IN NEED OF SOME ADVICE ON TUBES.

I own a JCM 900 head w/a Marshall cab w/ 4 75w celestions,
now I know there is a better tube that would help me achieve
a better distortion than an EL34, so what tube could I go to
I have heard the 6550's are on the hardcore tip, bad ass if you will, but aren't they an 800 series tube? Thanks guys

Time's have sure changed!, Used to be that everyone wanted to get the 6550's out of their Marshall, now everyone wants to get them back in, Well actually the 6550 is a cleaner sounding tube than the EL34, the 6550 has to be pushed harder to reach distortion, and the distorted sound of the 6550 is different than the EL34, If you want to sound like Zak, you can use 6550's "BUT" your amp needs to have the bias circuit modified (only a couple resistors) first, so the correct bias can be set, I suggest you find someone in your area, whose the "Marshall" guy, and before you make the switch listen/play a JCM900 with the 6550's in it, you might not like the sound, have you ever had your amp retubed and the bias set by someone who cares if it sounds good? BTW, the 6550's will last longer normally than EL34's........... Good Luck.........
BTW Revisited, Are you sure you have EL34's in your amp now? Some JCM900's came with 5881's...........

[Edited by pstring on 06-18-2002 at 09:04 AM]

KT66's or 5881's may give you what you're looking for. 6550's have more "headroom" than EL34's, as pstring detailed.

Thanks for the advice guys, The guy working on my amp said I had EL34's in there so I don't know. I had it in to fix a weird clicking then a constant buzzing sound, well he didn't hear a thing so now I gotta start from square one. I thought it was tubes but he said they seem fine, maybe it's my cab well when I take it in to have it retubed I will take note of the advice I recieved. Thanks guys!

With the recent increase in popularity of 6550's, you may find that a set of new 7027's are less expensive.

A word of caution:
The heater filament currents of these tubes may be a bit higher than the stock EL34's. Have your tech make sure that the filament voltage is a healthy 6.3 VAC. Lower than 6.1 can cause premature tube failure.

And [u]always[/u] get the bias set properly!