Post your experience running only 2 x 6V6's in original RV50

[jamison162]

I know this has been discussed ad naseum...pulling 2 6V6's from the original RV50 and running a 16 ohm cab off of one of the 8 ohm taps....I have not tried this myself, yet. I hardly ever turn the amp past 3 or 4 so I have plenty of volume and headroom, so cutting down to 2 power tubes would work for me. But my main interest in doing this would be running 2xNOS (RCA, etc.) 6V6's. I might would spring for them if I only had to buy 2 and not a whole quad.


So, with that said....anyone care to post their thoughts or experience with pulling 2 6V6 power tubes????

Thanks all!!!

[OrangePaul]

Your main reason for doing this seems a pretty sound idea to me (no pun intended lol)
Can't speak for the RV but I've done something similar with my OR
2 valves will probably be worked harder than running 4 but if strong valves that probably wouldn't be an issue.

[jamison162]

Your main reason for doing this seems a pretty sound idea to me (no pun intended lol)
Can't speak for the RV but I've done something similar with my OR
2 valves will probably be worked harder than running 4 but if strong valves that probably wouldn't be an issue.

What did it change tonally on the OR? I actually feel like I have too much headroom on the RV50 clean channel. I'd like to be able to get a little more towards the "edge of breakup" sound, I feel this will also help my pedals sound better by blending in a little power tube breakup.

[OrangePaul]

First off remember I'm talking the OR120 here so effectively cutting down to an OR80
It reduced the bottom end scale slightly I'd say but not by very much.

I think the differences in valves make more of a difference tonally but even an OR80 is an insanely loud amp remember.

One of my old stock mullards (pair) I've been running I've since discovered has some thermal runaway so I'm actually looking back now at getting a quad of Winged C's.
Maybe the valve was always faulty but at the time I didn't know how to bias the OR accurately so oblivious to the fact its bias current was slowly creeping upwards. I have a feeling though that I won't prefer the sound of the winged C's as much.

[brianr0131]

Why don't you just do it instead of asking people who may have tried it with other amps using different tubes?????

Not trying to be a wiseguy, but you can answer your own question is about 3 minutes.

[Randy Bass]

Why don't you just do it instead of asking people who may have tried it with other amps using different tubes?????

Not trying to be a wiseguy, but you can answer your own question is about 3 minutes.

Everyone knows that there aren't any wiseguys in New Jersey .

[jamison162]

Why don't you just do it instead of asking people who may have tried it with other amps using different tubes?????

Not trying to be a wiseguy, but you can answer your own question is about 3 minutes.

I will when I have time...but thought I'de post the question while I've got some downtime at work. I know folks around here don't really do that and everyone always post about their exp. and never asks these kinds of questions beforehand....

[Thinline_slim]

Not an Orange but my Genz Benz Black Pearl has a switch that I can take the quad el84 down to a pair. I will confirm Pauls statement that it drops the bass freq just a bit but with that it also dropped the depth of the bottom end, if that makes any sense at all. If you think about the depth a 50w has vs a 20w amp, etc.

I personally don't care for the 15w setting as much as the 30w with an attenuator but it's also in the Vox camp so the bottom end is pretty light to start with by design.