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Howdy folks,
Well winter is always tight for me and since I don't play bass I decided to sell the 1969 Ampeg B-15N that I restored a couple of years ago. I used great quality Sylvania 6L6GC - 387STR outputs that I "pulled" from a Peavey Deuce - the owner wanted new tubes despite my protests, partially because two of them had the locating key broken off.
But when I fired the amp up recently the output tubes were dead (see companion post). Hmmm, well I did have the other two STRs so I pried the metal locking tabs off the bases of a couple of rusty metal OZ4s that I'll never use (these are really interesting inside but you have to unsolder pin 1 which is connected to the shell to get the base off easily). After unsoldering the other "guts" I used a drill to chew off the tops of the pins and after "thinning" the base a little I slipped it over the STRs with the broken keys. Now just to make sure that I had good pin contact I both retensioned the socket contacts on the tight side and slightly thickened the STR pins with a thin coat of solder. At first I was afraid that I might need to add some sort of retainer as the tubes are upside when the top is "flipped" but the STRs were gripped more tightly than the 6SL7 preamps tubes.
Just a little tip for restoring those Type I Mullard EL34s with the broken key that you're afraid to plug in.
Rob
Well winter is always tight for me and since I don't play bass I decided to sell the 1969 Ampeg B-15N that I restored a couple of years ago. I used great quality Sylvania 6L6GC - 387STR outputs that I "pulled" from a Peavey Deuce - the owner wanted new tubes despite my protests, partially because two of them had the locating key broken off.
But when I fired the amp up recently the output tubes were dead (see companion post). Hmmm, well I did have the other two STRs so I pried the metal locking tabs off the bases of a couple of rusty metal OZ4s that I'll never use (these are really interesting inside but you have to unsolder pin 1 which is connected to the shell to get the base off easily). After unsoldering the other "guts" I used a drill to chew off the tops of the pins and after "thinning" the base a little I slipped it over the STRs with the broken keys. Now just to make sure that I had good pin contact I both retensioned the socket contacts on the tight side and slightly thickened the STR pins with a thin coat of solder. At first I was afraid that I might need to add some sort of retainer as the tubes are upside when the top is "flipped" but the STRs were gripped more tightly than the 6SL7 preamps tubes.
Just a little tip for restoring those Type I Mullard EL34s with the broken key that you're afraid to plug in.
Rob
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