The Steel Guitar Forum

Just want to give Dan Lurie at FYD Amps a big thumbs up for his Town & Country amp! And for his support! I bought Town & Country number one on the used market about two years ago. And even though I've never sent him a dime, Dan was great helping me by phone with my "new" amp. What a great amp and great support!

On a different subject, I've just been reminded how much difference vintage USA-made tubes can make (in any tube amp). I've been running current production Russian-made tubes, and just replaced them with vintage RCA tubes in the preamp section. With the Russian tubes it took more knob twiddling to dial in my tone, but the RCAs just sparkle, hard to get away from great tone! I've had a similar experience with an old Fender amp.

So my question is about power tubes. For anyone using this amp or another KT88 amp, what tubes do you like in the power section?

Hey, cool to see my old amp again! Really glad it's being used too.

I had some vintage 6550's in there for a while that sounded pretty good. I usually just turned the bias pot by hand while playing through it to find the sweetest sound. As long as you're using 6550's or KT88's it should be a safe range.

I preferred 6SL7's in both the 1st and second spot, as opposed to a 6SN7 for the 1st tube. The L7's are higher gain.. they don't break up but they sounded clearer to me.

Thanks for the info Bret. Might try some of those tube combinations. It's a great-sounding amp!

Just thought I'd update this thread with my final configuration of tubes for this great-sounding Town & Country amp:
V1 is RCA 5691
V2 is JAN Philips 6188
(both of those are 6SL7 equivalents)
Power tubes are new production Tung Sol 6550s

That combo is a winner for sure.

I'd be curious to know what other Town & Country owners are using.

I too use an Fyd amp for most of my live performances and recording and really like it. I've been using, and am pretty happy with, Sovtek tubes, though I bet the RCA tubes sound great.

The Fyd is a great amp for pedal steel guitar. However, if you should experience issues with line noise, send me a note - I can help you with that.

Have to be careful with reissue Tungsol 6550's made in Russia.

Some of these reissues have been known to short right out of the box.

The Tungsol was the go-to 6550 used in Leslie speaker amps. Tungsol invented the 6550 and bass amps like the Ampeg SVT use 6550's

Many Hammond organ techs are having to be careful what 6550's they put in the Leslies because of the problems with modern made tubes failing and causing transformers to blow.

The safer 6550, if new made today would be the Sovteks. Even if New Sensor, Sovtek's parent company, makes the Tungsol reissues, they put more effort behind the Sovteks compared to the other brands they make as Sovtek is the flagship brand for New Sensor.

The vintage Tungsol 6550's are more reliable made in the U.S. back in the 60's and 70's but come at a premium price.

The reason is when America made tubes, when they sold their tube making machines, they did not release the machines they used to hard vacuum the tubes. This is the process of extracting all the air out of the tube before sealing them and pinching it off. This is the final stage that gave American tubes the sturdiness and sound.

The tubes made today outside of America are missing this hard vacuum process. Not saying there is no vacuum process, the hard vacuum process used by American tube makers was special and the technology for that was not shared.

Shuguang makes a 6550 that appears to be close to a vintage Tungsol 6550 but issues like inferior pins distract from an otherwise ok tube. Longevity may be an issue. YMMV

Another brand is the Telefunken reissue 6550's but again made in Russia but it is also close like the Shuguangs to a Tungsol vintage 6550.

Note that a 46 year old Tungsol 6550 will still read best on a tester compared to new Shuguangs and Telefunkens. And at 46 years old, should say something.

Note that tube sellers of modern tubes are also known to buy factory seconds and then sell them at a discount.

Slapping in a pair of "new" tubes should come with a caveat emptor.

Thanks for the info Godfrey. I just have to trust the online retailer's claims about burn-in, matching and testing. I figure they've weeded out the ones that are bad from the factory.