Audio Graveyard

Power Tube Shootout PT. 16V6

Posted by admin in Sunday, February 14th 2010

Topics: Music

PLUMBdogg asked:

Fumbling around on the ES-335 Electro-Harmonix GT6V6 from Groove Tubes From The Guitar Amp Handbook: This is the archetypal smaller Fender tube,which powered all of the classic sub 25 watt Fenders until recent years when el84's were used due to a scarcity of good new 6V6's. The 6V6 is touted as the little brother to the 6L6 but alot of players prefer the junior 'V' to the more powerful 'L' tube. The V develops less power, so it's easier to push into distortion when volume levels are restricted in a club or studio and it's a little smoother and browner sounding too. Good 6V6s should sound open,full-frequencied and well defined, but with a nice edge of grit and throaty roar wheen pushed hard. Their bottom end is by nature a little softer than some of the other larger tubes. A 6V6 usually puts out a little more than half the power of a 6L6 in the same circuit. New 6V6s are being made today that are far better than those that were available from Eastern Europe and China for many years. Electro-Harmonix and jj's are great current production tubes.

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22 Comments

Rambo29 said in February 15th, 2010 at 12:12 pm

what kind of speaker is in there?

mKreifeldt said in February 16th, 2010 at 11:04 am

Hey, unless you bypassed it in your mods, your champion 600 DOES have a tone stack hardwired with fixed resistors inside. I have a champion that I am lightly modding myself too. I’m workign to make mine into more of a vintage country ****** tonk sound than a distorted blues rock sound.

FenrirLupus said in February 19th, 2010 at 10:10 am

I deleted my other account… someone was threatening to kill me, and before i post any videos of myself…
i was the guy who asked about which tube you were using…

is there a part 2 yet?
i’d like to see some 6550’s

ammalato said in February 22nd, 2010 at 8:22 pm

Dude, how much do you love that little Champion 600??? I love mine, I did the Frondelli Mods to it and it’s such a pretty sounding amp. Just needs and little reverb to make it better. A tone stack would be cool but may be asking a bit much.

qxq0o0 said in February 24th, 2010 at 1:49 pm

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qxq0o0 said in February 24th, 2010 at 9:40 pm

PLUMBdogg said in February 25th, 2010 at 8:52 pm

Russian version

005davidragon said in February 28th, 2010 at 4:01 pm

oh, which 6v6 are you using? the chinese one, the russian, or the european?
(chinese is C, russian is R, european is S…)

PLUMBdogg said in March 2nd, 2010 at 6:40 pm

Soon….I get a little lazy now and then.

Thanks

PLUMBdogg said in March 3rd, 2010 at 3:47 pm

I had to buy a pair but yes the champ only uses 1 tube. As for the the tone….I’m bound to have some that aren’t for everyone but I just cranked the Champ up, I could have set it up a few different ways but that’s actually how the Champ sounds when you push it through that little tiny speaker. It has a brittleness to it. On the poor mans vid I used a overdrive and a compressor AFTER the overdrive.

snorrevonflake said in March 4th, 2010 at 11:35 am

matched pair of 6V6s in the single ended champion 600 ??? compared to your awesome ‘poor mans bluesbreaker’ video and many others this is a terrible buzzy tone…

005davidragon said in March 6th, 2010 at 10:26 am

oh… there is no part 2 yet…

005davidragon said in March 7th, 2010 at 11:03 am

wow. best distortion i’ve ever heard. and i haven’t even looked at the other videos in the shootout…

jcbak said in March 8th, 2010 at 12:24 am

F&*kin’ GREAT tone!!!!!! As always…nice vid.

crankerny said in March 11th, 2010 at 9:54 am

Alvin Lee in the “House” !!!. Just kidding you rule PLUMBdogg..As alway’s Killer Tone !!!!!

braydop said in March 13th, 2010 at 10:01 pm

Sounds awsome.. My dad has an ES in the 80’s but the neck snapped. Nice guitar.

saintgermainmusique said in March 17th, 2010 at 7:32 am

I prefer the sound of the EL84, but the 6V6 with their glass bulbe and octal socket is more solid than the EL84. For a lot of vibration and choc, the 6V6 is better (it’s military tube, then the EL84 it was used for HI-Fi or television for static material).

melodymaker65 said in March 17th, 2010 at 4:04 pm

good blues tone. nice guitar work

PLUMBdogg said in March 19th, 2010 at 8:27 am

Wow, sounds like you know your tubes man! I know the tonal characteristics but I don’t have a clue on the technical stuff. Thanks for the info.

PLUMBdogg said in March 20th, 2010 at 6:52 am

This was the first time I played mine a quite a whie too. It was actually little uncomfortable for a little bit until I got used to it again.

saintgermainmusique said in March 22nd, 2010 at 4:23 pm

The 6V6 is a tetrode but it have the same caracteristic as EL84 (pentode): 13/14,5 Volt for the bias (cathode or grille tension/ ground) and the same polarisation tension.The difference between the EL84 and the 6V6 for the wiring are eEL84 pin 4;5 go to 6V6 2;7 pin, EL84 2 pin goes to 5 pin, EL84 9 pin goes to 6V6 4 pin, EL84 3 pin goes to 6V6 8 pin (cathode and focalisation plaque), and the anode EL84 7 pin goes to anode 6V6 3 pin. And replace the noval socket by a octal socket.

jenton70 said in March 27th, 2010 at 2:38 pm

Gotta love a 335 pushing tubes like that. Time to pull mine outta the case for a while.