18Watt.com

I just picked up a few used tubes today and I am wondering how they would sound. I have one 12BH7A, one 6BZ7 and a metal can RCA 6L6. AFAIK the 12BH7A is similar to a 12AU7. What would I need to change on the preamp to make either of those work and would the 6L6 sound good?

Hiya - these links should give you the info you need to ses if any mods need doing.

http://www.drtube.com/tubedata.htm - good for most common data sheets

http://www.pmillett.com/tubedata/HB-3/R ... 1/6BZ7.PDF - has the 6BZ7 DS

From a quick look the 12BH7A does indeed seem similar to the 12AU7 as it has very low gain, so will typically give a much cleaner sound.

If its in good condition the 6L6 may sound very nice biased right.

Hope this helps, Andy

What preamp is this? Hopefully, we're talking 18W here. The single 6L6 would be more of a topic for SEwatt.com.

The 6BZ7 is also a fairly low gain dual-triode, somewhere between a 12AU7 and a 12AT7.

It will be an 18 watt with 6v6's, but I thought I's ask about the 6L6 while I was here.

Oh I forgot. I also got two Telefunken 12AX7's and a Mullard 12AU7.

Telefunken 12AX7s are the holy grail of 12AX7/ECC83s. Maybe even more than Mullards. Treasure those tubes.

You could also use the 12AU7 or 12BH7 as the power stage for a 1.8W Lite II.
http://members.cox.net/dennisfweb/images/18w_AU_3.jpg
http://members.cox.net/dennisfweb/sound/sos.mp3

zaphod_phil wrote:Telefunken 12AX7s are the holy grail of 12AX7/ECC83s. Maybe even more than Mullards. Treasure those tubes.

Years ago, I repaired lab equipment for the pharma company I worked for. We had spectrophotometers that used 12AX7's and the spares we had were Telefunkens and Philips ECG. The equipment eventually got tossed. I ended up taking home the now "obsolete" tubes. Unfortunately, I had used all of the Telefunkens for repairs. I still have a bunch of the Philips (and one bad Telefunken ).