212Mavguy Posted August 14, 2013 Share Posted August 14, 2013 Got a good price for my '94 Mesa Boogie Maverick 2/12 combo. So she's gone to a coworker that I occasionally jam with. Now I have a pair of Brit Celestion v30's @ 16 ohm to get rid of. The JBL's I stuck in went with the amp along with a serious stash's worth of rare and spendy Euro VOS tubes in the eleven sockets...including a Mullard gz34. Tried out some different tubes in my '68 Super Reverb 1/15, had some 6384 Bendix that were being used in an amp designed for them. I had purchased a pair of 6384/6l6 adapters to run them in my Siegmund Midnight Blues Breaker head. Right now that amp is socketed with some vintage British KT66 's, which it was designed for. The 6384 has a screen voltage limit of 325 volts, the 5992 is only 275 volts, amp geeks beware. They are pretty spendy, hovering around a c-note apiece, which is still less than the 750-1000 in today's dollars it cost our taxpayers to have each one made in the first place. Anyway, before the 6384 Tung Sol was making a similar tube called the 6ar6. It was made in two different versions, the earlier has oval plates and the later has box shaped plates similar to the 5881. The tubes appear visually very similar, the same size bottles and same bases. You have to look at the guts to tell the difference, besides the different pinout. The earlier 6ar6 oval plate caught my eye, as it was simiar to the Mullard el37 in construction. Gold grid wire, massive cathode, oval shaped plates, and ceramic inserts to position the guts within the micas on these four pole constructed tubes (very rugged old school build type). The six shock absorbing mica springs in the 6ar6 are much more numerous than the Mullard, the Tung Soll was literally designed to take into battle. The plates had two different coatings, on most of the plates there was a gray coating, on the cooling fins of the plates a shiny blackplate coating was applied. The plates are even bigger than a 5881's inside that little bitty bottle, kinda like sticking a turbo Porsche engine inside a Volkswagen. So I'm guessing these are 25-30 watt tubes, similar to modern 6l6's but designed to operate at lower voltages. Stuck a bendix 5r4 in the rec socket for some lower b+ and cranked the bias pot all the way down to the coolest setting. Stuck in the probes, fired up and hit standby at 10 seconds to watch the power up for excessive current draw. She came up right at the perfect setting and drifted up another 4ma, just like the 6bg6ga's in there before. No redplating, almost no blue glow, very tight vacuum. Very quiet. Plugged in and was shocked at the amount of volume and tones, same as 6l6 bottom but from lower mids all the way up more harmonic and treble content than the Tung Sol 5881, wanted to sing and sustain at lower volume knob settings than 6l6's, more cutting top end. What was a grinding, rumbling amp volume OD became a wonderful, British sound, very rock oriented, shocking to say the least. I've had them in for about 20 hours now with zero problems, running around 34-37 ma current draw at idle, guessing around 60-65%. WOW. The Maverick went on stage with it's new owner last week at Uncle Uncanny's music festival, and no problems to say the least. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tulk1 Posted August 14, 2013 Share Posted August 14, 2013 Uh ... won't you have to change your forum name now? ..... That was a production Maverick, wasn't it? Blue Tolex? I had a prototype Mav, #41, for a while. I liked it well enough. Sort of like a pre-Lonestar, but with it's own characteristics. Always thought the Mav212 would have been a great amp, but never had a chance to play one. Congrats on the sale. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davesultra Posted August 14, 2013 Share Posted August 14, 2013 I had a Maverick in the 1x12 configuration. I remember the stock Mesa labeled tubes were actually JAN/GE (before they started using the Sovtek tubes). T'was a nice little amp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SouthpawGuy Posted August 14, 2013 Share Posted August 14, 2013 Uh ... won't you have to change your forum name now? ..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
212Mavguy Posted August 14, 2013 Author Share Posted August 14, 2013 Yup, "Mavless" for sure. Admin help OK. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SouthpawGuy Posted August 14, 2013 Share Posted August 14, 2013 Yup, "Mavless" for sure. Admin help OK. I'm fairly certain you can change your display name in your profile settings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HANGAR18 Posted August 14, 2013 Share Posted August 14, 2013 The HOC member formerly known as 212Mavguy. hahahahha no big deal, nothing wrong with keeping the name. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SouthpawGuy Posted August 14, 2013 Share Posted August 14, 2013 The HOC member formerly known as 212Mavguy. hahahahha no big deal, nothing wrong with keeping the name. Says the guy who changed his own username Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HANGAR18 Posted August 14, 2013 Share Posted August 14, 2013 Says the guy who changed his own username hahahahha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bolero Posted August 14, 2013 Share Posted August 14, 2013 hey that's good info on the 6AR6 & 6384, always dig reading your tech notes! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
212Mavguy Posted August 14, 2013 Author Share Posted August 14, 2013 Now to take that TST Classic 50 one of a kind head designed for the 6384 Bendix and direct sub a pair of those 6ar6... from ultra refined Partridge clone equipped Hiwatt DR504 preamp to a more disorderly conducted grungesnarl with some unreal sustain/bloom...to run in stereo with a D-clone... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SouthpawGuy Posted August 14, 2013 Share Posted August 14, 2013 Now to take that TST Classic 50 one of a kind head designed for the 6384 Bendix and direct sub a pair of those 6ar6... from ultra refined Partridge clone equipped Hiwatt DR504 preamp to a more disorderly conducted grungesnarl with some unreal sustain/bloom...to run in stereo with a D-clone... Makes perfect sense to me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
212Mavguy Posted August 14, 2013 Author Share Posted August 14, 2013 Bonamassa does a D-amp/Marshall Jubilee rig. So if TST/6ar6 works as... I'm going where it will be difficult to follow, especially if it drives a Leslie G27 cab on a D-clone rig's "other" side. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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