EL84/6V6 5E3 Power amp question

[M Fowler]

No just use 20uf/450v filter caps.

[C Moore]

All else being equal.....how much of a difference will there be compared to a 2xV6 or 2x84 power section.?
I can see there being quite a difference do to all the compromising that is going on to accommodate the 2 different tubes. But what if that were not the case.? What if you could just run the 2 tubes, at the same time, at their "normal" specs.?
Is it unique, compared to all the tone-stack, biasing, cathode switching, raw control, etc. etc. mods you can do.?
How big of a deal is it to have 2 different power tubes.?
Thank You

[C Moore]

All else being equal.....how much of a difference will there be compared to a 2xV6 or 2x84 power section.?
I can see there being quite a difference do to all the compromising that is going on to accommodate the 2 different tubes. But what if that were not the case.? What if you could just run the 2 tubes, at the same time, at their "normal" specs.?
Is it unique, compared to all the tone-stack, biasing, cathode switching, raw control, etc. etc. mods you can do.?
How big of a deal is it to have 2 different power tubes.?
Thank You

[Doctordog]

Using a 6v6 and el84 in a push pull arrangement flies in the face of conventional tube amp building. But that doesn't mean it's a bad idea.

I have built "The Standard" amplifier from Kevin O'Connor's "The Ultimate Tone" series. I love it. Currently I am running 2 el34's against 2 6l6wgb's. I love the blending of the two. Characteristics of both tube types are apparent in the sound.
I have tried using 4 - 6V6's and also 4 - 6L6WGB's but this is much better than either of those combo's.
I'm not a tube amp genius, but, I know what I like. So if you think that you may like a blending of the two tube types, I say, go for it.

Doctordog

[renshen1957]

First off, hello. I'm a bit new to the forum and I have a lot of questions about tube amps. Some dumber than others.

As the title implies, I'd like to build an amp with a 5E3 power section, but use a 6V6 (or 6AQ5) and an EL84 at the same time. (One for push, the other for pull) Why hasn't this been done before? Assuming that you have the proper value cathode bypass caps / resistors I don't know why it would be too much of a problem. I also imagine it would have a pretty big impact on tone.

Also, there must be a way to switch which tube would do the pushing / pulling. Would that also be a fine idea?

Thanks for any responses.

Hi,

From my experience you will need a separate cathode resistor and capacitor for each different separate tube otherwise the imbalance if the two tubes shared one resistor between the two tubes in the OT will cause hum.

You can use 2 EL84 in place of the 6V6 if and have a Tweed sound if the EL84 have 10k or more grid stoppers, which will replace the glassy or brittleness of the EL84 for a warmer sound similar to a 6V6 or 6AQ5.

Two Tubes alternate between push and pull, one pulls and the other pushes and then switches to pushes and the other pulls. That is the nature of tube amps that aren't single ended.

Been there, done that. I used an EL84 against octal tubes with a Mercury Magnetic 5E5 OT and a Hammond PT with enough heater current to run KT88s so I used the amp to check out the tone of Chinese and NOS RTF EL34s, Russian 6L6s, KT66, KT77, reissue Tungsol 6550, NOS 5881. The 5V heater had enough current to run any type of Rectifier tube.

For the curious the tube in that circuit that had best tone was the Rusky 6L6. When I have spare time, I will replace the 9 pin socket with an 8 pin socket.

Best Regards,

Steve

[Reeltarded]

I have built "The Standard" amplifier from Kevin O'Connor's "The Ultimate Tone" series. I love it. Currently I am running 2 el34's against 2 6l6wgb's. I love the blending of the two.

Doctordog

You know.. I think there really may be something to this ^ The Egnaters with tube sweep sound ok on either pair, but fat and huge one click right from the middle.

Oh dear. now you sent me on a 12 hour obsession. oh noes!

[tictac]

I had an amp with a 6V6 / EL84 output section; the Mesa Blue-Angel. Problem with this tube complement is that the EL84's are so much easier to drive than the 6V6's; with both tube engaged you can't really hear the 6V6's...

If you really want to blend the tone of these tubes build a stereo 5E3 with two P.I.'s and two output transformers; one side for the 6V's other side for the EL84's The cathodyne P.I. is very easy to implement a master volume with. Then you could blend the output levels of each tube pair.

You'd have more control over the voicing of each section, even using a diffrent speaker for each tube type...

TT