Fender Blues Deville Reissue switching problem

[The Dude]

That should be plenty of swing to get bias in range. Have you tried a different set of tubes?

[nonost]

God I thought I had told the news. It turns out the amp wasn't using 6l6 tubes but 5581 instead. Pretty funny stuff. A pair of 6l6gc are on the way, I will let you now how it goes in a few days. I'm pretty sure it's going to be fine.

Cheers!

[Helmholtz]

God I thought I had told the news. It turns out the amp wasn't using 6l6 tubes but 5581 instead. Pretty funny stuff. A pair of 6l6gc are on the way, I will let you now how it goes in a few days. I'm pretty sure it's going to be fine.

Cheers!

The 5581 is a gas phototube, not an amplifying tube. Wouldn't work at all in an amp.
You amp probably has 5881s which are essentially equivalent to 6L6s.

[nonost]

Yeah, I obviously meant 5881 and not 5581. And I say "obviously" because I stated that the amp was sounding. 5581 are 23w and 6l6gc 30w.

[Greg Robinson]

If they're Sovtek branded 5881WXT, they're not 5881's at all, but rather some Soviet era type, reportedly 6Π3C-E, which Mike Matthews labelled 5881 and started selling as 6L6GC equivalents.
They are quite robust, perhaps moreso than 6L6GC's. They should work just fine in this amp, in fact they are often shipped with such fitted (just relabelled as Groove Tubes 6L6GC, as Fender is wont to do).

[g1]

Whichever brand 5881 they were, it seems they were barely conducting. Trying something else in there should tell you whether you had a tube problem or if there is something else wrong with the circuit.
If it turns out to be the tubes, it is most likely the low current was not because they were 5881, but because they were worn out.