Carvin branded 6L6'S

Demanic

Demanic

PenultimateTone Member
I was cleaning some stuff out of my closet the other day and found the original 6L6 tubes that came in my XV 212. They are branded "Carvin" and "West Germany". Two of the four were bad, but two are fine and I'm now using one in my Picovalve. It sounds fantastic. I was just wondering if anyone knows who manufactured them?

Sent from my MotoE2(4G-LTE) using Tapatalk
 
Re: Carvin branded 6L6'S

Probably Valvo. If so my friend you have on your hands a pair of the finest 6L6 tubes ever made. And all this information will cost you is the ridiculously low price of one of those tubes;-)
 
Re: Carvin branded 6L6'S

RogerMexiko said:
Probably Valvo. If so my friend you have on your hands a pair of the finest 6L6 tubes ever made. And all this information will cost you is the ridiculously low price of one of those tubes;-)
Click to expand...

Would you take one of the bad ones for $10+s/h? lol (and I want my 10% cut for setting up the deal!)
 
Re: Carvin branded 6L6'S

Why would anyone want to buy a bad tube? Or one on it's way out?

Sent from my MotoE2(4G-LTE) using Tapatalk
 
Re: Carvin branded 6L6'S

You can't see the "west" very well on this tube. In fact, the only tube that it's still clearly visible on is in my amp and I don't want to go through the hassle of taking it out atm.

Sent from my MotoE2(4G-LTE) using Tapatalk
 
Re: Carvin branded 6L6'S

Demanic said:
You can't see the "west" very well on this tube. In fact, the only tube that it's still clearly visible on is in my amp and I don't want to go through the hassle of taking it out atm.

Sent from my MotoE2(4G-LTE) using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Yeah, I feel that. I kinda wanna get a bunch of computer thumb screws for my PicoValve, if they're the same thread (I haven't checked).

Is your PV stock or modded? I did the grid resistor fix on mine but I haven't done any of the other mods I've looked at, yet, like adding cathode bypass caps.
 
Re: Carvin branded 6L6'S

Dead stock. I know that there are mods that can be done, but I haven't gotten that adventurous yet. I did put a JJ's medium gain ECC83 in V1 that seems to tame the high end harshness a bit. And the two old Carvin tubes seem to be the best sounding 6L6's that I've ever heard.

Sent from my MotoE2(4G-LTE) using Tapatalk
 
Re: Carvin branded 6L6'S

Demanic said:
Dead stock. I know that there are mods that can be done, but I haven't gotten that adventurous yet. I did put a JJ's medium gain ECC83 in V1 that seems to tame the high end harshness a bit. And the two old Carvin tubes seem to be the best sounding 6L6's that I've ever heard.

Sent from my MotoE2(4G-LTE) using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
I've got a JJ 6CA7 in mine, but I keep thinking about going back to a 6L6 (I have an EH and a couple SED). I forget what I have in the preamp section, but I do remember that an EH was TERRIBLY boring sounding in V1.

One of the popular mods seems to be putting two different caps on an on-off-on switch bypassing the cathode resistor on V1. It's supposed to really bring the amp to life. Everybody that's taken the amp apart always remarked how it's strange that there's not a single cathode bypass cap in the preamp since basically almost every good-sound has them shaping the tone.
 
Re: Carvin branded 6L6'S

Feel free to pm me any mod schematics or links to such whenever it's convenient. Maybe I'll get the gumption to try one at some point.

Sent from my MotoE2(4G-LTE) using Tapatalk
 
Re: Carvin branded 6L6'S

Demanic said:
Feel free to pm me any mod schematics or links to such whenever it's convenient. Maybe I'll get the gumption to try one at some point.

Sent from my MotoE2(4G-LTE) using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Will do, once I get my Java class' homework out of the way.

Sent from my VK810 4G using Tapatalk
 
Re: Carvin branded 6L6'S

Rex_Rocker said:
Yeah. I was gonna say it looks like a 6pi3c too!

https://reverb-res.cloudinary.com/i...90,w_620/v1469808742/rvcib3tx7thp8wstdjeb.jpg

Never tried those. The current Sovtek 5881/6L6WGC is based off that design, AFAIK.
Click to expand...

Yeah, shorter plates, bottom getter, looks just like the Russian 6n3c/6pi3c. I think I still have few of them somewhere.

There were a good number of tubes that were relabeled by different manufacturers at the end of tube manufacturing. There is another version of that tube that got some praise. I think it's the same tube number with a letter suffix at the end. At any rate, I don't think any European plants made a "true" 6L6. Well, aside from the Russians and these "equivalents". And labeling a tube with a country didn't always guarantee it was made there. In this case, if it is just labeled "West Germany" and not "Made in West Germany", I would give Carvin the benefit and guess that probably a West German supplier tested, matched, labeled and supplied the tubes to Carvin.

None of this means they are bad tubes.
 
Re: Carvin branded 6L6'S

As I said, the two that work well sound great. It wouldn't make any difference to me if they came from a Russian factory. Though as I also said, I don't think that there was much commerce going on between West Germany and the Soviet Union back in the early 80's when I think these may have been made.
Still, thanks for all the info. It's more than I had to go on before.

Sent from my MotoE2(4G-LTE) using Tapatalk
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

VinceT
Echoplex EP4 restoration - a last little bit of help...
Replies
5
Views
348
VinceT
VinceT
Demanic
NAD
2
Replies
28
Views
2K
Demanic
Demanic
Demanic
Sad day.
2 3
Replies
50
Views
4K
Demanic
Demanic
F
NAD: JCM 900 2500 SL-X
2
Replies
27
Views
1K
fretburner
F
Demanic
NPUP Day
Replies
8
Views
1K
Demanic
Demanic
Back
Top