From npstewa–(at)–os.ncsu.edu Thu Apr 6 10:09:41 CDT 1995
Article: 784 of alt.guitar.amps
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From: npstewa–(at)–os.ncsu.edu (Nathan Phillip Stewart)
Newsgroups: alt.guitar.amps
Subject: Re: tube sound
Date: 6 Apr 1995 05:24:50 GMT
Organization: North Carolina State University, Project Eos
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In article jhollan–(at)–indspring.com (Jason Holland) writes:
>In article <67256.repoma--(at)--ox.nstn.ca> writes:
>>do you tell if your Marshall has the English or American
>>tubes/Configuration? Any help would be appreciated.
>
>English tubes are EL34′s E for English. American tubes are like 6L6′s or
>6550′s I think.

The ‘E’ in EL-34 means it has 6.3 volt heaters. L designates a power
pentode, and the 3 specifies a large octal base. The first 6 in 6L6
indicates it has a 6.3v heater in the American system. (The traditional
American system gets convoluted after the heater voltage – the last number
being the total number of elements.)

Sometime in bygone years (’83?) Korg, the American distributor of Marshall
at the time, made the switch from EL-34′s to 6550′s for tube life. Rebias
is all that’s necessary to switch one of these back to EL-34′s. Marshall
did recently switch to 5881′s (mil spec 6L6), but it was long after the
JCM-800′s were gone.
_______________________________________
| | Nathan Stewart
| Marshall | npstewa–(at)–os.ncsu.edu
| ________________________ | Play skillfully to the
| |!!o Q Q Q Q Q Q :: | | Lord with a
|=======================================| *LOUD* noise. Psalm 33:3