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Marshall JCM 800 6550's or EL34's?

Burstboy

Dr. Nick, 'Hi Everybody'
Joined
Aug 9, 2001
Messages
3,136
Hi,

What is the advantage or disadvantage of either tube choice? Before I buy a new matched set and have the amp set-up, I thought I would ask. I have 6550's in it now, and I just bought the amp last week. I think it sounds great, but I just discovered a mismatched set of power tubes...Sovtek and a Svetlana. I just want a nice classic rock crunch out of it...heavy, not muddy, and sounds good at low volumes. Thin Lizzy, 80's heavy metal, etc.

Thanks
 

Marshallhead

Active member
Joined
Jul 19, 2001
Messages
5,556
tube choice

well my friend all i can say is PUT THE EL34'S IN IT!!!-:lol
the 6550's will be harsher and more difficult to distort-almost cold sounding,but they have alot more clean headroom and tighter sa well-el 34's are more musical sounding and will sound like god talking when pushed-if you want it cleaner get some good usa 6550 tubes if you can find them,if you want distortion and more nasty sound go with the el 34's-for good prices ck out the svetlanas and electro harmonix el34-low volume is tough though-i like to get those 800 master vols at around 6-7 on the master so the out put tubes are just beginning to distort-so you may want some kind of attenuator like a thd hotplate-good luck and let your ears tell you

:dude
 

Sean

Goldie's Man in London
Joined
Jul 15, 2001
Messages
2,021
BUT! You can't just stick in EL34s in a 6550 amp, you will have a biasing problem and need to replace some resistors (couple of 150k to 220k, or something?)
 
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