Valve Shootout: 6L6 vs EL34

6L6 and EL34, both popular power valves for guitar amps, but what is the sonic difference between the two?

Here I take a Bugera 333 loaded with 6L6s and swap them over for some Tung-Sol EL34s.
The Infinum circuit within the amp accomidates for the different style of valve.

Unfortunately I couldn't turn the amp to the volume I'd have liked to really bring out the valve tone, but hopefully this still gives a good representation of how they sound.
With more run in time the EL34s will probably sound better still.

The sound samples were recorded using CSG custom CS1 guitar with Bareknuckle Pickups, through the Crunch and Clean channels of a Bugera 333 infinium
(with MXR smartgate and Carboncopy in the effects loop),
driving a Celestion Hot 100 speaker, picked up by a Sure SM57.

For all your valves check out www.watfordvalves.com. Quality assured with more diagnostic testing than just about any other valve distributer.

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