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Let's talk about 6SL7 tubes!

#161
JimmyM said:
Why? I see no reason for that if the RCA's were that much better.
Click to expand...

Ok I have the Wooden Monique and a Rack. The Wooden one is just wonderful and has served me for a year. I've known folks with lots of amps or basses and if they aren't careful they will try to make them all sound the same.
I'm saying that the Wooden one with the year old Sovteks is just fine. Gigs under it's belt.

I started tube rolling when the Shua....failed on me. Having arrived at a wonderful tone I now have different iterations.
Now if I find some NOS JAN RCAs I'll buy and try. The secret may be one of each in V1 & V2. I only have one JAN Phillips so could only swap with my available Sovteks or GE. Those pairings weren't that good. The Phillips in V1 with an RCA in V2 was as good as two RCAs.
 
#162
Ah, I see...it's to have two different sounding Moniques. I can dig that...as much as I like that NOS 6N1P in the REDDI, I'm keeping the Sovtek for when I need to back down on the balls level a little bit. Love it for my current needs, but the Sovtek is a little more universal, I think.
 
#163
Okay, more rolling in the Wooden Monique.

(said I wouldn't just a few posts ago)

Sovtek in V2, JAN Phillips in V1. Underwhelmed. In some ways two Sovteks are better.

Hmmm.

Slept on it and said hey the V2 is the tone control's tube.

Tried the GE brown base WGT in the V1 and the JAN Phillips in V2. Okay that's what I'm talking about!

The Sovteks are okay and nice with a slight trace of grit in mids. The Monique is amazing with them and more amazing to my

taste with some personal selection of some vintage and NOS tubes.

These NOSs are a noticeable improvement. More air and clarity. The timbre is clearly expressed.
 
#164
With two threads going it's kinda hard to choose which goes where.:)
Rolled some NOS RCA black plate 6SL7s.
Pics over on the Monique site show they are from 1944.
The sound difference is quite evident.
The Sovteks are excellent and are what the glowing reviews of the Monique are based upon.
I'd have no problem using them had I not heard the difference. The RCAs have this open airy thing. The highs and mids are blended in the Sovteks. The RCAs are biamped like. Each frequency is distinct. So while there are huge lows the mids and highs are completely represented as if generated and amplified individually.
 
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#166
I figured I should snag a backup or two for my 50's vintage JAN Sylvania WGT, which I really dig, and which I initially built my preamp around. Someone on eBay had some supposedly 60s ones listed, but I think these are most likely actually mid-50s ones as well. 50 bucks for the pair, shipped with a full guarantee. Probably should've tried a lower offer to start.;)

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Since I have recently changed the downstream 6SN7s in my preamp I also revisited the early 40s long bottle National Union VT-229 that I've had stashed away for several years. It sounds fabulous and will likely be held on reserve for recording duty. In my application the Sylvanias are very airy and well balanced, while the NU tube is a little bigger on the top and bottom and either smoother or maybe just a bit scooped in the mids. I'll try a few more flavors eventually, but probably not until I start gigging again.
 
#167
Passinwind said:
I figured I should snag a backup or two for my 50's vintage JAN Sylvania WGT, which I really dig, and which I initially built my preamp around. Someone on eBay had some supposedly 60s ones listed, but I think these are most likely actually mid-50s ones as well. 50 bucks for the pair, shipped with a full guarantee. Probably should've tried a lower offer to start.;)

Link Removed

Since I have recently changed the downstream 6SN7s in my preamp I also revisited the early 40s long bottle National Union VT-229 that I've had stashed away for several years. It sounds fabulous and will likely be held on reserve for recording duty. In my application the Sylvanias are very airy and well balanced, while the NU tube is a little bigger on the top and bottom and either smoother or maybe just a bit scooped in the mids. I'll try a few more flavors eventually, but probably not until I start gigging again.
Click to expand...

Nice, Charlie!

I was all ready to try some options, but I've really taken a liking to the 40's RCA JAN 6SL7 and a similar 40's Sylvania JAN 6SL7. I even got what purports to be 50's Russian NOS/JAN tubes, but haven't felt the urge to try them out.
 
#168
BurningSkies said:
Nice, Charlie!

I was all ready to try some options, but I've really taken a liking to the 40's RCA JAN 6SL7 and a similar 40's Sylvania JAN 6SL7. I even got what purports to be 50's Russian NOS/JAN tubes, but haven't felt the urge to try them out.
Click to expand...

Don't knock success!

I was just hoping to cop a viable backup or two, but both the ones I just got actually exhibit less mechanical noise than the original one, which already wasn't very microphonic at all. I used a somewhat similar damping scheme to what Jules does, which seems to have put most of my previous troubles behind me anyway.
 
#169
Here are the beauts and the boxes :)
in case you aren't over at the Monique thread.
See the date. :)
 

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#170
chadds said:
Here are the beauts and the boxes :)
in case you aren't over at the Monique thread.
See the date. :)
Click to expand...

Sweet! Turns out the National Union tube I have is pretty hard to identify, and I don't think Brent Jesse ever told me what he thought it is when he sent it to me as a replacement for something exotic that I couldn't use. For a while I thought it was a ca. 1950 Tung Sol re-brand, but further research seems to put it at WWII, probably also 1944 like yours. No telling who was making what for each other during that time...but this is a real oddball set of features in any case:

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#178
beans-on-toast said:
Despite being pricey, they are great tubes. With a 10,000 hour life, you can play about 10 hours a week for 20 years!

The one drawback of this tube is that the nominal heater current is 0.6A as compared to 0.3A for a regular 6SL7GT. So your power supply will have to be capable of providing the necessary heater current.
Click to expand...

Does the Monique have a sufficient power supply for these tubes?

(pic of tubes in post #94)
 
#180
beans-on-toast said:
Despite being pricey, they are great tubes. With a 10,000 hour life, you can play about 10 hours a week for 20 years!

The one drawback of this tube is that the nominal heater current is 0.6A as compared to 0.3A for a regular 6SL7GT. So your power supply will have to be capable of providing the necessary heater current.
Click to expand...

Hey beans: I can't seem to find any info anywhere else on the current draw for those particular 6SL7's (pic shown in post #94). According to a guy who sells NOS tubes at a well-known website, the spec for all 6SL7's is around 0.3A.

Where did you find out that the current draw for those particular tubes are 0.6A?
 

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