halebox said:
Its too mysterious and makes you have to buy their tubes. Im tempted to buy one of each just to post readings so everyone can buy whatever tube they want. I have a bunch of sylvania str387 ranging from 20 ma up to 70 ma. I had one mesa 415 from 80's that seemed to read 46 ma so Ive been using in that range.
The current draw of each tube will be different depending on the particular brand of tube (Mesa uses many different brands), and the particular amp in which that tube is used. It would be near impossible to rate Mesa's tubes' current in a way that would be meaningful for every Mesa amp. The readings for the tubes that you've posted above likely will not be the same if those tubes were to be installed in another amp, due to several factors, such as different Plate voltage, different bias voltage, etc. At the same time, a Mesa 6L6 will be rated such that it should work in any Mesa amp that requires a 6L6, even though there might not be a current rating on the tube, for the reasons that I just mentioned.
No mystery if you want to use brands other than Mesa, just ask the vendor for tubes rated for Mesa ________ amp, (fill in amp name). Other brands of tubes will have some kind of current rating, usually labeled on the box. However, the current rating used by other brands will almost certainly not be the actual current drawn when installed in the amp, because the current rating on the box of a tube is from some type of tube tester, or Maxi Matcher. As mentioned above, many forum members have posted the mA draw of the tubes that they use in their particular amp.
Sometimes, using other brands of tubes in your Mesa amp, can lead to the wrong conclusion about the sound of that particular tube brand due to the tube not being rated for that amp, therefore not biased right leading to poor sound.