That's one of greengirl's pics. I recognize the background. Wish I had won them, I'll bet they're nice.
Preamp Tubes? - Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How?
- Thread starter joshuaaewallen
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That's one of greengirl's pics. I recognize the background. Wish I had won them, I'll bet they're nice.
Did anyone know about the Groove Tube 6CA7's that were made in the USA for a brief period? They were supposedly made on Sylvania equipment. This is the LAST time I'm going to ask about these tubes - I promise.
So this is sort of fascinating. That the tube on the positive side of the power cycle is like V1 and the characteristics of the negative side of the power cycle is like V2. The negative side adds to the power, but the flavor is stronger coming from the tube first in line with the power cycle.
How's that for some tube info?
I'm not buying into this, mainly because I can't afford to buy into this. I could tell you what a cheap Russian EL34 sounds like paired with an RFT.
Hey Marty, you might want to get that Amperex warmed up. I didn't find any tubes during this Saturday's search, but I found a guy who has a "thrift store" (indoor junkyard) and he was cleaning his place out Saturday. I found TWO DOD R-845 single rack space spring reverb units, with part of the rack still attached. I picked up the both of them for $10, used a little contact cleaner on them, and they are noise-free and swwweeeeetttt. I think I can turn a slight profit on them. What's next after Amperex?
MartyStrat54
Well-Known Member
MartyStrat54
Well-Known Member
Two things. First, is the Groove Tube 6CA7's the one where the Sylvania equipment was shipped over to Russia? Supposedly the tubes were made in the early 90's (since Sylvania was bought out by Philips in 1984 and Philips made the tubes until 1988). Although these tubes were made on Sylvania equipment, they were never regarded as being as good as a Sylvania Fat Boy 6CA7. I will try to do a little more research on this to see if I can unravel it.
Second. I'm am not saying that there is this dramatic change in sound when you switch two different power tubes around. However, there is a change and when I reversed the tubes the clean channel sounded different. Not a huge change, but different. Some people might not be able to hear any difference. My main point is overall, the amp sounds different with a 6CA7 and an EL34 compared to the amp with two EL34's.
MartyStrat54
Well-Known Member
Yeah, all of his pic's are rip-off's. He posted some pic's on this thread a long time ago and he posted the same pics again. Flick'OFlash thought he was funny and let him post a whole bunch of stuff and then I got a hold of ALEX about it. Alex took all of his posts off and I had hoped he would move on. He has been thrown off several forums. I already talked to Joe about it. If it continues I will PM you with our solution.
MartyStrat54
Well-Known Member
Did some far reaching online searching and here are some bits I came up with. First piece is out of MIX magazine (online). According to them, the 6CA7's were made on GE equipment in the USA and the tube may of had a glitch (bug) in it.
About the oddest tube of the bunch was the GT-6CA7-GE. Newly manufactured on former GE equipment (in the U.S.), as is the GT-6L6-GE, it had an odd overdrive artifact, a bug that became obvious during the bench tests. Interestingly enough, an NOS GE 6L6 did not do this, but an NOS Sylvania version did, so it's obviously not a new “bug,” but could very well be an amp/tube idiosyncrasy. This is a good excuse to introduce and explain the tests that generated the pictures.
The GTGE is still being made and was the tube used in VH I and VH II.
The GT6CA7GE is the classic American-style EL34 tube made in the exact likeness of the famed General Electric 6CA7 tube of the 60's. This was the tube we sold to Eddie Van Halen for his Marshalls used on the first two Van Halen albums (often cited for his best tone on record).
In 1998, Groove Tubes purchased from Richardson the original critical materials and machines GE used to produce both the GE6L6 and GE6CA7 (aka:EL34), along with the original production processing formulas. In other words, Groove Tubes was able to acquire the the recipe, the original ingredients and the kitchen too! The adventure had begun.
Next, several original GE vendors were enlisted to faithfully reproduce many of the internal components. For example, the company who made the original mica insulators has provided the identical part, on new tooling from original GE drawings. Also, the special plate designs are made on the same vintage 4 slide machines and are identical to the original parts, using the original GE plate material that is no longer in production. GT was able to purchased enough original GE plate material for many years of production. This special multi layered alloy formula appears a soft dull gray after heat processing and give this tube it's soft, warm tone...as well as contributing to it's superior power performance. While currently, some of the processing is located "off site" and will continue there until all processing clearances can be arranged for the San Fernando factory, eventually plans are to do all processing under the GT roof.
However, the internal content is now more than 90% USA origin (Incidentally, this content ratio is similar to to the original content of the GE tube as GE also used off site processing). It has been almost 4 years of hard work and significant financial investment in tooling and setup to be able to release the final product, but the wait was worth it.
I had heard that GT was actually producing a 12AX7 in California. Apparently, they have been making a copy of a GE 6L6 and GE 6CA7 as well. This article is dated 1998. A lot can happen since then. I do know one thing, these tubes are available from GT regardless of where they are being made.
Very interesting.
I do not own everything I post pictures of ... But the majority of the tubes I post I own !!!
Hell Yeah Marty!!!!!
Happy B-Day! I wish that girl was there so you could lick the frosting off hehe!
My cyber drink is Crown Royal...straight of course.
In reality I'm having a nice tall glass of milk!
Let the partying continue with Gusto!
I got to crank my Marshall earlier. My salute to 2000 and your B-day!
Now if I could just get us some naughty girls...
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dh9IJMM1r8g[/ame]
Happy B-Day! I wish that girl was there so you could lick the frosting off hehe!
My cyber drink is Crown Royal...straight of course.
In reality I'm having a nice tall glass of milk!
Let the partying continue with Gusto!
I got to crank my Marshall earlier. My salute to 2000 and your B-day!
Now if I could just get us some naughty girls...
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dh9IJMM1r8g[/ame]
I wanna lick the icing!
I'll lift a cold one in your direction. I'm making jambalaya and sipping on a New Belgium 1554. Crawfish and beer - it's like they were made for each other.
About the GTGE, I think they stopped making them in 2003 when they started working on the XF2 reissue. I could be wrong.
I'll lift a cold one in your direction. I'm making jambalaya and sipping on a New Belgium 1554. Crawfish and beer - it's like they were made for each other.
About the GTGE, I think they stopped making them in 2003 when they started working on the XF2 reissue. I could be wrong.
The Telefunken should be in tomorrow's mail.
ken361
Well-Known Member
happy b-day! man
MartyStrat54
Well-Known Member
Thanks RATT, thanks KEN. I keep getting older, but I still do stupid things. Go figure.
MartyStrat54
Well-Known Member
I haven't really ever followed GT. I just didn't like their marketing approach. If they had GE equipment and all the necessary vendors, why did they stop making their 6L6GE and 6CA7GE? That's dumb. Work on those two until you get it right. However, they jump off in another direction and think they are going to duplicate an xf2. That'll be the day.
Marty reaches over to the table and takes a shot of Wild Turkey with a water chaser.
MartyStrat54
Well-Known Member
Aren't you a little far north for the cajun cooking? I mean Arkansas does it, but Tennessee? The thing that grosses a lot of people out is the cooked poop in the tails. It looks like mustard and gets all over your mouth. Hmmm! Crayfish poop...mighty tasty. Oh and for you people getting ill, we have steak on the grill.
MartyStrat54
Well-Known Member
Did you like your dancing girls up above?
MartyStrat54
Well-Known Member
Yeah that saved me from having to drive over to St. Joe (I'll do that tomorrow when I really party down. Might even go to one of the hot blues bars in KC and hang.
Yeah I just pour me a drink and hit the play button on the video and I feel like I in Phoenix at the Cheetah Men's Club.
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