Topic on tubes

[Doc Holliday]

I fancied some mazdas actually but they were real pricey!

[waveclipper]

Lol! I'm an opportunistic bottom feeder and have spent waaaay to much time watching ebay auctions.
Different brands seem to come up in waves, it's feast or famine of certain types from what I can see but there's often really nice stuff that goes under the radar, but it necessitates constant surveillance .
I measure tubes in circuit and pair them off according to their current draw but perfect matching isn't an absolute necessity - a small amount of mismatch can sound great without humming imo.

The Mazdas have an excellent reputation but never seem to go for cheap so I haven't tried them, or the Bendix for that matter

[Radiotron]

Yeah, I agree 70 is too much.

I prefer buying NOS myself. When I do buy used tubes I only buy from reputable dealers.

From experience I know that when someone says a tube is ‘tested’ that usually only means they put it in an amp and the heaters light up.
When you confront them with the fact that they sold you duds, they claim not to know anything about tubes, though before the sale they could tell you exactly why that one tube was a produced at the Blackburn plant

Even when the claim it test as ‘new’ on their tubetester that means squat when its tested a 60 year old machine that hasn’t been calibrated since the day it left the factory.

[Doc Holliday]

Compleatly agree. Think I'll hang on to these Tungsols until I spot a good deal. The Mazda were £100 for matched pair

[Radiotron]

Btw, which of the Gibson's do you like best?
I’m looking to build a small push-pull 6V6 amp, I’m leaning towards a 5F10 but any suggestions are most welcome.

[Dr Tony Balls]

Btw, which of the Gibson's do you like best?
I’m looking to build a small push-pull 6V6 amp, I’m leaning towards a 5F10 but any suggestions are most welcome.

The tight thing there is you can stick with your classic 6V6 amps, but 6V6s also do a good, midrangey EL34 impression and that opens the door for smaller versions of bigger English-y amps. You can make yourself a proper 15-20 watt Orange, Hiwatt, Marshall, Matamp, etc. I kinda did.

[Doc Holliday]

Btw, which of the Gibson's do you like best?
I’m looking to build a small push-pull 6V6 amp, I’m leaning towards a 5F10 but any suggestions are most welcome.

I think Gibsons flagship amp was the GA-40. Taller cabinet and I think by the end of the 50's was upgraded to a P12P over the Q. 5879 preamp tubes too!
I only have 3 Gibsons . Les Paul Jr (Ga-5) , GA-6 which has the same transformer as the GA-20 and my other one is the GA20T. I like the GA-20T personally. I love tremolo and I like that it's got the best of the GA-6 with the first tube being a 12AY7 and its second channel tube is a 5879 like the GA-40. I know the circuitry differs from each but I like the variation it has.

[Radiotron]

Btw, which of the Gibson's do you like best?
I’m looking to build a small push-pull 6V6 amp, I’m leaning towards a 5F10 but any suggestions are most welcome.

The tight thing there is you can stick with your classic 6V6 amps, but 6V6s also do a good, midrangey EL34 impression and that opens the door for smaller versions of bigger English-y amps. You can make yourself a proper 15-20 watt Orange, Hiwatt, Marshall, Matamp, etc. I kinda did.

Looks great Tony! I think I’ll do something like that next time. What circuit do you have in there?
Thing is, is just did the Matamp thing and besides the 5E3 and a tweed pro I never built any tweeds, so I’d like to try some more of the classic circuits.

[Radiotron]

Thanks for the info Doc!
The GA-20T sounds like a great little amp, I’ll add that one to the list.

[Dr Tony Balls]

Btw, which of the Gibson's do you like best?
I’m looking to build a small push-pull 6V6 amp, I’m leaning towards a 5F10 but any suggestions are most welcome.

The tight thing there is you can stick with your classic 6V6 amps, but 6V6s also do a good, midrangey EL34 impression and that opens the door for smaller versions of bigger English-y amps. You can make yourself a proper 15-20 watt Orange, Hiwatt, Marshall, Matamp, etc. I kinda did.

Looks great Tony! I think I’ll do something like that next time. What circuit do you have in there?
Thing is, is just did the Matamp thing and besides the 5E3 and a tweed pro I never built any tweeds, so I’d like to try some more of the classic circuits.

Gotcha. That one's something most akin to the Carlsbro "Top" series.