Originally Posted by
tunghaichuan
The 6L6WGB is similar to a 5881. It might even be the same tube, just relabeled. That is great news, no need to swap them out unless they go south.
From your description, it sounds like Leo Fender was moving more towards the Blackface sound and away from the tweed sound. Leo always was trying to remove distortion from his amps
The downside is that you'll have to crank it to earbleed-levels to get natural distortion out of it. Good thing you have pedals, they'll save your hearing.
Good to know. I wondered what the tube designation meant. Your description of moving toward BF sound is accurate from what I have read. As I understand it, the brown amphs of the early 60s are in between the tweeds and BFs in terms of tone and headroom. It seems to have lots of warmth to my ear, and to me, that gives a bit more character than the squeaky clean BF sound. But that is based on models I have listened to and played through (Line 6 Gearbox models, etc.), not really experience with the real thing. It seems to have enough tweed in it to make it enjoyable to me.
Steve Thompson
Sun Valley, Idaho
Guitars: Fender 60th Anniversary Std. Strat, Squier CVC Tele Hagstrom Viking Semi-hollow, Joshua beach guitar, Martin SPD-16TR Dreadnought
Amphs: Peavey Classic 30, '61 Fender Concert
Effects and such: Boss: DS-1, CE-5, NS-2 and RC20XL looper, Digitech Bad Monkey, Korg AX1G Multi-effects, Berhinger: TU100 tuner, PB100 Clean Boost, Line 6 Toneport UX2, Electro Harmonix Little Big Muff Pi, DuhVoodooMan's Rabid Rodent Rat Clone, Zonkin Yellow Screamer Mk. II, MXR Carbon Copy Delay
love is the answer, at least for most of the questions in my heart. . .
- j. johnson