What’s New Page Archive 3

Below is page two of the archive of the Eurotubes “What’s New” page taking you all the way back to December of 2003 02/05/15  

The 2004 NAMM show was a ZOO as usual but LOTS of fun!  Carla came with me this year, some of you know her as "Mrs Bob" because she's the gal with the sexy voice who takes your orders when I'm out putzin around! Here she is cuddling up with Jerry Only from the Misfits. Joe Satriani was in fine form playing a set in the Peavey room! Joey DeFrancesco who is my B3 hero played a killer set on the third floor. There is non better! We had a spot right on the stage! OK, the latest news from Jamona at JJ Electronic is that they are not resting after introducing their new JJ 6V6, they are hard at work building a brand new ECC83 which will be a complete departure from past designs as it will be a long plate tube! Before you send that email asking what it's modeled after, I'm sworn to secrecy about anymore of the details! This will not replace the ECC83S but will be in addition to it! The release date for the new Long Plate ECC83 is scheduled for July 04.  Now I spent some time trying to get a commitment from Jamona for a real KT66 and he is on the verge of saying yes. He says he could build one in a fairly short amount of time if he were to use a 6L6 bottle but it would take a while longer and be a little more expensive to build the larger curved bottle. So here is the question and I'm looking for your feedback on this. Would you all prefer the larger bottle if the performance of the tube was exactly the same?  Email me and let me know what you think! JJ is also building a new Hifi amp which should be great for you players who want to get into a real high quality tube Hifi rig for less than a grand. It will be somewhat like the JJ 828 but it will run a quad of JJ 6L6GC's for power and will have it's own integrated tube preamp built in!

Here is the first custoner review I have received on the new JJ 6V6! Thanks Dennis ----- Original Message -----From: DENNIS MISHLER To: eurotubes@cnnw.net Sent: Monday, December 08, 2003 7:53 PM Subject: 6V6 Arrival Hey Bob! I went to the post today and was pleasantly surprised to find a package with the new 6V6's and the GZ34. Hell, I didn't even know you received them yet! Great price and service as usual! I installed them into my DRRI immediately. The bias changed from about 22mA to about 14mA, so I rebiased back to 22mA. I've only had the amp for a month and it came with Electro Harmonix 6V6's and a Chinese rectifier...thus the order for JJ's. I have only the EH's to compare the JJ's with, unlike your mega test of the NOS stuff. All I know is that there was an immediate and VERY noticeable change in tone. The amp became less harsh, the bottom is tight, thumpy and clear and the highs sparkle, dance and swirl. The mids are felt and not heard. Very nice 6V6 indeed! Very nice match for the DRRI especially with a JBL K120! Thanks for convincing the company to mfg these! You got yourself a winner here. Thanks for the service also. Talk @ you later, have a great holiday season! Dennis in Nevada

My apologies to all of you who tried to reach me Saturday 12/05/03 but I couldn't stand it any longer! I had to take the time to roll a bunch of 6V6's so here are the results. The test amp was a 1959 Deluxe recently overhauled by my good friend and tech Doug Howerton of Howertone amps. It's a beauty with a 1961 P12N.  We used an American Strat with Van Zant pups. The plate voltage on the amp was right at 350 to 360 depending on the tubes. Check out the pics! During the evaluation I wrote my thoughts and impressions down and then Doug gave his verbal review followed by my written review, we were both pretty amazed at how close we came to each other. Here are the results! Brimar 6V6's:  Good clean with a very linear sound. Definition was nice and when driven hard they stayed pretty even and smooth. The breakup was slightly edgy but nice. Tung-Sol 6V6's: A full clean tone with a little more low end than the Brimar's with a little more aggressive breakup that was a bit bright and slightly edgy. RCA Black plate 6V6's:  Very sweet and full played clean with a great upper mid and high end. When driven hard these tubes stayed focused and even without getting edgy. Sylvania 6V6's: Nice high end chime with a deeper low and a little smoother breakup than the RCA which was a surprise to both Doug and myself, so far this was our 6V6 of choice. It seemed to have a better dynamic response than the others. EH 6V6's:  These had an overall cold sound to them that was bland and harsh. When driven hard the had a very splatty breakup that was not pleasing to the ear. We later revisited these tubes along with a few others and our opinions both stayed the same. Raytheon 6V6's: A little shallow on the low end but not in a bad way, still pretty full sounding but when driven hard these were the big surprise of the day. These tubes had a VERY aggressive and focused breakup that was harmonically rich, they  just simply sang. Very ballsey! This was the clear winner in the distortion department. Hytron 6V6's: These had a laid back sound that was mellow and sweet. These were the least aggressive in the bunch, they had a pretty focused breakup but nothing like the Raytheon. Kenrad 6V6's:  Big low end but not boomy, very full when played clean but the breakup was very edgy, not splatty like the EH but pretty hairy. A great Surf tube! JJ Electronic 6V6's: We tried these early on in the day just because we could not stand the suspense any longer and we were both delighted at the sound. After we rolled all the other tubes again we went back for a long listen. These clearly had the deepest low end extension of any of the 6V6's we tried including the Kenrad's but once again it was not boomy, just deep. The mids were very nice with good harmonic content and nice dynamic response much like the Sylvania's. The high end didn't have quite the chime that the Sylvania's had but it was close, the JJ's were more like the RCA's in the high end. When driven hard the JJ's stayed very full and were big and ballsey with a little edge but still smooth and focused. The JJ's did not surpass or equal the Raytheon 6V6's for distortion but they were on a par with the Sylvania 6V6's which delighted both of us and we both liked the Sylvania's and the JJ's better than the RCA's which was more than either of us expected. The bottom line is that FINALLY we have a good 6V6 that rivals the NOS tubes... I would say that the five years I have spent pestering Jamona at JJ Electronic for a good 6V6 have paid off!!

12/04/03  OK here they are!!! I just received the first JJ 6V6's to hit American soil!  It's about 7pm 12/4/03 and I just returned from customs with a skid of tubes and the first JJ 6V6's. This is a pic of the first quad to hit my matcher and they were within 1mA of each other after burning for about 30 minuets! I just ran a pair in a Deluxe for the last few minuets and my first impression is that they are somewhere between my silver top Sylvania's and my gray glass RCA's. Nice attack and pretty ballsey. I will of course know more after I take time to roll them with everything. Now the bad news is that I could only get a limited number of them and as my regular customers know these are ALL SOLD!! So if you want to be on my rapidly growing back order list send me an email. I should be able to get more in the next month or two as production increases.