Mook's Taste Tests for 6V6EH
Thanks to Kevin Miller aka "Mook" for doing the testing and sharing the results with us in alt.guitar.amps . These take a lot of time and effort, and since he buys almost all the tubes, they aren't cheap, either!Introduction:
First off, I'd like to thank Lord Valve (email: LORD_VALVE@prodigy.net) for supplying, for test purposes, the set of 6V6EH's. Before shipment, Lord Valve "burned-in" these tubes for over 24 hours (from what I understand, his standard procedure) and these tubes arrived closely matched, about 2mA apart. Lord Valve told me not to hold back in my critique - that is, he said if I thought they sucked, indicate so, and vice-versa.
The point of this write-up is not to test the physical attributes of the 6V6EH, rather, this is an aural exercise only. There have been numerous reports of physical testing of the new Russian 6V6 on AGA, Ampage, and various other BBSs, all with passing grades - I refer you to DejaNews archives for those claims.
The following list of gear is for "comparative" purposes only. This is NOT meant to plug or praise certain manufacturers. The guitars were plugged straight into the amps with a 10-foot Spectraflex cord. Volume and Tone knobs on the guitars were set to full (10).
· 1955 Fender Tweed Deluxe with Weber C12Q (plate volts = 370V). I kept the Tone knob on 10 (out of 12) for the entire test.
· Reissue Blackface Fender Deluxe Reverb with Mojo 12V30 (plate volts = 360V). I kept the Treble knob on 8 and the Bass knob on 5 for the entire test. I always keep a 5Y3 rectifier in this amp to keep the voltage down.
· Stinger Texas Tornado with Weber P12Q. For those who aren't familiar with this amp, it is a higher-gain BFDR; imagine a DR that crunches up a bit more.
· Heritage Les Paul copy with Seth Lover pickups.
· Fender Strat (American) with Lindy Fralin Vintage Hots.
· Hamer GT Archtop with Seymour Duncan Custom P90s.
The Heritage Les Paul and Fender Strat were strung with D'Aquisto nickel round wound size .012-.052. The Hamer was strung with .013-.056 of the same make and manufacture.
Since the new EH is supposed to be modeled after an old RCA 6V6, I thought I'd test it against that. In addition, I thought it would be good to test it against the older Sovtek 6V6. When I tested the 6V6 tubes, I followed the same "blind" testing procedure as I did for the 6L6 tests - so, please refer to my 6L6 Taste Tests for my procedure on randomizing the tubes.
I played both guitars through each amp for every duet of 6V6s. Both amps were evaluated with the volume knob on 3.5 (clean) and 10 (distorted - or 12 in the case of the Tweed Deluxe). I played for about 10 minutes on each 6V6 duet. Hot tubes were removed with leather gloves. In the case of the Blackface-type amps, I kept my BiasProbe attached to one of the tube sockets and every time I inserted a new pair of tubes, I adjusted the bias to 27mA.
Raw Data:
BFDR R.I.:
Les Paul:
RCA - Very detailed when clean, slightly piercing on bridge position when playing single note leads. Warm and tight. When distorted, this tube was extremely tight, creamy, and lush! All pickup settings were great.
Old Sovtek - This tube was lifeless when played clean. Piercing single note runs. When played distorted, this tube crunched up a lot, but was very muddy. Chords and riffs would run together and have no separation. Not too detailed.
EH - When clean, very good balance on all pickups. Chimey, overall. A bit piercing on the bridge pickup. When maxed, these tubes provided some good Malcom Young type riffage sounds. These didn't "crunch" up as much as the other two, but still provided some good grind. Muddy on the neck positions.
Strat:
RCA - Very detailed when clean. Warm and tight. When distorted, this tube was extremely tight, creamy, and lush! All pickup settings were great. Excellent tube for Strat.
Old Sovtek - Fairly nice in all pickup positions, but seemed to have a loss of bass. When distorted, that loss of bass came in "handy", as the neck pickup provided a nice "woman" tone. The bridge pickup, when cranked was way to shrill.
EH - When clean, all positions were great - chimey and full! When distorted, again, these tubes were winners. Good raunch and grind - not as full as the RCAs, but still very good.
Hamer:
RCA - Very detailed when clean, slightly piercing on bridge position when playing single note leads. Warm and tight. When distorted, this tube was extremely tight, creamy, and lush! All pickup settings were great.
Old Sovtek - A bit better than the Les Paul but provided shrill single notes runs, especially on the bridge setting. Actually, the neck position, when clean was pretty nice. When maxed out, the bridge pickup was very nice and thick. The neck postion, however, was total mud!
EH - Excellent open and barre chords on clean settings throughout the pickup selections. When maxed, the bridge pickup provided some good lead sounds, but not too full. Decent grind. The neck pickup was a tad muddy.
1955 Tweed Deluxe:
Les Paul:
RCA - Very even when played clean. Harmonically rich and balanced when overdriven. All around great tube!
Old Sovtek - When clean, these tubes were fairly even and all around "decent", but were fairly flat and two-dimensional. When maxed, these tubes were, again, fairly decent with a middy crunch.
EH - Much more detailed and responsive than the older Sovtek. Full and crunchy when overdriven - not muddy at all.
Strat:
RCA - Very even when played clean. Harmonically rich and balanced when overdriven. All around great tube!
Old Sovtek - All around good in all pickup selections, except for the bridge, which was unpleasant and brittle. Fairly flat sounding. When overdriven, these tubes were muddy, especially on the neck pickup.
EH - A tad shrill on the bridge pickup when played clean, otherwise, very nice. When distorted, this tube stayed rather thin as it did not seem to crunch up as much as the older Sovtek. The bridge+middle was very nice and chimey when both clean and overdriven.
Hamer:
RCA - Very even when played clean. Harmonically rich and balanced when overdriven. All around great tube!
Old Sovtek - All around good in all pickup selections, except for the bridge, which was unpleasant and brittle. Fairly flat sounding. When overdriven, these tubes were very muddy, especially on the neck pickup.
EH - A tad shrill on the bridge pickup when played clean, otherwise, very nice. When distorted, this tube was fuller than with the Strat, but still did not crunch up as much as the older Sovtek. The bridge+neck was very nice and chimey when both clean and overdriven.
Stinger Texas Tornado:
Les Paul:
RCA - When clean, not as chimey as a regular BFDR. But, still nice and full. Slightly jazzy, as this amp seems to roll off a bit of highs. The overdriven sound was extremely full and creamy. No bad sounds here.
Old Sovtek - Clean sounds were very one-dimentional. Single note runs on the bridge pickup were terrible. Although not very good when clean, the distorted tones were passable. The bridge pickup was very crunchy and perhaps about the best tone this tube could give. Distorted tones on the neck pickup were mushy.
EH - The clean sounds, to my ears, were almost no different than the RCA. The distorted tones, however, were not as full as the RCA.
Strat:
RCA - All around very "Straty" when both clean and overdriven. Clean sounds were chimey and overdriven sounds were harmonic and three-dimensional.
Old Sovtek - Piercing on the bridge pickup when clean - shrill and tinny. The neck pickup was decent sounding. When distorted, this tube was very crunchy, but rather bland. The neck pickup was too muddy.
EH - All around very "Straty" when both clean and overdriven. Clean sounds were chimey and overdriven sounds were harmonic and three-dimensional.
Hamer:
RCA - Very jazzy and nice and full when clean. The overdriven sound was extremely full and creamy. No bad sounds here.
Old Sovtek - Piercing on the bridge pickup when clean - shrill and tinny. The neck pickup was decent sounding. When distorted, this tube was very crunchy, but rather bland. The neck pickup was way too muddy. This tube rather sucked for a P90 guitar.
EH - Pretty much like the Les Paul - the clean sounds, to my ears, were almost no different than the RCA. The distorted tones, however, were not as full as the RCA. But still, with P90s, this tube was rather crunchy.
Conclusions:
For each test in each amp it was very easy to pick out the "best" sounding tube (RCA). In addition, it was easy to pick out the "worst" sounding tube, as well (the older Sovtek). So, that left the EH somewhere in the middle. I had 100% success rate in identifying the tubes when "blindfolded".
I'd say "chalk-up" a winner for Sovtek. Clean sounds, overall, were nice and chimey - pretty darn decent. But, distorted tones were a bit grainey and bright - but nothing too bad that one couldn't live with (or, perhaps get used to). In terms of overall tone, this new Russian tube is much better than Sovtek's old 6V6, especially since the new one is much more balanced and has more harmonic content. On a 10 scale, where the old Sovtek is a "1" and the Blackplate RCA is a "10", I'd say this tube deserves solid 6 rating.
Personally, I'm going to still buy NOS while they are available; I think the NOS tubes offer a "creamier" top end and thicker, richer distortion qualities. Just so readers understand, my favorite NOS 6V6s are RCA, Visseaux, Mazda, Philips, and Marconi. I don't like the GE 6V6 (wafer base), so I'd probably opt for the new EH in lieu of the GEs.