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..............in amps that are capable of running both with a flip of a switch such as Mesas. I am curious about the distinct characteristics and tone generalizations that can be made of both. I am most interested in what is said about 34s since I have traditionally been a 6L6 Fender lover.


Originally Posted by B Bent..............in amps that are capable of running both with a flip of a switch such as Mesas. I am curious about the distinct characteristics and tone generalizations that can be made of both. I am most interested in what is said about 34s since I have traditionally been a 6L6 Fender lover.

The 6L6 keeps more headroom and to me,has a rounder fuller and warmer tone...I Like 6L6s for my clean tones and it creates the quot;American amp tone wellquot;

The EL34 gives up it's headroom quicker and compresses very nicely when pushed and snarls or honks in the mids when pushed...It seems as though these tubes tend to bring the mids out a bit more also,but I think I'm talking about what I hear in a Marshall amp?

The EL34 is the quot;british sounding tubequot; and it too is capable of nice clean tone.

I agree with what STRATDELUXER97 posted above.

If i may add.. 6L6s are usually richer with Lows/Lowmids type tone. so with overdrive, your getting a pretty nice chug.

EL34s are richer in the mids/high mids and like STRATDELUXER97, they tend to overdrive/breakup faster then 6L6s, which gives the tone a bit more of a quot;fatterquot; tone.

The only thing is EL34s lack in the lowend and the lowend on them isnt anywhere near as tight as it is on the 6L6s. So, the solution for that is the E34Ls tube (made by JJ tubes). It has a very similar tonal characteristics to quot;standardquot; EL34 but these ones have more lowend, its much much tighter and the overall tone is a bit more aggressive. They work excellent for both highgain and cleans.hope that helps!

I was quite amazed when I popped a set of EL34s in my Nomad last night. Definitely quicker breakup and almost reminded me of some spongy Class A(ish) clean/dirty tone.

I think the best example amp to try this on is the JTM45. With 6L6's it's pretty much a 59 Bassman circuit. Pop EL34's in it and hear the Brittish tone. Pop KT66's in there and quot;CLapton is GoD!quot;

El34 = Grrrrrrrr!

6l6 = Thhhummp!