Re: EL83 / 6CK6 valves in place of EL84
Posted: Thu 12/11/14 5:33 am
I ordered som El83 tubes cheap yesterday, I think mostly were made by siemens but a couple telefunken and mullard as well. I found a datasheet with curves at 250V g2 and to me it looks like they will work just fine with 8k load. They will bias at a lower voltage however. I'm expecting lower current and around 7Volts at the cathode for typical "18watt amp" set up .
If this turns out to be true they should distort earlier than El84 tubes. Who ever put them in the "Rory gallagher AC30 amp" and used them they must have done so for a reason. I know some AC30 users don't like the sound when they start to distort(cold PI distortion?). They like the sound just prior to distortion and on full throttle when the EL84 is working hard. However then it might be just too loud. I know on a arena loudness is good but I remember Brian May saying that the loudness of the AC30 was not helpful in recording situations and as you know they often used the Deacy transistor practice amp. Perhaps the use of El83 was to get earlier PA distortion and somewhat mask the PI distortion. I'm just speculating here and unfortunately I do not own a ac30.
If this turns out to be true they should distort earlier than El84 tubes. Who ever put them in the "Rory gallagher AC30 amp" and used them they must have done so for a reason. I know some AC30 users don't like the sound when they start to distort(cold PI distortion?). They like the sound just prior to distortion and on full throttle when the EL84 is working hard. However then it might be just too loud. I know on a arena loudness is good but I remember Brian May saying that the loudness of the AC30 was not helpful in recording situations and as you know they often used the Deacy transistor practice amp. Perhaps the use of El83 was to get earlier PA distortion and somewhat mask the PI distortion. I'm just speculating here and unfortunately I do not own a ac30.