Members freehandarson Posted March 29, 2009 Members Share Posted March 29, 2009 Since 12ax7's and ECC83's are apparently drop in substitutes for one another (please correct me if i'm wrong though). What's the difference between the two? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members the_bleeding Posted March 29, 2009 Members Share Posted March 29, 2009 there is no difference. different names for the exact same thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members charveldan Posted March 29, 2009 Members Share Posted March 29, 2009 ECC is a european designation, hence Marshall, from England came with ECC-83 pre-amp tubes, while Fender [american] came with 12AX7's, same tube, different designation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BluesMan60 Posted March 29, 2009 Members Share Posted March 29, 2009 came with 12AX7's, same tube, different designation. What he said. Mike K www.kcanostubes.com KCA NOS and NEW Production Tubes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jeid2000 Posted March 29, 2009 Members Share Posted March 29, 2009 Is that the same with 6L6's and 5881's? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Rampage Posted March 29, 2009 Members Share Posted March 29, 2009 Is that the same with 6L6's and 5881's? I may be wrong, however I believe it is the wattage of the tube that is different. 5881s are 23 whereas 6L6s are 30. Nothing to do with the countries of origin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jeid2000 Posted March 29, 2009 Members Share Posted March 29, 2009 Daaaayum. I thought I could interchange them. I'll look into that! I may end up changing to EL34's anyway Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members the_bleeding Posted March 29, 2009 Members Share Posted March 29, 2009 Daaaayum. I thought I could interchange them.I'll look into that! I may end up changing to EL34's anyway you can interchange them. They're pretty much identical to each other. They just have slightly different values here and there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members hecticone Posted March 29, 2009 Members Share Posted March 29, 2009 The differences between 5881 and 6L6-G/GA/GB werelikely marketing and different interpretations of how tube ratingsshould be arrived at. As far as being a truly substantial difference,as far as enduser were concerned, for practical purposes therewould have been little or none at all.Same goes for 1614...I've seen a number of RCA 1614's that had"6L6" stamped in the metal. Apparently even RCA didn't considerthe differences between 6L6 and 1614 to be worth worrying about. The reasons I say this, is because (a) there were amplifier designsalmost dating back to the 6L6's introduction in 1936, that put over400V on them (b) RCA sold "6L6-GC" tubes that appeared not tohave the special plate (anode) material that the GE 6L6-GC had.Essentially, they were 6L6-GB's. Changing a label doesnot, of course, change the internal parts, and shouldn't change theratings, either. But they were issued as 6L6-GC with thepurchasers assuming that they had 6L6-GC ratings.Even stranger, RCA also issued the original 7027about the same time, which had ratings of 450V Va maxand 25W Pa max. And internally they sure look alot like a 6L6-GB...Golly, they test about the same, too.(note I'm not talking about 7027A, which was re-ratedusing the design-maximum system)In effect, RCA was saying that you *could* have run the old6L6/G/GA/GB at much higher Pa and Va than the ratings RCAoriginally issued for those tubes...! The first 6L6 version with a substantial difference in constructionand ratings was the 6L6-GC, introduced by GE in 1961.These used a new type of 5-ply composite anode (plate)material that substantially improved heat dissipationcapacity. GE rated them at 30W Pa, 500V Va max. To throw a monkey wrench in the whole tube ratings game,tube manufacturers issued 6L6-WGB and 5881 later, whichapparently used the same 5-ply plate material as a 6L6-GC.Thus you really just have a 6L6-GC with a smaller bulb.Then there's Russian 5881, which aren't quite the sameas the late model US ones, and seem to get their "5881"moniker mainly due to having a similar bulb size as theUS 5881.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jeid2000 Posted March 29, 2009 Members Share Posted March 29, 2009 So... I can use 6L6's in place of 5881's? That was TLTR... A yes or no would've been fine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members brian_ward Posted March 29, 2009 Members Share Posted March 29, 2009 what can i put in place of 6l6-gc's? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BluesMan60 Posted March 29, 2009 Members Share Posted March 29, 2009 you can interchange them. They're pretty much identical to each other. They just have slightly different values here and there. Not always. However, note that the Russian 5881s (Sovteks for example) aren't REAL 5881s (like the ones made in the USA 50 years ago which set the standard). Russian 5881s can handle the same plate voltages as 6L6GCs. As above, the suffix after 6L6 is crucial to the discussion but most modern 6L6s ARE 6L6GCs. Mike K KCA NOS Tubes www.kcanostubes.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BluesMan60 Posted March 29, 2009 Members Share Posted March 29, 2009 So... I can use 6L6's in place of 5881's? That was TLTR... A yes or no would've been fine Yes, but the opposite isn't always true. Mike K KCA NOS Tubes www.kcanostubes.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members hecticone Posted March 29, 2009 Members Share Posted March 29, 2009 Sorry for the long read. And Mike hit it right on the button. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jeid2000 Posted March 30, 2009 Members Share Posted March 30, 2009 Thanks. I'll read it tomorrow... it's getting late over here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members freehandarson Posted March 30, 2009 Author Members Share Posted March 30, 2009 Thanks for the info guys! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members charveldan Posted March 30, 2009 Members Share Posted March 30, 2009 What does ANOS mean for used tubes??? I know NOS means new old stock. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members hecticone Posted March 30, 2009 Members Share Posted March 30, 2009 Lightly used tested as new. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members brian_ward Posted March 30, 2009 Members Share Posted March 30, 2009 is there a difference between 12ax7a and 12ax7wa? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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