russian military tubes

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kirkster
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russian military tubes

Post by kirkster »

I see tons of russian tubes in bulk on ebay. Some claim to be el84s and 12ax7s. Any try these? Would be curious which type el84 replace ment to buy and how they sound..no modes to amp though.
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teletroy
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Post by teletroy »

I've had great luck with the 6l6 and el84 equivalents - I believe the 12ax7ish ones require a different heater setup. And won't work unless you rewire your socket. At one time I had a diagram that showed how to hook up a toggle to switch between normal 12ax7s and those Russians, but I can't find it now.

I really do like the 6l6 and el84s I've gotten, I beat the crap out of the 6l6 and they sound great. The el84s sound better to me than a few other name brands I've bought too.
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breakfastbuddy
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12ax7 russian tubes

Post by breakfastbuddy »

search red bear amps on the net and you will find how to hook them up
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ny_racer_xxx
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Post by ny_racer_xxx »

I bought a lot of 5 EL84's from a guy, they all smoked!!!

CR
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dotfret
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Post by dotfret »

The Russians can be more than liberal with their equivalents - so you need to know what you are buying - I would bet that the valves that died were actually EL86 equivalents.

There are suffixes to the Russian valve numbers which indicate certain things -
E (same in cyrillic)indicates a ruggedised construction.
V (B in cyrillic) indicates military use - often means they draw a little more heater current than usual to get a lower noise figure.
I (a backwards N in cyrillic) indicates that a valve is intended for pulse mode operation - these valves usually have a shorter working life, but can stand higher B+ than the standard designs.
R (P in cyrillic) indicates low noise spec..
D (a squiggly A with the top crossed over in cyrillic) means a 10K hour valve, automatically implies rugged construction - a European SQ type.

There's more, but that will do for now.

For EL84 equivalents, the russki type is 6p14p (the Russian Cyrillic alphabet uses the Greek letter pi for P). These are usually excellent and exact replacements for EL84 /6BQ5.

You may see 6p14p-e (if you drop these, they usually survive), and 6p14p-ev (these are also robust, but will draw extra heater current), 6p14p-r (worth paying extra), 6p14p-er (also worth paying extra), and 6p14p-dr (rip the seller's arm off before the Sarge does it).

The Russian version of the 12AX7 is the 6n2p. It can only be used in parallel circuits and is wired differently, so it is not pin-compatible - but you only need to move a couple of connections. These are cheap and sound better than new manufacture, so are worth using. They draw a little more heater current than a 12AX7, so they don't always work well in an old amp - it depends on how conservatively your psu was designed.
You find also 6n2p-e (rugged construction), 6n2p-ev (draw even more heater current, avoid unless you have allowed an extra 20% heater current in your design), 6n2p-er (worth moving the connections to use these), and 6n2p-vi (rare, and best left alone - very quiet, very hungry for heater current, and only 500h life).

The Russian 6L6 equivalents are peculiar, varying from factory to factory, and can be just what you need, or a pain in the bits. The Russian type is 6p3s (6pi3C in cyrillic), but what you get depends on the manufacturing factory, and the knowledge of your supplier. There are a lot of these which are genuine 6L6 designs, and others which are original Russian designs - but they are not all capable of driving a Fender.
The easy rule is to treat them all as 6L6G - they will generally fit this specification, or work as 6L6GT (T just means straight sided envelope, as opposed to "coke bottle"). If the seller says they are 6L6GC equivalent, buy a small number to test - but do not be surprised if they redplate and die. None of the Russian suffixes will tell you if they have sufficient plate capacity to work like a full spec 6L6GC - so be careful. If you get a good supplier, buy all he has!

In contrast, Russian 6V6 equivalents are usually a safe bet to meet the specification, whatever the suffix.

Other desirable russki valves which are a straight swap are the g807 (807) and the EF86 equivalent 6zh32p / 6j32p (the cyrillic letter has no direct equivalent, it looks like a wobbly X with an extra stoke through it). The 6n23p is very like the 6922/e88cc, but will not tolerate big negative grid bias. The 6n1p is very like the ECC88 /6DJ8 but draws twice as much heater current - caveat emptor, the Russian sellers do not mention that.

I have to sleep sometime ...
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