed with leather gloves. In the case of the Blackface-type amps,
I kept my BiasProbe attached to one of the tube sockets and every time I
inserted a new pair of tubes, I adjusted the bias to 27mA.
Raw Data:
BFDR R.I.:
Les Paul:
RCA - Very detailed when clean, slightly piercing on bridge position when
playing single note leads. Warm and tight. When distorted, this tube was
extremely tight, creamy, and lush! All pickup settings were great.
Old Sovtek - This tube was lifeless when played clean. Piercing single note
runs. When played distorted, this tube crunched up a lot, but was very muddy.
Chords and riffs would run together and have no separation. Not too detailed.
EH - When clean, very good balance on all pickups. Chimey, overall. A bit
piercing on the bridge pickup. When maxed, these tubes provided some good
Malcom Young type riffage sounds. These didn't "crunch" up as much as the
other two, but still provided some good grind. Muddy on the neck positions.
Strat:
RCA - Very detailed when clean. Warm and tight. When distorted, this tube was
extremely tight, creamy, and lush! All pickup settings were great. Excellent
tube for Strat.
Old Sovtek - Fairly nice in all pickup positions, but seemed to have a loss of
bass. When distorted, that loss of bass came in "handy", as the neck pickup
provided a nice "woman" tone. The bridge pickup, when cranked was way to
shrill.
EH - When clean, all positions were great - chimey and full! When distorted,
again, these tubes were winners. Good raunch and grind - not as full as the
RCAs, but still very good.
Hamer:
RCA - Very detailed when clean, slightly piercing on bridge position when
playing single note leads. Warm and tight. When distorted, this tube was
extremely tight, creamy, and lush! All pickup settings were great.
Old Sovtek - A bit better than the Les Paul but provided shrill single notes
runs, especially on the bridge setting. Actually, the neck position, when
clean was pretty nice. When maxed out, the bridge pickup was very nice and
thick. The neck postion, however, was total mud!
EH - Excellent open and barre chords on clean settings throughout the pickup
selections. When maxed, the bridge pickup provided some good lead sounds, but
not too full. Decent grind. The neck pickup was a tad muddy.
1955 Tweed Deluxe:
Les Paul:
RCA - Very even when played clean. Harmonically rich and balanced when
overdriven. All around great tube!
Old Sovtek - When clean, these tubes were fairly even and all around "decent",
but were fairly flat and two-dimensional. When maxed, these tubes were,
again, fairly decent with a middy crunch.
EH - Much more detailed and responsive than the older Sovtek. Full and crunchy
when overdriven - not muddy at all.
Strat:
RCA - Very even when played clean. Harmonically rich and balanced when
overdriven. All around great tube!
Old Sovtek - All around good in all pickup selections, except for the bridge,
which was unpleasant and brittle. Fairly flat sounding. When overdriven,
these tubes were muddy, especially on the neck pickup.
EH - A tad shrill on the bridge pickup when played clean, otherwise, very nice.
When distorted, this tube stayed rather thin as it did not seem to crunch up
as much as the older Sovtek. The bridge+middle was very nice and chimey when
both clean and overdriven.
Hamer:
RCA - Very even when played clean. Harmonically rich and balanced when
overdriven. All around great tube!
Old Sovtek - All around good in all pickup selections, except for the bridge,
which was unpleasant and brittle. Fairly flat sounding. When overdriven,
these tubes were very muddy, especially on the neck pickup.
EH - A tad shrill on the bridge pickup when played clean, otherwise, very nice.
When distorted, this tube was fuller than with the Strat, but still did not
crunch up as much as the older Sovtek. The bridge+neck was very nice and
chimey when both clean and overdriven.
Stinger Texas Tornado:
Les Paul:
RCA - When clean, not as chimey as a regular BFDR. But, still nice and full.
Slightly jazzy, as this amp seems to roll off a bit of highs. The overdriven
sound was extremely full and creamy. No bad sounds here.
Old Sovtek - Clean sounds were very one-dimentional. Single note runs on the
bridge pickup were terrible. Although not very good when clean, the distorted
tones were passable. The bridge pickup was very crunchy and perhaps about the
best tone this tube could give. Distorted tones on the neck pickup were mushy.
EH - The clean sounds, to my ears, were almost no different than the RCA. The
distorted tones, however, were not as full as the RCA.
Strat:
RCA - All around very "Straty" when both clean and overdriven. Clean sounds
were chimey and overdriven sounds were harmonic and three-dimensional.
Old Sovtek - Piercing on the bridge pickup when clean - shrill and tinny. The
neck pickup was decent sounding. When distorted, this tube was very crunchy,
but rather bland. The neck pickup was too muddy.
EH - All around very "Straty" when both clean and overdriven. Clean sounds
were chimey and overdriven sounds were harmonic and three-dimensional.
Hamer:
RCA - Very jazzy and nice and full when clean. The overdriven sound was
extremely full and creamy. No bad sounds here.
Old Sovtek - Piercing on the bridge pickup when clean - shrill and tinny. The
neck pickup was decent sounding. When distorted, this tube was very crunchy,
but rather bland. The neck pickup was way too muddy. This tube rather sucked
for a P90 guitar.
EH - Pretty much like the Les Paul - the clean sounds, to my ears, were almost
no different than the RCA. The distorted tones, however, were not as full as
the RCA. But still, with P90s, this tube was rather crunchy.
Conclusions:
For each test in each amp it was very easy to pick out the "best" sounding tube
(RCA). In addition, it was easy to pick out the "worst" sounding tube, as well
(the older Sovtek). So, that left the EH somewhere in the middle. I had 100%
success rate in identifying the tubes when "blindfolded".
I'd say "chalk-up" a winner for Sovtek. Clean sounds, overall, were nice and
chimey - pretty darn decent. But, distorted tones were a bit grainey and
bright - but nothing too bad that one couldn't live with (or, perhaps get used
to). In terms of overall tone, this new Russian tube is much better than
Sovtek's old 6V6, especially since the new one is much more balanced and has
more harmonic content. On a 10 scale, where the old Sovtek is a "1" and the
Blackplate RCA is a "10", I'd say this tube deserves solid 6 rating.
Personally, I'm going to still buy NOS while they are available; I think the
NOS tubes offer a "creamier" top end and thicker, richer distortion qualities.
Just so readers understand, my favorite NOS 6V6s are RCA, Visseaux, Mazda,
Philips, and Marconi. I don't like the GE 6V6 (wafer base), so I'd probably
opt for the new EH in lieu of the GEs.
From larrys--(at)--ol.comNOspahm Tue Dec 21 13:14:38 CST 1999
Article: 221219 of alt.guitar.amps
From: larrys--(at)--ol.comNOspahm (nuke)
Newsgroups: alt.guitar.amps
Subject: Re: Mook's Taste Tests: The Sovtek 6V6EH
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I'll concur with Mook on the 6V6EH. Overall a decent tube and quite a bargain.
Thumbs up as a worthy 6V6. I haven't done a long term life test of these, but
they don't seem to strain in a Deluxe Reverb. There was no sign of glowing
screen grid wires under hard operation.
The EH tends for the "soft" distortion, akin to most Sovtek tubes, but it isn't
pronounced.
I'm partial to Sylvania 6V6's above all others, I like the sparkle and
tightness. They seem to last near forever too. Besides, I dig the Sylvania's
pretty blue glow.
I'm not so fond of the Visseaux, but it is a good tube.
The GE's are OK, but they have tendency to rattle inside.
Old RCA's are good, but tend to be pricey and a touch "soft" to my ear.
--
Dr. Nuketopia
When replying, please note that your email is *not* spam in the subject line.
From bkahl--(at)--otmail.com Tue Dec 21 13:14:55 CST 1999
Article: 221346 of alt.guitar.amps
From: "BK"
Newsgroups: alt.guitar.amps
Subject: Re: Mook's Taste Tests: The Sovtek 6V6EH
Date: Tue, 21 Dec 1999 11:12:13 -0500
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Another well-done, Mook-review!
I like the sound of this new 6V6 but believe it sounds better when operated
closer to it's plate dis. max. (somewhere between 80-90%, ie. ~12W). I know
you had to maintain some control for your tests and 27ma was a good choice
for evaluation. Having said that, I think that burning them on the hot side
warms up the tone and alleviates most of your reported upper-end harshness.
BTW, after seeing LV's post about trying to "kill" some intentionally, who
can say what the max. dis. IS on these things. Do DR-reissues really have
plate voltage at 360? I'm just surprised by this knowing that the oldies are
usually well above 400.
Thanks, Mook.
Bill
micK pages
