Mesa EL84 / 6BQ5 in Marshall El84 20/20?

[ghosty999]

One side of my EL84 20/20 rack power amp failed the other day, pretty impressive since the tubes inside are still the stock ones!

I'm having it revalved with Mesa EL84 / 6BQ5, I was recommended them by my Amp Service Dude but wanted a second opinion!

Have I made the right choice?

 

[Dave L]

Who knows what those Mesas were before the rebranding, but they´re probably at least very decent.

 

[ghosty999]

Who knows what those Mesas were before the rebranding, but they´re probably at least very decent.

A re branding? What happened there?

 

[Dave L]

Mesa doesn´t produce tubes, and never have. All the tubes in the world come from like three different factories at this point =)

With that said, the Mesa-branded tubes have been several different brands and makes thru the years but I think they do their own extra round of testing before shipping them on.

 

[ghosty999]

Ahh makes sense! The guys at my Amp Servicing Shop swear by them and only use them, they use them in their own hand built amps so must be something in them!

 

[Dave L]

Yeah, whatever they are now they´re probably perfectly fine - and reliable and repeatable - but nothing fancy or originally expensive. As you would expect from a huge outfit like Mesa that ships a bazillion amps per year.

 

[jkdsteve]

Had a set of Mesa EL84s, looked just like a pair of Sovtek 6BQ5s that I had at the time....good sounding tube actually.

 

[just42dave]

they have been radically tested before mesa uses them, as they want a good product for their name and so they have less warranty issues on amps. You should be good if your not a tube snob which never got me anywhere.