RCA Blackplate 6L6GC's (Silvertone branded)

[trevorus]

These were pulled working from a Silvertone 1483 amp.

Hows about 80 + shipping to the 48 states?

I have good feedback on eBay under trevis550, and I have a few other forums which I have done numerous transactions on.

you can PM me or e-mail me at trevorus305@gmail.com

[JJGross]

Hey Trev how's it going? You got a Moreley Volume Wah from me on TFF.

Have you tested these on a tube tester?

Cheers,
- JJ

[trevorus]

No. Don't have a tube tester. I did test them in my old HR Deville, and they were on the upper side of current draw, but proper biasing can easily bring them into proper dissipation range. They were not microphonic. I no longer have the Deville, so these are going. I may be able to get the Silvertone working again, but I need money first.

[JJGross]

Just found out one of my dogs needs a tooth pulled so there goes my 'toy fund' for a while.

Cheers,
- JJ

[trevorus]

I'm keeping these for now...

[bob p]

i found a pair just like that when i liberated my Twin Twelve from 30 years of confinement on a shelf in a boiler room. it had all the OEM tubes. i was so excited about the RCA blackplates! the only problem is that they didn't last long. one of them went gassy and started flashing blue. then it started popping intermittently. i pulled it out right away before it took the rest of the amp with it. now I've got one blackplate in there with an OEM fender from the same period. that's sort of a period-correct repair.

moral of the story: the old blackplates weren't as good as i thought they were.

[TD_Madden]

or it was ready to go anyway...or had been dropped, etc.

The REAL question is: How does it SOUND?

[bob p]

how does it sound? well, the one that was popping in and out didn't sound good at all!

as it turns out, my Silvertone was put on a shelf in a boiler room 30+ years ago because one of the volume controls had become loose. the nut on the pot's shaft had become loose enough that the contact ground between the pot and the chassis became intermittent, so the amp made some awful noises whenever the pot was touched! that's why the amp was shelved.

when got the amp home, i pulled the tubes and reformed the caps in-situ. then i replaced the tubes and powered it up, and to my amazement it worked! the only problem was the loose volume control. all that i needed to do to fix the amp was to tighten it down!

the Blackplates lasted for maybe 20 hours or so before one went gassy, and maybe another 20 before it started popping. then i pulled it. looking at the amp I can't see that it was ever dropped, abused, or mishandled. after clearing off 30+ years of dust, it looks like its in near mint condition. >> Link << Its hard to pin down exactly why the tube failed. i didn't worry too much about that. old tubes just go bad sometimes.

[bob p]

more seriously on the subject of how the blackplates sounded when they were working: i can't really say. although i did put them into a Fender circuit for function testing, i did not use them outside of the Twin Twelve for any extended period of time. the Twin Twelve circuit has that tiny little OT that saturates so quickly. the treble rolloff on the amp is so marked that its not really a good test platform for evaluating the distorted tone of the blackplates -- the harmonic content just gets rolled off. When I put other 6L6 in the Twin Twelve (Mesa STR 6L6) I have to admit that they sounded pretty much the same in that amp.

In some respects, a Silvertone owner who isn't interested in maintaining a museum piece might be better off using those blackplates elsewhere, and putting new production tubes in the silvertone.

[TD_Madden]

Yeah, I bought a '66 AC50 on eBay that had a couple "Silvertone" 12AX7s (made in Holland...maybe Telefunken?) in it.

I've tried them in other amps and they still sound "tired"........now JJs are in that amp, as well as a mix of that brand and the new TungSol 12AX7s in my other amps.