430 vs 454?

I am looking to replace the old tired 420s in my Mark IV. I was hoping someone could shed some light on the comparative qualities between these two.

My Mark IV came stock with their 430's (sovtek). I just bought a set of SED 6L6's. I'll let you know what I think of the SED's but I'll be going off of memory with the 430's.

From what I remember I like the 430's a lot, but have nothing to compare them with.

Well, I installed the Winged C 6l6's today. Unfortunately given my living arrangements I still haven't been able to push these tubes.

The clean channel sounds amazing though.

I put 454's in my ROV combo...VERY pleased...much better clean than the stock Mesa tube I had in there before and the gain tone with my LP Standard is wonderful.

Russ said:

I am looking to replace the old tired 420s in my Mark IV. I was hoping someone could shed some light on the comparative qualities between these two.

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What was in the ROV before?

I believe the STR-440...I also tried a set of JJ E-34L's that were nice but started acting flakey after about a month of limited use. They had a good lead tone but the cleans were so-so.
Russ - I do want to point out that I bought the amp used but it supposedly had VERY few hours on it. The seller only played it at Church and the amp was purchased new in June of 2004.

BTW - is that the modern version of the old used car line "Driven only on Sundays by a little old lady"? :lol:

Russ said:

What was in the ROV before?

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I am beginning to think so.

I actually have seen some churches and church groups selling stuff like Rectos and ENGLs. I can't really see anyone playing a Fireball to the tune of Amazing Grace...

I think the other one is "selling it for a friend". I have seen a lot of that too with excuses like "he doesn't have access to a computer" or "will be out of town".

I think one of my personal favorites of late has been "I have no way of testing this".