The 6550 Experience

[Xplorer]

some 813s from Dave, side to side with some 6550

http://i.imgur.com/8wBzhi2.jpg

[bill bokey]

[daveweyer]

I built a big amp in Hollywood using two 813 power tubes. You can get 500 to 750 watts per pair, but you need 2000 plate volts!!
Thought the 6550 looked a little shrimpy beside it.........Pretty cool though.

[Xplorer]

for the history in the quest, from Dave, the 6550 sent to Bill to experiment.

please Bill ! among various fuzz, maybe test with a Dunlop blue fuzz, it's in the ball park.

and try a Voodoo vibe too ! are you in Paris ?

http://i.imgur.com/pLhwPTM.jpg

[daveweyer]

Okay Bill,
There are the tubes that are coming to you. You can see the JH on one. All the tubes are from 1970 and 71, except I sent you an original Tung Sol from 1961!
Maybe for Christmas???

[frenchie]

for the history in the quest, from Dave, the 6550 sent to Bill to experiment.

please Bill ! among various fuzz, maybe test with a Dunlop blue fuzz, it's in the ball park.

and try a Voodoo vibe too ! are you in Paris ?

http://i.imgur.com/pLhwPTM.jpg

wow indeed the micalex brown bases are FAR larger than the 8 pin socket on an amp ( never had 6550 in my hands ) ....No wonder there's such a difference in width between EL34 and 6550 !

[theactor19]

Yep there are a few on my soundcloud : https://soundcloud.com/castle-made-of-s ... -superlead

Nice clips and playing! Though I feel like it is missing some of the hendrix sound. It sounds quite bright and the dirty sounds a little ear piecing. Perhaps you were using an attenuator? There's always a completely different sound when the amp is cranked without attenuation.

[bill bokey]

No, the amp is cranked and there is no attenuation but it's a 73 Superlead so the OT isn't as good as a C1998 and it's not been recorded to tape

This should explain why it's brighter. I'll try again with a different amp (with a better OT) when Dave's valves arrive

[bill bokey]

for the history in the quest, from Dave, the 6550 sent to Bill to experiment.

please Bill ! among various fuzz, maybe test with a Dunlop blue fuzz, it's in the ball park.

and try a Voodoo vibe too ! are you in Paris ?

http://i.imgur.com/pLhwPTM.jpg

I don't have fuzz face, maybe I could build one, got a schematic ?

I don't have a univibe either and am quite a long way away from Paris...

[yladrd61]

Tazin thanks.
I can sympathize with Jim Marshall on the EL34 thing. It's hard to find a sweeter sounding tube. If I had a room full of Marshalls, I would definitely have one especially dedicated to to EL34 sound.
That said, for the more percussive and attack oriented sound, I would also have a 6550 amp.
I would hate to think it had to be one or the other.
I think the message that's coming out of this forum is that whatever tube you use, it has to be a decent one that excels at its job. And it does seem the earlier NOS American and British models had a lot happening in that regard.

You might want to have a look at the TAD 6550A STR tubes, they look a lot like the old GE 6550A .... I have them in my 1980 2203, it sounds like a big fender, now these guys a making me want to try a few of the mods you did on Jimi's amps... I think it was your work on Jimi's Amps that got Marshall to put the 6550's in there ...

[yladrd61]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/TAD-6550A-STR-C ... 41868a6051

These are the TAD 6550A STR if anyone is interested

[bill bokey]

I don't trust TAD....

[daveweyer]

Well, Bill Bokey and Xplorer, your Christmas packages are on the way.
Bill, you will be getting (6) Tung Sol made 6550s, one of which was Jimi's. (the ones in the photo)
Xplorer, you will be getting (2) 12AT7s old American stock, and (6) 100uf@400 volt capacitors. The packages will be coming Fedex.
I guess they don't like hauling packages to France, because when they rang it up the cost was $314.00 for the two packages! I about shit my pants.......
But we must carry on in the quest for the ultimate Jimi tone, right?

Merry Christmas boys........

[Xplorer]

Thank you so much Santa !!!!!!!!!!!!
let me know how much it was for the tube and caps and shipping, and we'll arrange something, it'd be normal to at least participate.

very cool !

did you use UPS ? UPS is very expensive . Edit : alright, this is Fedex , same category as UPS.
USPS has a decent price. more like 80 $ to receive a heavy echoplex from the usa, insured.
Under 100 euros of declared value there are no custom charges.
some Jimi Hendrix tube .... priceless. i'd understand if you'd prefer a highly trustable shipping company, anyway from my experience, USPS has always been right.
Anyway , any company : you'd better protect your packages a lot because it isn't handled by humans, rather machines, and humans are failable too.

Today i had the big surprise to see that my mailbox had been teared appart ! ha ha, the mailman from a special delivery system from a shop brand ( FNAC ) had simply forced the best he could , to make a dvd pack to enter in it !!!
my mailbox is ruined ! the chritmas dvd gift for my father too ( "winter sleep" ) thanks ....
....." and about 3 feet aside you can see a wild special big volume mailbox drinking into the river" ....


i've put a letter taped on what's left of the mailbox, adressed to the delivery guy, since the package has to be redelivered since he ruined it too .... and it has big words on it ...

but don't worry, this isn't the standard post office service , this was a special company from this brand.

[yladrd61]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/TAD-6550A-STR-C ... 41868a6051

These are the TAD 6550A STR if anyone is interested

I have used TAD tubes in many amps with no issues, they are usually very closely matched and bias doesn't drift...