Chinese coke bottle 6L6 GC tubes?

Phantasmagoria

Phantasmagoria

watch where you point that sabre
I have'nt really seen these before (with the brown bases) ..they're supposedly higher rated 6L6 "GC" s with black plates (seller says so...they just look grey from the camera flash) .. $27 for a matched quad.

12636497.jpg

From what I can tell they're Shuguang's of some sort..

Feedback for them is good..."sweet & vintage sounding" apparently.

Is there a catch lol?
 
Re: Chinese coke bottle 6L6 GC tubes?

They look big that's for sure. Close to the size of the Sovtek KT88's in my VHT.
The GC doesn't mean they are bigger. Regular size 6L6's sometimes have GC attached to their name too.
Catch? Dunno. They could be old and worn out a bit, but still function. Who knows.
Ask if they are NOS or how many hours they have on them.
 
Re: Chinese coke bottle 6L6 GC tubes?

Yeah, it's just that's GC's are rated higher at 30 watts (as opposed to 19 & 23 watt G/GT/GA/GB's..)


Apparently they're brand new/unused....

This is the URL (scroll down for the description)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NIB-New-matched-quad-brown-base-Black-Plate-6L6G-ST-shapped-6L6GC-/400454147168?_trksid=p2047675.l2557&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEWNX%3AIT&nma=true&si=AsuXJ5J0Li9XTlZ0h9fEmlvIWaI%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc



They look a bit like the old Mesa (STR 420L) coke bottle 6L6GC's (on the right)


dsc00199d.jpg


but those had black bases/grey plates..
 
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Re: Chinese coke bottle 6L6 GC tubes?

Worst case scenario, you don't like their sound and you flip them.
 
Re: Chinese coke bottle 6L6 GC tubes?

Funkfingers said:
Worst case scenario, you don't like their sound and you flip them.
Click to expand...

No, worst case is they die in a matter of days or even hours...

I remember those brown base coke bottle 6L6's from the 90's...bought a bunch of 'em, of course they could be had as low as 12-15 a quad then.

Quite often they sounded pretty good in overdriven situations but the failure rate is sky high!!!

What do you want to put them in??
 
Re: Chinese coke bottle 6L6 GC tubes?

I just bought them 'cause they were cheap/looked pretty cool/sound good according to the sellers feedback.. lol.

My new Bugera 333xl Infinium came with EL34's (Shuguang/Bugera EL34B's) and frankly, they sound f**king great in there. But I thought I'd try it with 6L6's just to check out the difference. The Infinium tech is supposed to keep auto-adjusting the bias and monitoring tube parameters so tube life is maximized (same thing that's in some of the new Orange amps, except it's called "Devo" technology there instead of "Infinium"..it's the same OEM manufacturer for both though). Maybe the Infinium thing will help keep these tubes going for a bit if I do decide to swap them in..
 
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Re: Chinese coke bottle 6L6 GC tubes?

27 bux.?
Why ask.?
They are a throw away item. If they work... you did great.
If they are garbage..... just toss them in the garbage.
best
 
Re: Chinese coke bottle 6L6 GC tubes?

Phantasmagoria said:
I just bought them 'cause they were cheap/looked pretty cool/sound good according to the sellers feedback.. lol.

My new Bugera 333xl Infinium came with EL34's (Shuguang/Bugera EL34B's) and frankly, they sound f**king great in there. But I thought I'd try it with 6L6's just to check out the difference. The Infinium tech is supposed to keep auto-adjusting the bias and monitoring tube parameters so tube life is maximized (same thing that's in some of the new Orange amps, except it's called "Devo" technology there instead of "Infinium"..it's the same OEM manufacturer for both though). Maybe the Infinium thing will help keep these tubes going for a bit if I do decide to swap them in..
Click to expand...

Whats the plate voltage in that amp??
 
Re: Chinese coke bottle 6L6 GC tubes?

zzmoore said:
27 bux.?
Why ask.?
They are a throw away item. If they work... you did great.
If they are garbage..... just toss them in the garbage.
best
Click to expand...


What I was thinking.. :lmao:

I'll post a clip or two if/when I do swap them in... (and assuming they last long enough to permit it ..lol)
 
Re: Chinese coke bottle 6L6 GC tubes?

Don't know, lets see how it goes...maybe I could use them a pair at a time.. (this amp allows you to mix 6l6/El34's)...

Either way, even if they last a couple of hours...it'll give me an idea of how 6l6's sound in there and whether I like it..

Also, I've seen these before, but with grey plates ...won't black plates be more rugged? (..never seen these with black plates)
 
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Re: Chinese coke bottle 6L6 GC tubes?

I would argue that those tubes will give you a good idea of 6L6's as those are more often than not very soft vacuum tubes that have a much more compressed and more crunchy sound that a "typical" 6L6 and as for the grey vs black in terms of being more rugged that's something that doesn't apply here.

You might get luck and they might last a long time...my dad has a pair that he's had for years and has used in various amps but most of them die early and at the voltages you're running I expect that time to be even shorter...
 
Re: Chinese coke bottle 6L6 GC tubes?

I've used regular (straight bottle) 6L6's before in my H&K Switchblade 50 combo (Sovteks or JJ's ...can't remember which), but they sounded terrible. Muddy lows, no mids to speak of & brittle/hard-edged fizzy highs.

Frankly, I would'nt have bought them again if I had'nt found some this cheap (plus a lot of Bugera 333XL users say this amp sounds great with 6L6's/KT77's/6CA7's so I was curious)

These things, on the other hand (just came in this morning) sound pretty sweet!! Nice tight deep bass, reasonably present/sweet mids & pleasant highs. I played around for a couple of hours with the full quad of them in there and they're definately very nice sounding tubes, but I missed the fat mid grind of the EL34's so back in a pair of them went (along with two of the 6L6's) ...total nirvana! Just a huge grinding, thick, rich, sweet, earthshaking sonic experience :D

I don't think I'll ever try anything else in this amp....amazing!
 
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