Are all 6L6 tubes interchangeable?
Not quite! You can substitute freely between the 6L6, 6L6G, 6L6GA, and 6L6GB. You can use a 6L6GC in place of any of these. You should not use any of the lower rated tubes in an amp designed to use the 6L6GC tubes. Doing so will most likely fry the new tubes. At the very least, you can expect drastically shortened tube life. 6L6GCs are designed to handle better than 50% more power than the other 6L6 tubes. For newer tubes (see above) check with whoever you buy them from. Make sure whatever tube you are going to use can handle the voltage in your amp. Some newer tubes will not last as long in amps that ran voltages beyond the tube ratings, whereas many NOS tubes would survive well beyond their rated maxiumums. You can find more information on 5881s and 6L6s at http://www.jt30.com/jt30page/micKtubes/What-is-5881.html. [Thanks to dr wow for that link!] • Can I use a speaker cable as a guitar cable? Nope. You probably won’t try this more than once. The cable between your guitar and amp (or
Not quite! You can substitute freely between the 6L6, 6L6G, 6L6GA, and 6L6GB. You can use a 6L6GC in place of any of these. You should not use any of the lower rated tubes in an amp designed to use the 6L6GC tubes. Doing so will most likely fry the new tubes. At the very least, you can expect drastically shortened tube life. 6L6GCs are designed to handle better than 50% more power than the other 6L6 tubes. For newer tubes (see above) check with whomever you buy them from. Make sure whatever tube you are going to use can handle the voltage in your amp. Some newer tubes will not last as long in amps that ran voltages beyond the tube ratings, whereas many NOS tubes would survive well beyond their rated maximums.
