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6EY6s in 6V6 holes

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5/9/2000 9:14 PM

6EY6s in 6V6 holes

Have any of you guys tried NOS 6EY6s in a DR or PR? I just got off my ass recently and installed 3-wire line cords/plugs on my DR and PR (got tired of getting shocked) and while I had the PR apart, I scrounged around my tube stash and found a matched pair of old TungSol 6EY6s. They're built like a brick shithouse compared to a 6V6 (finned plates, big diameter grid support rods for control and screen, heat radiation tabs on the screen grid rods, larger cathodes). For the hell of it, I threw them in the PR just to see what they were like. They sound great!!! Punchy clean and with a smooth Marshally crunch when cranked. Better than the Philips 6V6s that were in it. I measured power output and it's unchanged at 18 Watts.

Comments??

5/9/2000 9:52 PM
Scott Swartz	I don't have a tube manual in front of me, but I think the filament current is higher than a 6V6. You may want to check this before running them for an extended period.

5/9/2000 9:54 PM
Scott Swartz	Duncan's TDSL says 0.68 amps for 6EY6.......

5/9/2000 10:50 PM
John Stokes	Scott, thanks for the response. I already knew the filament current was a bit higher. Kinda midway between a 6V6 and a 6L6. I'll keep an eye on the PT temp. Any comments on sonic qualities?

5/9/2000 11:12 PM

Hi Folks:

Yup, I do like those 6EY6's but John, it looks like you were lucky to find Tung-Sols if you can visually see it is a beefier tube.

I've got a couple of GE 6EY6 and they look in detail EXACTLY like their 6V6GT of the same era, but they do draw over twice the heater current compared to a regular 6V6GT.

In a Champ they seem to give the same performance as a real 6V6GT without too much additional heat, of course in a Princeton or Deluxe you have two of them to worry about, I use a fan in back of my amps whenever I can anyway.

I'm sure I have a few more that I got from a tube caddy or when I saw some much cheaper than 6V6's, just as good sounding as the real thing IMHO.

5/9/2000 11:37 PM

Yo MB,

Yeah, I've seen other brand (GE) 6EY6s, and I agree, they look almost exactly like the 6V6 except with a bit larger cathode. These TungSols are a different story though. If I had a digital camera I'd take a pic of one so you could see what I'm talking about. These are noticibly beefier than *any* 6V6 I've ever seen. I wonder if they'd tolerate a ss plug-in rectumfrier?

Actually, I'm just now finishing up working an a BF VibroChamp (like the one that got butchered, except this one is whole), I wonder what one of these TS 6EY6s would sound like in there. I have 2 more of them, but they're unmatched.

You say your 6EY6 draws "over twice" the heater current of a 6V6? Over the 0.9 amp level of a 6L6?? Wierd. I think the spec is supposed to be 0.68 amp. Maybe you have remarked 6EZ5s? Those are like 6EY6s except with even larger cathodes. All these types are supposed to work in a 6V6 hole with a rebias, and assuming the PT can deliver the extra heater current.

I found those TS 6EY6s at a surplus joint in San Jose. There was a bunch of them, all NOS in factory fresh looking boxes. I bought 6. I should have bought them all.

Svetlana did at one time consider making a 6V6. They bought a bunch of NOS 6V6s of various brands to cut open and reverse engineer. Eric Barbour told me that they cut open one of these TS 6EY6s to get ideas on how to make them super rugged, since they were well aware of the Fender requirements. I wish they'd actually make the things.

5/10/2000 12:27 AM
Dave James	Whoa! Mr. Stokes - you're in the SJ area? Me too. Pray tell, where did you find the tubes? Later, Dave James

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