Which 6v6 ?

bandmaster188

Yawn! Sorry, another which valve question
Need a new pair of 6v6’s for my Columbia reverb. Currently running Phillips 6l6wgb’s but I’ve put a greenback speaker back into it so want to go back to 6v6 to bring the wattage down. 

I was probably looking at either the jj’s or tungsol but have read that the jj’s don’t really sound like a traditional 6v6. 

Jj’s being the cheapest out there is quite appealing, but anything else I should be looking at and has anyone compared jj’s to other types?
cheers!

springhead

I've tried a few vintage pairs in my 5E3 deluxe and a new pair of Tung Sols. The Tung Sols are good. some of the vintage ones sounded a little better possibly but reliability, noise, microphonics etc. were an issue with some of them.  I haven't tried the JJ's.

noisepolluter

I replaced the stock groove tubes 6v6s in my Princeton with JJ 6V6S’s when one of the groove tubes crapped out shortly after buying the amp. 

I dropped the JJs straight in without rebiasing (this being the depths of 2020 lockdown) and they’ve been trouble free ever since. I noticed they sounded slightly ‘bigger’ than the stock 6v6’s - slightly extended treble and bass. 

bandmaster188

Cheers for the reply’s
the cheapskate in me is saying go jj.

slowpilgrim

Tungsols will get you more breakup and sound a bit creamier, JJ’s get you more headroom, clarity and detail in my experience. Prefer the JJs.

jellybelly

JJ for max clean headroom and reliability for 6V6s. More than once heard them described as a 'little 6L6'. Not the choice if you're after creamy 6v6 overdrive, it just stays clean in pretty much all situations.

I thought the EH ones were pretty good, probably made in the same factory as Tung Sols and a bunch of others (New Sensor). I had a tung sol in an old VHT Special 6, was sweet and rounded. Id probably go for one of them. 

maw4neu

My experience of JJ's in general is that they are nearly always great . . . . . .  apart from a bastard rogue 12AY7 pre amp tube that I recently bought . . . 1 minute in my Champ Clone and it just went all ZERO output . . .  

MrTee

I had a microphonic/rattly JJ 6V6 in a new vibro champ reverb I bought. It was replaced under warranty with a T.A.D 6v6 (which I think stands for 'the amp doctor'). I much prefer it, despite the obvious

bandmaster188

Thanks for the input all. Leaning more towards tung sol now for the more traditional 6v6 sound. The amp doesn’t really suffer from lack of headroom so don’t really need that benefit the jj’s offer although the reliability is a big plus.
Hope the tung sols are similarly well made.