Just dropped $400 in tubes.

[napalmdeath]

I'm impressed.

 

[Scumback Speakers]

That tube is a goner.

 

[RJF]

Still curious, does anyone know why it looks like a snow globe internally? I've never seen a tube do this.

 

[psychodave]

Still curious, does anyone know why it looks like a snow globe internally? I've never seen a tube do this.

The tube lost its vacuum and the flashing is reacting to the air... It turns from silver to white.

 

[hstlaurent]

I've bought some tube that were supposed to be NOS as well. The testers said otherwise. I won't put a tube into an amp without first putting it into my testers. Like Jim said, just because they test new or good doesn't mean they will sound good.

One of my best purchases. Now I can fine tune my amps tubes to get the best sound possible and determine if a tube is causing an issue.

Nice set of testers!

 

[MikeSoldano]

Still curious, does anyone know why it looks like a snow globe internally? I've never seen a tube do this.

The tube lost its vacuum and the flashing is reacting to the air... It turns from silver to white.

+1

 

[RJF]

Ahhh, that makes perfect sense.

After some play time with the rectos I like the E34L/6CA7 combo the least compared to the KT66/88 and E34L/KT77 combos. The E34L/77 adds a LOT of bass to a rectifier. I like it since I find rectos to be a bit light on bass with EL34's with a boost in front and something other than the oversize recto cab. I also took the quad of SED EL34's that came out of my rev C, added the pair of STR442's (mesa SED's) that came out of my MK3 and used that sextet to replace the Sovtek 6L6's in my rev F triple. I biased them to 35ma and wow, I remember now how much I dislike 6L6's in rectos, they come "alive" with an EL34 type tube IMHO.

 

[jc986]

Ever try a quad of KT88's in one of your duals? I'm considering some new power tubes for my Roadster. I like the way it sounds with the Mesa 6L6's, but am curious to experiment with some other tube types. How you would compare the KT66/88 combo to a quad of 6L6's?

 

[RJF]

Ever try a quad of KT88's in one of your duals? I'm considering some new power tubes for my Roadster. I like the way it sounds with the Mesa 6L6's, but am curious to experiment with some other tube types. How you would compare the KT66/88 combo to a quad of 6L6's?

Never tried a quad of 88's. As far as the 6L6's, I find them to make the amp darker, looser, and just duller. EL34 types seem to tighten the amp up a bit and make it brighter and crunchier in a good way. The 66/88 combo brings the volume level up to a triple easily. I am liking the E34L/KT77 combo a lot. Here's why:

1. It's cheap, way cheaper than the big bottle combo.
2. It has the extended low end like the big bottle combo.
3. No risk of putting more strain on the rest of the amp. It's a loaded question if the rectos can handle big bottles over the long term. People have asked Mesa before and they say no, run 6L6's or EL34's.

I ran the big bottles for like 7 years, but I wasn't running the amp every day or even every week and not at stage volume hardly ever.