What EL84's do you like?

Hogy · Post by **Hogy** » Thu Nov 22, 2012 2:03 pm

2tone wrote:Ken preferred the commercial tube (6p14p) to the military ev version because he thought they were a little sweeter. maybe to some people, darker, but perfect in liverpools and even Rockets. The commercial version were the tube shipped in new Trainwrecks. The commercial version is plenty rugged also. I ran a set over a year in my high voltage Rocket no problems...

My favorite piece of audio gear is an old Eico HF-81. It runs on four EL84, at 400+V if memory serves. This thing is on eight hours a day, five times a week. Last time I retubed it was twelve years ago, with commercial grade Sovteks. If you do the math, that's closing in on 25,000 hours of operation. Still working...

dobbhill · Post by **dobbhill** » Thu Nov 22, 2012 2:53 pm

Hey Hogy!

Don't be such a stranger around here! Good to see you.

Back to our original topic....

D

sharkboy · Post by **sharkboy** » Thu Nov 22, 2012 4:53 pm

Okay, back to the original topic...

The best EL84s I own are EIs. I have a few left from the good years and guard them heavily. They are not the most rugged, so most of the time I use Shuguang (Chinese) EL84s. I have some older EL84s from the USA that probably sound better than the Chinese ones, but not better than the EIs.

I have found the JJs don't sound enough like my expectations for an EL84. Just a little dark and the spectral balance is off.

I haven't tried all of the modern New Sensor varieties, but their Mullard EL34s were a big disappointment (though I am happy with the TS reissue tubes they have put out). I have some EHs that distort with little drive that sound kind of cool, but they seem to have less "wow" to them than I want.

M Fowler · Post by **M Fowler** » Thu Nov 22, 2012 7:49 pm

Yes I do like the Shuguang Chinese EL84's too. Great choice.

sepulchre · Post by **sepulchre** » Fri Dec 14, 2012 7:18 am

This guy is really proud of these:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/TESTED-6P14P-71 ... 0532941734?

(My first guitar was a GE. Don't think they make it anymore.)

Richie · Post by **Richie** » Fri Dec 14, 2012 4:20 pm

Hogy wrote:
2tone wrote:Ken preferred the commercial tube (6p14p) to the military ev version because he thought they were a little sweeter. maybe to some people, darker, but perfect in liverpools and even Rockets. The commercial version were the tube shipped in new Trainwrecks. The commercial version is plenty rugged also. I ran a set over a year in my high voltage Rocket no problems...
My favorite piece of audio gear is an old Eico HF-81. It runs on four EL84, at 400+V if memory serves. This thing is on eight hours a day, five times a week. Last time I retubed it was twelve years ago, with commercial grade Sovteks. If you do the math, that's closing in on 25,000 hours of operation. Still working...

Hogy,I have one of those thrown under my work bench, its just a parts amp. I used the OTs for some guitar amp builds, really good sounding OTs too.
But if you ever need a knob or other part from that amp,let me know,as i doubt i will ever need those for anything. Been a long time ago, it did have the orignal tubes it came with, and i don't remember what those were.

angelodp · Post by **angelodp** » Sun Dec 16, 2012 5:08 pm

What about http://mhuss.com/sgtoverdrive/ for Saratov's?? Got mine there and they are great.

phsyconoodler · Post by **phsyconoodler** » Sun Dec 16, 2012 7:14 pm

I have found that with a lot of EL84's the current that's run through them has a huge bearing on the tone.For example,most amps that use EL84's are cathode biased.If people took the time to check plate disipation even on cathode biased amps then some tubes that sound mediocre could sound better with less/more current/voltage.
Like some NOS varieties that don't like more than 300v on the plates and even less on the screens.
the sceen voltage is another thing too.Too high means the tube is being taxed beyond it's capabilities and can't get into it's sweet spot.
We tend to do the tube swapping thing without optimizing the amp for the tubes we plan on using consistently.
Now of course most people don't want to do this and who can blame them,it's tedious on a cathode biased amp.
So what I'm trying to say is some tubes get a bad rep cause the amp is not ideal to get the best from that particular tube.

Gibsonman63 · Post by **Gibsonman63** » Tue Dec 18, 2012 3:15 am

I just installed a set of NOS Tungsrams in my Liverpool clone. A nice chimey improvement over the new production Mullards I had in there. The rolled back, kind of a little dirty tones are really happening now.

Shai`tan · Post by **Shai`tan** » Sun Dec 30, 2012 10:41 pm

What about Amperex? I hear about these alot.

randalp3000 · Post by **randalp3000** » Thu Jan 03, 2013 10:07 pm

angelodp wrote:What about http://mhuss.com/sgtoverdrive/ for Saratov's?? Got mine there and they are great.

just ordered 2 of his last 3 quads, supposed to be 1968 production. can't wait to hear them

The Amp Garage

What EL84's do you like?

Re: 6p14p

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Tube Sargent

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