Anyone had problems with tung sol reissue 6L6GC?

[Milkmansound]

I just lost a pair... Amp was distorting, then crackling, then the fuse popped. I tested the 4 tubes and 2 were bad. Only 3 months old!

Put in a spare pair of JJ's and the amp came right back to life.

Anyone had a similar experience? Guess I am sticking with JJ's from now on - I've used them for years without a failure.

[ChrisM]

Just had a pair die on me yesterday. Less than 20 hours on them, Vp about 440v. Lost all volume and tone got all distorted.

Put in a new pair of JJs biased them up and I was good to go.

[Milkmansound]

I'll take that as a yes.

The good news is that the JJ's are cheaper anyway. Sad.

[ChrisM]

Ya, my bad.

These were the STR versions btw.

[Milkmansound]

Mine were too

[Phil_S]

I think both of you should return the tubes to the seller with postage paid by the seller. You received substandard product. You shouldn't have to pay for them. At the very least, you are entitled to replacements. Explicit warranty or not, that is a reasonable expectation. If you get no satisfaction, cross that tube seller off your list. He (it) doesn't deserve your business or anyone else's.

It is the seller's job to weed out the ones that will croak prematurely and if he can't reliably do that, he shouldn't be selling the product, regardless of whether customers say they want it or not.

Just my 2 cents.

[wingobingo]

I lost a pair of Tung Sol reissue EL34's. They started out nicely but developed a high level of mechanical noise. They were way out of balance when I checked them out. Replaced with reissue Mullards and all is well

[Structo]

You guys are scaring me!

I bought a quad of Tung Sol 6L6TGC STR's from The Tube Depot and after about a couple weeks they had drifted quite a bit on the bias and I couldn't bring them closer than about 8ma from each other.

Not all dealers burn the tubes in or match them well.

The next quad I bought were TAD 6L6 STR from Doug's Tubes.

He burns them in for 24-48 hours, tests then matches the tubes at operational voltage according to his website.

They have stayed pretty close to each other for over three months.

[yowza]

You guys are scaring me.

Me too, I have a quad in my 100W Rivera modded Fender Twin. They've been sounding really good but I did notice recently that the bias had drifted off somewhat when I happened to check that.

Fingers crossed!

[billyz]

I have had failures from every brand of modern made tubes. JJ, winged C, EH, etc. Buy from a reputable tube dealer so you can return them if needed. I seem to have had the best reliability from Sovtek and for awhile the worst from JJ. But like I said, I have had every make fail or drift severely . It really seems batch dependent.
Although, long term I get the best overall reliability from Sovtek.

[ChrisM]

You guys are scaring me!

I bought a quad of Tung Sol 6L6TGC STR's from The Tube Depot and after about a couple weeks they had drifted quite a bit on the bias and I couldn't bring them closer than about 8ma from each other.

Not all dealers burn the tubes in or match them well.

The next quad I bought were TAD 6L6 STR from Doug's Tubes.

He burns them in for 24-48 hours, tests then matches the tubes at operational voltage according to his website.

They have stayed pretty close to each other for over three months.

I just had to toss a pair of the TAD as they were 20mA apart.
Are they relabeled TS STRs?

[Tonegeek]

JJ EL-34 last me about 12-18 months. I once got 3 bad ones in a row from Antique Electronics but they are good about replacement. Still I had to pay the shipping back to them.

I am going on 7 months on a matched Quad of Winged C 6L6 tubes with no trouble at all. I just checked the bias after not touching it for 6-7 weeks and they are 1ma apart from one side (pair) to the other. These tubes are rock steady.

I also have a pair of El-34 Winged C tubes in another amp that are ~ 8-9 months old. Don't play the amp much but it has not had any issues.

The only trouble from recent production pre-amp tubes I have had is from EH 12ax7 and one Sovtek 12ax7 LPS.

[Milkmansound]

I had a quad of JJ's in my old twin for about 2 years of heavy usage, never had a problem.

I got these TS Reissues from CE distribution as a matched quad. I assume that they tested and burned them in in order to match them.

Now I have 2 TS and 2 JJ's in my amp and I am nervous about when those other TS tubes are gonna pop on me. In the middle of a gig? In a recording session? When I am demo-ing my amp?

I'm gonna get them the hell out of there as soon as I can!

[Phil_S]

...I assume that they tested and burned...

I am sorry to be such a difficult person on this point. You are the customer. Don't assume. Ask. Until you put your money down, if they want the sale and to earn your long term business, they should give you a satisfactory answer. Didn't get it? Buy elsewhere. This is not about low bidder.

[Milkmansound]

no - that's a very valid concern - I will email them and ask about it.

When I got the package, there was a hand written number on the side of each tube box. These numbers were "matched". A human must have done this somewhere along the line.