Tung Sol 5881 in Blackface Bandmaster?

[Bluefinger]

Hi,

I wonder if anybody has tried these in a 6L6 Blackface amp. I really love these tubes and the decreased headroom and added warmth should be exactly what I am looking for. However they are rated up to 400 volts only. Some say they do work with higher plate voltages if biased rather cold. Some put them in their Bassmans and the Bandmaster's voltage is only 5 volts more. Would you think, they can take it?

thanks
BF

[MWJB]

NOS or Russian? Not that it matters, TS 5881 have always been used in amps with more than 400vdc on the plates, you shouldn't need to bias cold, if you have 405 vdc on the plates then you really don't have an issue, 35mA per tube will be fine.

[Bluefinger]

Hi,

Russian ...

sorry, I was not quite clear: I meant 5 volts more than the bassman which is 440! (5F6A has 435vdc)

[MWJB]

5F6As run more like 470-480vdc for an on-spec model (460v for the Victoria I just saw that came with TS5881 @ 38mA per tube, 5U4GB - customer request), up to 525vdc for a RI. 445vdc is no problem, still good for <35mA. It would serve New Sensor/Saratov/TS no purpose whatsoever to build a 5881 that only takes 400vdc, there are very few amps that you could run them in.

[Bluefinger]

ok ... great. That looked like 435 but these old schematics and layouts are hard to read ...

[MWJB]

Doesn't matter if you can read them or not, they are all wrong.

[Bluefinger]

good to know. That might explain, why I rarely get the same readings as on the layouts in most great sounding and working amps ...

[GregS]

I put Sovtek 5881's in a blackface bandmaster without any problems. The plate voltages I measured were around 460V if I remember correctly.

Greg

[MWJB]

The Sovtek 5881 will take well over 500vdc, certainly 530-540 with no problem, but they are quite different to the short bottle 5881 types, voltage & dissipation specs often well exceed NOS 5881.

[riz]

I gotta say I've been really liking the T-S 6L6STR in my '64 Super Reverb. It beat out a bunch of other stuff, including original and RI 5881, RCA blackplates, etc., in this particular amp... They're small and cute like 5881, kind of the best of both worlds sonically. Check 'em out! My wife noticed too, she was my second set of ears for the trial.