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Re: Groove Tubes 6L6 "GE"

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FlatRacer
Posted on Monday, February 16, 2004 - 08:56 pm:   

Hi. First off, let me say this is an awesome site. I just stumbled across it tonight. Now I feel less like the odd duck lost in a sea of Fenders and Marshalls!
I have a love/hate relationship with my RD100 head. When it's working right with the right tubs in it, it kicks some major ass, but when it acts up, it's a real pain. Anyway, I think my amp tech and I have it behaving again (new caps and a couple new chips), but I'm dubious about the tubes that are in it.
Right now it has a pair of Svetlana 6L6s that sound good, but aren't the best that have ever been in there. I remember a set of old Sylvanias that made that amp really come alive.
I recently bought a set of the new Groove Tubes 6L6 GE (Grove tubes bought the tooling from GE to manufacture the tubes, and they're supposed to be the best available, and they're priced accordingly), but I never got a chance to compare them because one of them was bad. The good news is I was able to return them for a refund, the bad news is they had no more in stock.
My question is this: Does anyone have an experienced opinion on these tubes? Are they worth the $75 a pair that they're getting for them?

Eric
Langley
Posted on Tuesday, February 17, 2004 - 06:48 am:   

As with any 'new' product line, I'd wait a year till they get the 'bugs out', and allow ample time for their labor force to become experienced. At $75 a clip, none of us should
have to finance GT's education.

michael kaus
Posted on Thursday, February 19, 2004 - 05:06 am:   

I'd try the JJ's 6l6's. I have them in my Twin-yes I own one of those too. They sound really good and seem to last pretty good. Try Bob at Eurotubes-cool guy and ships fast. MIke.
FlatRacer
Posted on Friday, February 27, 2004 - 02:19 pm:   

My amp tech, John, put a set of JJ 6L6s (he called them "Teslas")in and after one rehearsal I can report that I'm much happier with these than I was with the Svetlanas.
I'm doing a gig tomorrow night, so I'll let you all know in a couple days what I really think of their performance in the heat of battle.
It's SOOO nice to have my amp back!

Eric
Steve Kennedy
Posted on Thursday, March 04, 2004 - 01:37 pm:   

This former-Yugoslavia vacuum tube manufacturer has gone by several names and is quite commonly called JJ/Tesla by many people today.

I think their current name is JJ, while they USED to be known as simply "Tesla" (or Tesla is/was their brand name, I am not 100% sure of the history).

JJ/Tesla is highly regarded for the quality of their tubes, although microphonic preamp tubes might have been a problem in the past from what I recall.

Steve

FlatRacer
Posted on Tuesday, March 16, 2004 - 06:18 pm:   

Well. I've done a couple gigs now, and I have to say that the JJ/Tesla tubes are as good as any Groove Tubes that have ever been in there. Perhaps not as good as the one matched pair of Sylvanias that stick in my memory, (but maybe I remember the Sylvanias so fondly because of the improvement over what they had replaced).
It's such a subjective topic, and memories can be so fallible.
I have to give two thumbs up to the Teslas, and thumbs down to the Svetlanas.

Eric
Spot Mandoo (spot)
Username: spot

Registered: 10-2007
Posted on Friday, November 13, 2009 - 07:52 am:   

I'm using 4 Groove Tubes in mine and they sound great.