18Watt.com

I recently got a huge box of vintage valves, and there's all sorts in there. I've picked out some telefunken el36s, a lot of phillips pl36s.. el805s.. all sorts..

A number of them are pentodes, or dual triodes of various sorts.. others are diodes or dual diodes.

Question is, are any of them of any use for guitar amplification? The pl36s look to be very similar to el36s in particular.

Hi Smohekey,

the EL36 are a TV line output valve equivalent to a 6CM5, common in our part of the world... These can be used for audio (a line output stage requires good switching performance at 15625Hz), albeit at low output impedances & voltages. The only other problem is the anode top cap, which makes them a little less 'safe' to use - especially if you're silly enough to stick your finger -or any other appendage- into the cap connector!). this is a brilliant page on this subject: http://home.alphalink.com.au/~cambie/EL36.htm
click on "Substituting an EL36 for an EL34" to compare with a well-known guitar amp valve

The PL36 is basically the same valve with a 25V 300mA filament designed for series connection in a string run off the mains. (I'd say better to find a 24V 1.5A transformer!!)

the EL805 appears to be a vertical deflection valve of somewhat lower power capacity than an EL84. The data sheet can be found at: http://www.tubedata.info/

best wishes,
Davo

Having read through the article re el36's and pl36's it seems like I could make quite a fun little project with them. They're described as not ideal for hifi, which would lead me to assume they could be interesting for guitar.

I have some 20 or so of them so I could certainly do some experimentation.

I also have a lot of 7pin valves of varying sorts, and even a few 6SJ7s!

Hi,

smohekey wrote:They're described as not ideal for hifi....

Absolute rubbish!

My forum folks have done extensive research on this valve. Triode them and you have for all practical purposes, a 5.5W 2A3

Cheers!

I really need to go through and catalogue them all. There's definately some possibilities in there. I found about 5 or 6 el504s which look like they could be useful.. about 6 6v6s a heap of various 9pin triode/pentodes etc. quite a few 5y3gt's.. some mullard dy802s.. there's over 500 valves for me to sort through!

Not an easy job for sure

I did a "long weekend binge" on a score from a TV shop once. Working 14 hours/day, it took all 3 days solid to detail-catalog 1,022 tubes in the haul.

My wife wasn't happy

If you have any "TV rubbish" tubes you want to unload, I may be able to offer safe disposal of them for you

Cheers!

Hey smohekey, would you be willing to part with a few 6SJ7 tubes? I have an old Oahu amp that I am in the process of clonig/updating and could use some.