Vacuum Tubes

cooder said:
My experience with the heavy duty Russian 6P14P-EV (EL84 alike) is so far pretty good, didn't have one dying.
And apart from that I like to drool over my vintage stash and hope that I won't need to put them in too early...

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Dude !

So awesome .....

Mike
 
Feral Feline said:
@danfrank Just curious, re the 6DZ7, you just slot those in place of the EL84? Any peculiar biasing/constraints/tonalities? Price nowadays?
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the 6DZ7 is not a plug-in replacement for the EL84. There are similarities, but they are not identical. The 6DZ7 is a twin pentode with an octal base. The cathodes share one pin. The screen grids share one pin. The suppressor grids share one pin. It can be made to work as a replacement for a pair of EL84s, but you'll need to punch a bigger hole in the chassis, install a new socket, wire it up and adjust the bias. The ones I saw on eBay were pricy.
 
fig said:
Totally tubular dude!
Very nice sir. Did you make the case?
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Thanks guys glad you enjoy the drool cabinet. I should put a container on the floor to catch the liquids... ;)
Yes I made the case, pretty simple just put together out of recycled Rimu (NZ native timber). The holes that the tubes sit in hold them reasonably well without squeezing the pins.
So as @Chuck D. Bones mentioned, we do have about 250 or so earthquakes a year here on these shaky Isles but I have only felt a very few since I live here for 25 years and I managed to stay out of the firing line of the serious ones.
https://www.geonet.org.nz/earthquake
 
HamishR said:
I use JJ KT77s in Marshall style builds and really like 'em. Sound like a classy EL34 - big sounds!
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I’ve been listening to sound samples compared to EL34s and it sounds like the KT77 actually break up a little sooner or easier than the JJ EL34L atleast while the latter had more “thump”. I was surprised at this and they did seem to have a “more transparent” tone even during breakup. How do you find the breakup?

I’m sure it comes down to how they’re biased and the tubes themselves. My amp is cathode biased by I just like to try different tubes. I would like a little quicker breakup.

Out of curiosity, what made you choose the KT77s over all the others? It’s between the JJ KT77 and EL34L.
 
bluedmc777 said:
I’ve been listening to sound samples compared to EL34s and it sounds like the KT77 actually break up a little sooner or easier than the JJ EL34L atleast while the latter had more “thump”. I was surprised at this and they did seem to have a “more transparent” tone even during breakup. How do you find the breakup?

I’m sure it comes down to how they’re biased and the tubes themselves. My amp is cathode biased by I just like to try different tubes. I would like a little quicker breakup.

Out of curiosity, what made you choose the KT77s over all the others? It’s between the JJ KT77 and EL34L.
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I was buying tubes for an amp I was building a few years ago and saw the blurb that JJ KT77s were a suitable replacement for EL34s, so I tried them. I like 'em. It's rare that I push my amps to the point of break up, especially any with EL34s or KT77s. That's why I like pedals! I have particular things I like in sound and a big, clear, tight low end is one thing I value. I like the twang. The KT77s seem to be a bit tighter than EL34s. Sure, it could be entirely my imagination because I like a good EL34 too. I have built quite a few late-'60s style 50W Marshall amps and a few JTM45s too. One of my favourite amps I have built so far is a 1x12 JTM45 combo with JJ KT66s. I radically reduced the size of the first stage bypass cap from 330µF to 1µF and also the PI coupling caps from .1µF to .022 and a few other little bits here and there and it's big fat round sound with glorious clarity. I sold it to a good friend because he loves it and now use a very similar '68 plexi style 1x12 combo in its place. The main difference is that his amp uses a GZ34 rectifier and mine uses 1N4007 diodes. Mine also has slightly bigger iron too I think. I love these amps!
 
HamishR said:
I was buying tubes for an amp I was building a few years ago and saw the blurb that JJ KT77s were a suitable replacement for EL34s, so I tried them. I like 'em. It's rare that I push my amps to the point of break up, especially any with EL34s or KT77s. That's why I like pedals! I have particular things I like in sound and a big, clear, tight low end is one thing I value. I like the twang. The KT77s seem to be a bit tighter than EL34s. Sure, it could be entirely my imagination because I like a good EL34 too. I have built quite a few late-'60s style 50W Marshall amps and a few JTM45s too. One of my favourite amps I have built so far is a 1x12 JTM45 combo with JJ KT66s. I radically reduced the size of the first stage bypass cap from 330µF to 1µF and also the PI coupling caps from .1µF to .022 and a few other little bits here and there and it's big fat round sound with glorious clarity. I sold it to a good friend because he loves it and now use a very similar '68 plexi style 1x12 combo in its place. The main difference is that his amp uses a GZ34 rectifier and mine uses 1N4007 diodes. Mine also has slightly bigger iron too I think. I love these amps!
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Did you design these from scratch or did you mod an existing kit?
 
I used parts from Valvestorm, Mercury Magnetics, Tubesandmore.com, etc, based on freely available schematics and layouts online. The Valvestorm stuff is excellent - I mainly use their boards and chassis, control plates and some parts. I have learnt a lot about grounding and component choices from Psionic Audio videos and managed to build very quiet and great sounding amps as a result. I've been doing this for over 20 years but with the help of Psionic Audio I've been able to really refine my amps. Previous amps have been much in keeping with traditional Fender, Vox and Marshall designs but my last few have really got better.

I love building amps and have only done it because I can't afford the prices of boutique amps, which are often built for different goals. I'm not aiming for traditional authenticity. But rather the flavour of the originals but with less noise, better definition and less fuzziness in the low end. If you've played a standard 5E3 replica you will know what I mean!
 
@cooder That is AWESOME!!! Do you build amps on the side???

Very rare gray plate Telefunken you have there as well! I’ve only come across 1 of them…and unfortunately it was microphonic. It was a shot in the dark type deal though and I got my money back. On the other hand I have several silver plate Telefunkens and love them. Do the gray plate Tele’s break up quickly like the RFT’s or Tungsrams? I love rolling EF86’s because your silver plate, gray plate and short/long mesh plate all break up so much differently. That’s killer man Im in love lol! I would be interested in hearing your thoughts on the silver plate Mullards or Tele’s vs you gray plate.

This is obviously Siemens branded Telefunken
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And this is the Mullard silver plate. Yes…I was cleaning the pins and handling it with gloves lol. I got lucky and scored 4 of them NOS but sold 2.

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HamishR said:
I was buying tubes for an amp I was building a few years ago and saw the blurb that JJ KT77s were a suitable replacement for EL34s, so I tried them. I like 'em. It's rare that I push my amps to the point of break up, especially any with EL34s or KT77s. That's why I like pedals! I have particular things I like in sound and a big, clear, tight low end is one thing I value. I like the twang. The KT77s seem to be a bit tighter than EL34s. Sure, it could be entirely my imagination because I like a good EL34 too. I have built quite a few late-'60s style 50W Marshall amps and a few JTM45s too. One of my favourite amps I have built so far is a 1x12 JTM45 combo with JJ KT66s. I radically reduced the size of the first stage bypass cap from 330µF to 1µF and also the PI coupling caps from .1µF to .022 and a few other little bits here and there and it's big fat round sound with glorious clarity. I sold it to a good friend because he loves it and now use a very similar '68 plexi style 1x12 combo in its place. The main difference is that his amp uses a GZ34 rectifier and mine uses 1N4007 diodes. Mine also has slightly bigger iron too I think. I love these amps!
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Man that’s so cool! Y’all building all these amps makes me wanna take a stab at it but I’m just not at that level yet. Pretty ironic you mention Psionic because Lyle only lives about 30 minutes away from me in Memphis whereas I’m right on the Stateline in Ms. I don’t know him personally or anything though. However when I do eventually take my 68 custom deluxe for service to the shop itll be him that works on it. I just gotta figure out what all id want done to it.

How your describing the KT77’s is almost exactly how people are describing the EL34L. 😂 REALLY wish I could find just 1 SED Winged =C= to replace one I had go out but they’re going for like 120 a pop now!
 
bluedmc777 said:
How your describing the KT77’s is almost exactly how people are describing the EL34L. 😂 REALLY wish I could find just 1 SED Winged =C= to replace one I had go out but they’re going for like 120 a pop now!
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I have three leftovers of a quad. The fourth one gave up and made a good flash. Willing to trade those for some NOS ecc83 goods. Maybe we first need to wait this import/export toll thing figure itself out?
 
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JohnnyCreepy said:
I have three leftovers of a quad. The fourth one gave up and made a good flash. Willing to trade those for some NOS ecc83 goods. Maybe we first need to wait this import/export toll thing figure itself out?
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Are you referring to the winged c? I only need 1 and would be down for that. But yea probably wait until this tariff mess is over if you aren’t in the States.
 
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