i was blessed to be able to get my grubby hands on a pair of the gec kt66 tubes. thank you very much larry, that was a generous gesture.
these are hands down the best 6L6 type tube i have tried. ive used rca black plate 6L6gc's (still have a pair that i use for recording or when it really matters) and they are fantastic but the big, deep, tight bottom end, lush textured mid range, and silky smooth and detailed highs of the gec tubes are the perfect fit to my style of playing. clean they have the refined clang of a good 6l6 but with a deeper bottom and the focus of the mid range seems lower. rich, warm, and down right pretty. dirty the gec just kills. fat creamy harmonic liquid sustain that stays articulate even when pushed really hard with thunderous bottom end.
over the edge of break up is where i live most of the time. i wanna be able to turn up the volume and hit the strings hard and get singing sustain but be able to roll back the volume a little and get a sweet clean tone.
i tried them first in a blackfaced '69 super reverb with a strat and it was clean heaven at 3. chords were detailed and even, the bottom strings speaking clearly and the top strings bright and spanky. nothing harsh or shrill about the tone even on the bridge pup. at 7 the tone was fat and round with good high end detail and again a great bottom end that stayed focused and didnt mush out. then i tried them in my celtic aislinn 6L6 which is my go to amp when i dont need reverb. the amp is a tweed fender bandmaster but with the bass shelved up ala marshall. i had been running groove tubes kt66's in this amp so i wasnt expecting that much difference but i was nicely surprised.
ill finish this tomorrow, gotta catch some zzzz's
these are hands down the best 6L6 type tube i have tried. ive used rca black plate 6L6gc's (still have a pair that i use for recording or when it really matters) and they are fantastic but the big, deep, tight bottom end, lush textured mid range, and silky smooth and detailed highs of the gec tubes are the perfect fit to my style of playing. clean they have the refined clang of a good 6l6 but with a deeper bottom and the focus of the mid range seems lower. rich, warm, and down right pretty. dirty the gec just kills. fat creamy harmonic liquid sustain that stays articulate even when pushed really hard with thunderous bottom end.
over the edge of break up is where i live most of the time. i wanna be able to turn up the volume and hit the strings hard and get singing sustain but be able to roll back the volume a little and get a sweet clean tone.
i tried them first in a blackfaced '69 super reverb with a strat and it was clean heaven at 3. chords were detailed and even, the bottom strings speaking clearly and the top strings bright and spanky. nothing harsh or shrill about the tone even on the bridge pup. at 7 the tone was fat and round with good high end detail and again a great bottom end that stayed focused and didnt mush out. then i tried them in my celtic aislinn 6L6 which is my go to amp when i dont need reverb. the amp is a tweed fender bandmaster but with the bass shelved up ala marshall. i had been running groove tubes kt66's in this amp so i wasnt expecting that much difference but i was nicely surprised.
ill finish this tomorrow, gotta catch some zzzz's
