Metropoulos Forum

I bought some JAN-Philips 6L6WGB’s for my ’59 Bassman reissue, very pricey. I think these ARE THE BEST TUBES I HAVE EVER PUT IN IT. I use a copper cap weber solid state rectifier at times for less sag, I also have JJ GZ34’s and a Sovtek 5AR4. Can someone recommend the best rectifier to use, I don’t want to damage the 6l6’s. I have heard bad things about the solid state rectifier plug

Dax

JAN-Philips 6L6WGB


Once thought almost extinct, now back in stock! We found a few more of the classic JAN-Philips 6L6WGB tubes. All are in military boxes dated from the mid '80's.

From our review of the JAN-Philips 6L6-WGB tube: "These puppies rock and would sound great in any setup where you want punch, clear highs and a tight bottom."

From our review of JAN-Philips 6L6WGB tube: "This has to be one of the best tube values available today. The sound from these 'stubbies' is excellent. Very nice harmonic content, rich and deep. These bottles rock and would sound great in any setup where you want punch, clear highs and a tight bottom."

Here's an interesting side note: the JAN-Philips 6L6WGB tube has the identical internal construction as the Philips 7581A tube (the industrial version of the 6L6GC tube). The difference between these two tubes is only the size of the glass bottle. Although you may not get a 7581A's 35 watts out of the 6L6WGB, you can certainly get 30 watts without any problems. These are super durable tubes made for the US military in the mid '80's. Their specs are not the same as earlier 5881 and 6L6WGB specs from the 1960's. So to get to the point, the JAN-Philips 6L6WGB tube will work perfectly in any amp requiring a 6L6GC tube. Do not worry about plate voltages over 400V with this pupp

Dax-The-Ax wrote:I bought some JAN-Philips 6L6WGB’s for my ’59 Bassman reissue, very pricey. I think these ARE THE BEST TUBES I HAVE EVER PUT IN IT. I use a copper cap weber solid state rectifier at times for less sag, I also have JJ GZ34’s and a Sovtek 5AR4. Can someone recommend the best rectifier to use, I don’t want to damage the 6l6’s. I have heard bad things about the solid state rectifier plug

Dax

If you can swing the $$, I'd pony up for a NOS mullard GZ34. That, or even a good used one from a reputable source will last you a very long time. I have some that I've been running for decades and are still fine. But, even NOS GE's, etc. are good too, if you can find them, I have a small bottle USA GE that has been running fine for years in a SR as well. If you want to go rolls-royce, look for an amperex metal base GZ34, but they are really $$$$$.

The other thing, aside from the durability, is that you tend to get the correct voltage drop for a 5AR4/GZ34 with NOS, where some of the new production ones, not the case.

RE. the copper caps, I'd avoid them. Seems to be quite a high failing component as per posts in the weber forum. You take a big power resistor holding back the entire B+, jam it up into a solid copper tube with no ventilation, and with the recto diodes sitting right up against or actually sitting on said power resistor and you are asking for failure. My opinion, of course..

And yes, those JAN WGB's are very fine tubes, they'll last you a while too..

Dave

Yes...those are great tubes-very warm sounding-I have been using an NOS quad I got back in 2000 (when you could still get 4 for $129) in my '72 Twin with 470v+ on the plates, and only one failed on me so far; and it's a steady-gigging amp...unfortunately, one tube ran-away on me (red-plated) and caused the whole amp to go down for the night until I could isolate which tube failed...reason I'm telling you this is that if you use a good tube rectifier, you'll never lose a power tube since you're not beating on them like myself. It'll provide a softer power-up and a little less B+....

Dax-The-Ax wrote:So to get to the point, the JAN-Philips 6L6WGB tube will work perfectly in any amp requiring a 6L6GC tube. Do not worry about plate voltages over 400V with this pupp

I recently took a pair out of my 61 Concert that had consistently put +490v to the plates. It was asking a lot of the tubes but they held up well. When pulled they had only drifted to about 5mv apart.