They use them in guitar amps for the way they transition into distortion,
tone
The RCA with the black plates do sound totally different, they are going
after specific tubes made by spacific factorys , spacific years
They ID them by plates, getters, tops, logos.
A set of domestic GE 6CA7's or RCA 6V6's is a hard find in 2006.
All the Eastern block and Chinese (fancy silkscreen reliable Groove Tubes)
just sound lousy or short
You cant run them in a classic Marshall JTM 45 and play Led
Zepplin.........even if you turn down to 11.

Some of these rock and roll and Bass guitar amps like a 70's Ampeg SVT are
very hard on tubes, who needs a failure in the middle of a show or have lug
a spare 90 pound beast around.

Check out the prices on Telefunken 12AX7's, GE 6550's and British
KT-88's.......OUCH !

-Joe


"funkbastler" wrote in message
...
Somebody please clue me in about what's going on. A pair
of 6CA7's just went for $203. Earlier today, a pair of
6SN7's went for over $300 (I missed out on checking the final
price). I get the impression that people are collecting these,
and the color of the base, or the shape of the getter, or
*whatever* is very important (to them) in determining the value.

Can anyone really tell the difference in the way 6SN7's by
RCA/Sylvania/Dumont/etc sound in a preamp? Does a brown base
impart better tonal qualities than a black base, or is it the
other way around?

Tell me what's driving these ridiculous prices.... I may be
sitting on a gold mine here and not know it.

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