Changing Fender Deluxe Reverb tubes from 6v6 to 6L6

[jonkay1]

Has anyone done this? I assume the amps' power rating would increase from 22 watts to ??. If this is a great mod, why aren't more people doing it? How will the Deluxe Reverb sound? Will it become more Fender Twinnish ? Any info would be greatly appreciated.

 

[backline]

A Lot of people DO do it.
A Lot of guys like it. I think it is kind of a "crappy' mod.
The power supply and OT are not best suited for L6 tubes.
But Hey.....give it a shot.

 

[bo]

All you have to do is change the tubes and rebias it. It was common in the late 70s and later when 6v6s were hard to find. I think it gives it a little more bass and maybe a hair of headroom but don't expect to be blown away by extra volume. Bill Kirchen has run his '67 DR this way for ages with no apparent harm.

 

[eugenedunn]

Sell the Deluxe and get an Allen Accomplice...... much better, more flexible. Can run either 6V6 or 6L6..... has bias points and other modern conveniences. Superior bass response.

Flame on, gang.

 

[muchxs]

Sell the Deluxe and get an Allen Accomplice...... much better, more flexible. Can run either 6V6 or 6L6..... has bias points and other modern conveniences. Superior bass response.

Flame on, gang.

Not much fire 'cuz it's a good idea. 6L6s work best with appropriate iron as found in the Accomplice.

A Lot of people DO do it.
A Lot of guys like it. I think it is kind of a "crappy' mod.
The power supply and OT are not best suited for L6 tubes.
But Hey.....give it a shot.

Bill Kirchen has run his '67 DR this way for ages with no apparent harm.

Lotta Princeton Reverbs work "just fine" with their Champ transformers.

Neil Young has 6L6s in his Number One tweed Deluxe, same setup he's used since '67 or so.

While "Perfect is the enemy of good" it's also a cop- out. "Good enough" and "As good as it gets" are two different things.

 

[JohnS]

Been there, done that with my DRRI. Only other recommendation I had gotten was to switch to a solid state rectifier. Worked fine.

 

[mad dog]

I've heard a couple DRs like that. Did nothing for me. Much prefer that amp with 6v6s.
MD

 

[SoK66]

A Vibrolux Reverb perhaps?

 

[figaro]

As Bo said, not a big difference, a little more clean headroom. You will need to change to a 4 ohm speaker for the most power. Try it with a re-bias and see if you like it.

 

[Teleguy61]

Usually folks, including me, just sub 6L6s for 6V6s.
No power increase, but since you are running the 6L6s at very cool bias, there is much more headroom.
As a poster above said, add a solid state rectifier, and I also add a JBL D120, and you got something going.
You can push it much harder before it gives up.
Mine is a very loud amp.

 

[LostGonzo85]

A Vibrolux Reverb perhaps?

Or just swap the baffle out for a 2X10 one and add another 50.27 square inches of speaker surface area! Two efficient 2X10s in a Deluxe Reverb could really move some air.

 

[BobbyZ]

I'd be afraid of the added filiment current Ina BFDR. I know people do it but I'm not very lucky.

 

[uriah1]

Buddy of mine did that. Add copper cap rect., diff oT, I think.
Different amp..nice..diff.

ps. loud

 

[marshman]

Power increase would probably be minimal--5 watts at best would be my guess...at DR voltages, 6L6GCs would be producing @ 35 watts under ideal conditions, but the lower rataings on the PT would be unhappy and there's just not much more power can come from the stock OT. If louder is really what you want, upgrading to one of the current 100+dB units from Eminince would provide much more overall volume than the tube swap would. Maybe a pair of those high efficiency Emi 10s would make it a proper Mini TR.

I've heard the Neil Young story before, but also heard he tours with 9 of them, of which 4 are almost always blown up and they are always in search of parts. No biggie for Neil, but not how I want to roll.

 

[Ed Storer]

Or just swap the baffle out for a 2X10 one and add another 50.27 square inches of speaker surface area! Two efficient 2X10s in a Deluxe Reverb could really move some air.

I've done it with a DRRI. Found vibroluxe baffle on ebay, put in a pair of EMI 1058s', a Weber Copper Cap, and new production Tung-Sol 6L6's.

It sounded really good and the bottom end improved. I never ran it very loud. I didn't have any problems.

At the time I had too many amps and no band to play in. I put it back to stock (including the GT tubes) and sold the amp and "kit" to an individual that wanted to do the Devibroluxe Reverb conversion to his DRRI.

 

[mherrcat]

Only other recommendation I had gotten was to switch to a solid state rectifier.

David Allen actually recommends this when using 6L6 tubes in the Accomplice. I bought a plug-in SS rectifier, but have been using a tube rectifier with 6L6WGB tubes (5881) in my Accomplice Jr. to try to get some sag going. It sounds fine, but am I doing something that will damage the power transformer? I think I have a 5R4GYB rectifier in the amp at the moment. I also have a 5AR4 and a couple of 5V4 rectifiers I can use.

 

[vjf1968]

Not much fire 'cuz it's a good idea. 6L6s work best with appropriate iron as found in the Accomplice.





Lotta Princeton Reverbs work "just fine" with their Champ transformers.

Neil Young has 6L6s in his Number One tweed Deluxe, same setup he's used since '67 or so.

While "Perfect is the enemy of good" it's also a cop- out. "Good enough" and "As good as it gets" are two different things.

Neil has an amp tech and piles of Tweed Deluxe amps for spares or back ups.

 

[OneyedK]

Has anyone done this? I assume the amps' power rating would increase from 22 watts to ??. If this is a great mod, why aren't more people doing it? How will the Deluxe Reverb sound? Will it become more Fender Twinnish ? Any info would be greatly appreciated.

It's a mod, but not a great one, imho.
If you don't change the speaker to a 4 Ohms one, power stays the same.

There are many reasons why a DR sounds like a DR
One of the reasons is running 6V6's on the edge of their capabilities.
Another reason is the use of a tube rectifier, SS conversion is not the smartest idea for a DR with 6V6's.
--> adding protection diodes to the tube recto is however a must these days.

I'd say, get yourself a nice pair of 6V6GT's, bias them correctly,
get yourself a pair of NOS 12AT7's for phase splitter and reverb driver
and start experimenting with préamp tubes (mainly the first two) to taylor the tone of your DR.
(12AX7, 12AY7 and 5751)
But that's just me...

 

[Srini]

My two cents, for what its worth.

I have a DR clone that was already set up with beefed up Mercury iron for both tube types. Changing from NOS Brimar 6V6s to NOS JAN Philips 6L6 GWBs just broke up later. That said, the breakup characteristics are different, not one better than the other.

The output went up to about 33 watts, so I assume that 6L6s that are more powerful than GWBs, could potentially give you a few watts more. That might not translate into much more volume, and I doubt it will sound like a Twin - maybe more in the Vibroverb type camp. A tad fatter, but very hard to notice.

If you're thinking production tubes, I actually think that JJ 6V6S tubes sound very good, and may actually be somewhat in between a 6V6 and a 6L6 tone, and you won't need to upgrade your iron.

Srini

 

[Johnny Cache]

I've done to both my DR's but later changed them back, for different reasons. On my '66 I tried it years ago when there were some crappy 6V6's going around (Sovtec I still don't trust them). I put a set of NOS RCA's in it. The only thing was the power tranny was getting too hot, so I changed it back to some used but good Sylvania 6V6's, later to JJ's.

I did the same to my DRRI but only to see if I'd like it, turns out I like the 6V6's better. I did notice a slight bit more head room, perhaps a tad more gain, kind of like going from 3 to 3 1/2 on the volume, about where I usually play.