Differences Between EL34 and 6550...

[dave_mc]

^ aye, just to clarify, when I said "the usa website", i meant the one people had been talking about. i doubt matamp would say "we got screwed there before, that's it, no more sales to the USA!"....

 :lol:

[FELINEGUITARS]

quick newbie question here, but are 6550s, EL34s, 6L6s etc. preamp or poweramp valves?

All poweramp tubes
The only preamp tubes you are likely to see or hear about are
12AX7 - called ECC83 in UK

Also some lower gain applications may use
12AU7 - ECC82
12AT7 - ECC81

You may enjoy reading this

http://www.marshallamps.com/resources/secret_life_of_valves/secret_life_valves.asp

[the_bleeding]

^ aye, just to clarify, when I said "the usa website", i meant the one people had been talking about. i doubt matamp would say "we got screwed there before, that's it, no more sales to the USA!"....

 :lol:

http://www.matamp.com/matamp-distributionUSA.html

article explaining!

now i just have to find a distributor near me.

[HTH AMPS]

^ aye, just to clarify, when I said "the usa website", i meant the one people had been talking about. i doubt matamp would say "we got screwed there before, that's it, no more sales to the USA!"....

 :lol:

http://www.matamp.com/matamp-distributionUSA.html

article explaining!

now i just have to find a distributor near me.

the way Jeff @ Matamp is described in that article does not mesh with the Jeff I've known for the past 5+ years.  I'd take it with a pinch of salt, especially since they've basically lifted Matamp's entire image (and most likely the circuit too)

 

[Alex]

Quite practically I was able to compare my JCM900 50Watt EL34 amp with the other guitar player's JCM 900 50Watt 6l6 amp.

The descriptions pretty much sum it up. The 6l6 was a bit nicer for clean and blues, the EL34 better for rock and metal sounds.

But the differences are fairly small. To be honest, I really think you can disregard them on modern high gain amps (like ENGLs or Peaveys). Those amps seem to get most of their sound from the preamp and just try to have a fairly neutral sounding power amp section. These ain't the days anymore where you're achieve your sound Hendrix style, i.e. cranking a full stack all the way and using volume and tone pots for finetuning.

[Tricalibur]

Yeh the way Ive heard it from Joel at Electric is that they were once the sole US distributor but they then decided to break off and become their own company making their own amps and such. Matamps can still be bought in the US from here; www.motorcitymatamp.com.

Just to clarify, Im pretty much basing my needs out of a Matamp off of what i have seen on the Electric website realy but i just want the real deal and not a close copy.

So has anyone here ever tried KT77's?

[HTH AMPS]

So has anyone here ever tried KT77's?

just the current JJ ones - they were fine, very much like the JJ E34L imo.

a cynic would say they're the same valve relabelled  :roll:

 :twisted:

[dave_mc]

the way Jeff @ Matamp is described in that article does not mesh with the Jeff I've known for the past 5+ years.  I'd take it with a pinch of salt, especially since they've basically lifted Matamp's entire image (and most likely the circuit too)

 

yeah, that sounds a bit fishy to me. haven't dealt with him myself, but by all accounts, matamp is run the way companies should be run, with great guys doing the running.

[Skybone]

Matamp UK: http://www.matamp.co.uk/home.htm

Matamp Canadian Distro: http://www.g-spot-music.com/matamp.html

Matamp US Distro: http://www.motorcitymatamp.com/

Matamp.com has nothing to do with Matamp any longer.

Electric Amps have something like a 6+ month order period, and there's plenty of people who have paid in full and waited far longer (just do a search on HC/The Gear Page/Plexi Palace forums etc).

Matamp in the UK have a turn around of around 1 month for a custom, hand built amp.

[keano]

Billy Corgan used a 2203?

[HTH AMPS]

Billy Corgan used a 2203?

I know nothing about him or his band, I just remember when I sold my 2203 with KT88s installed the guy that bought it was wetting himself over it saying he'd been searching for ages for a such an amp (obviously didn't know that you can just plug KT88s in any 2203 with the appropriate bias adjustments).

I've since seen the same thing mentioned on the net quite alot.

He obviously didn't use their built-in overdrive since his sound was all about the Big Muff PI.

 :twisted:

[Fourth Feline]

Quite practically I was able to compare my JCM900 50Watt EL34 amp with the other guitar player's JCM 900 50Watt 6l6 amp.

The descriptions pretty much sum it up. The 6l6 was a bit nicer for clean and blues, the EL34 better for rock and metal sounds.

But the differences are fairly small. To be honest, I really think you can disregard them on modern high gain amps (like ENGLs or Peaveys). Those amps seem to get most of their sound from the preamp and just try to have a fairly neutral sounding power amp section. These ain't the days anymore where you're achieve your sound Hendrix style, i.e. cranking a full stack all the way and using volume and tone pots for finetuning.

Thanks for posting those observations Alex, as the owner of two 6L6 based amps ( and having never tried an EL34 based amp ) - I have long been curious about what I may have been missing.  Sounds like I have the right option for me anyway. It was nice to hear that the difference was subtle though, we gear heads do not like to think there is something we're missing !   :lol:

[the_bleeding]

i'm glad this thread was resurrected... man were some of my comments so wrong. I've given up listening to people and been doing my own research now, so im cleanin up now.

6550's and kt88's have ALL THE SAME RATINGS, hell, theyre pretty much the same thing.

The only difference is in the pins.
In a 6550, the supressor grid is attached to pin 1; and cathode to pin 8.
in a kt88 (which stands for "kinkless tetrode" but is actually a pentode), the supressor grid AND cathode are attached to pin 8; and pin 1 is attached to nothing.

other than this, they are IDENTICAL in every rating.
http://www.mclink.it/com/audiomatica/tubes/kt88.htm
http://www.mclink.it/com/audiomatica/tubes/6550.htm

[keano]

I have heard though from Tube sellers KT88 have sweeter mids

[the_bleeding]

I have heard though from Tube sellers KT88 have sweeter mids

oh they definately sound different, but construction wise the only thing that should be different is the pin locations and sometimes size of the bottle.