Stash of vintage tubes

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Fear

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Some dude says he has a stash of vintage 6L6 RCA and Amperex tubes. I was gonna go check on them, but didn't know what to look for. Any particular models to look for. He says he's got tube testing equipment to check them with.
 
Fear said:
Some dude says he has a stash of vintage 6L6 RCA and Amperex tubes. I was gonna go check on them, but didn't know what to look for. Any particular models to look for.
For modern guitar amps, you need 6L6GCs, or for some with slightly lower voltages, 6L6GB (or WGB or any other combination with a B). Plain 6L6s - especially anything with a metal casing, like they were made in the 1940s - won't hold up to guitar-amp voltages and you'll probably blow the tube and may damage the amp.

He says he's got tube testing equipment to check them with.
More or less meaningless for this application. A tube tester will show up a definitely faulty tube, and is useful for measuring them if you're trying to make a matched set, but it won't tell you if the tube will work in a guitar amp - they don't operate them at anything like the same voltages and currents (so you can easily get a tube which 'tests good' that fails in an amp), or test for microphonics, noise or other problems. You really need a way of testing them in an amp circuit under controlled conditions - i.e. don't just stick them in your amp to see what happens.

Preamp tubes are much less risky, mostly you can just put the in the amp to see if they work and sound good, as long as you stick to the same types. There are a number of 12A*7-series tubes that are compatible with standard 12AX7 guitar amp circuits, but *not* all of them - some of them should not be tried in some positions in some amps (e.g. 12AT7 in V3 or V4 in a Rectifier) so make sure you know what you're doing!
 
I was more wondering if there were some sweet obsoleete brands and runs of the 6L6 to look out for. Kinda like how if you find a stash of STR 415s on Ebay, they want stupid money for them. Maybe some sweet forgotten tubes.
 
A few years ago I was up on tubes, but as I get older I forget information more easily...too much of it!

With that in mind, and do your own research, I would think that vintage 6L6's may work in the tweed voltage settings of some MB amps.

Also, amperex I thought made preamp tubes on par with the best. Amperex Bugleboys are hugely collectable and big$
 
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