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 Article on Owner Mike Matthews

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 Forbes Article on Owner Mike Matthews

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Electro-Harmonix is rocking the vacuum tube community with the superior quality of the “EH” series tubes. Electro-Harmonix sound effects are world renown for the soulful warmth of their analog sound. The new line of “EH” premium tubes continues in this tradition of classic tone.

Modeled after the vintage RCA 6L6GC “blackplate,” the 6L6EH features large plate dimensions and improved grid structure for increased power handling capabilities. Also features mica spacers with metal springs to eliminate tube rattle and microphonics. The 6L6EH offers tone and performance superior to any other 6L6 or KT66 type.

Electro-Harmonix 6L6EH Power Amplifier Tube Features…

Buy Electro-Harmonix 6L6EH Power Amplifier Tube

 Article on Owner Mike Matthews

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 Forbes Article on Owner Mike Matthews

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The 6L6 EH/Sovteks have Ok mids, razor blade highs & flabby lows.

I guess that says it all. Maybe I got a bad Quad but from what

I've gathered from my Amp tech friends the "New" EH tubes are just repackaged Sovteks. Well, Sovteks aren't known for their warm/fat tone.

I'm actually more pissed off that the online tube vendors are pushing these tubes as a "New design" when it's just a Sovtek tube with an EH logo on it.

EH is Sovtek. They are the exact same tubes!

The are built well!

I've been at this Rock & Roll thing for years. I work hard, play hard & value my hard earned dollar. New Sensor group can "kiss it" if they think they're going to make folks happy by selling tubes that can't perform to description.

I asked for a warm sounding tubes and got these high-end shrill sounding

6L6's.

Thanks EH/Sovtek/New Sensor, who ever the hell you are. EH could prepare their dealers a little better so they don't push EH products when they're unsure about what they're selling.

the Swede (12/01/2005)

It has the classic 6L6 sound with Fat midrange response. In my Fender HR DeVille the tubes gave a fat midrange response with a good low end. The lows were comparable to the SED 6L6's which these replaced. I would say the EH tubes had even more lowend and a more pleasing high end response than the SEDS. The SEDS had a bit more clarity overall but I preferred the wider sounding frequency response of the 6L6EH. They sounded HUGE in my amp. The EH set were much fatter sounding in the clean and drive channels. In the drive channel the EH tubes seemed to have much more lowend growl and more midrange guts than the seds. And were just as smooth sounding. The bottom end was extended more then seds but also tight not flabby. I was skeptical about these tubes but I tried them and liked them better then the SEDS.

Modeled after the RCA 6L6GC "Blackplate" tube used in many Fender Amps in the 60's & 70's. With large plates and improved grid structure. Thick glass and Mica spacers to reduce vibration in guitar amps.

Only had them for 1 month not long enough to give a score here.

As mentioned dabove I put these in a Fender HR Deville. My main guitar is an American standard strat with a Duncan Pearly gates HB in the bridge and real Bill Lawrence (from bill lawrence.com) single coils in the middle and neck. For distortion I use a vintage TS-9, a rat II, a Boss Mega distortion and an Ibanez Tube King (excellent pedal by the way) after a little Guyatone compressor. Also use a Holy Grail reverb, Fasel wah, Micro Vibe, and a DM-4 delay.

The EH 6L6's sounded huge in my amp with lots of lowend umph a fat and complex midrange, just as much harmonics as the SEDS, and just the right amount of bite to cut through the mix with onstage.

I guess in the final analysis all I can say is that the 6L6EH valves are still in my amp and the SEDS are sitting in a box of spares.

Rick Taylor (08/17/2005)

Made of Black vinyl, this protective cover is perfect for keeping the dust and scrapes off of your prized amplifier’s tolex when moving from gig to gig.

Fender Amplifier Cover for Stage 160 and Ultimate Chorus Features…

Amplifer dimensions (H x W x D): 18.5 x 26.12 x 10.25 in. (47 x 66 x 26 cm)

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The Normal channel sounds very good, as good as my Vintage 52 "PRO"

and better in many ways.

The Drive channel is well… OK, not my "cup o tea" but it's fun

to wail with once in a while.

I use an OLP and Fender Telecaster, both sound really good. I don't

much like the "Chorus" effect, the Reverb is OK, but I don't use it

much.

The "tone" controls "Treble , Middle, and Bass" are a BIG improvement

over "classic" amps which were flat and slightly less flat.

I think classic stuff is overrated anyway…

The front panel effects connection makes more sense to me than the newer rear panel FX jack models.

Mine was made in 1995, bought by me in 2003 because I was restoring my

old vintage 52 pro. The end result is I have two pretty cool amps

to play with.

I bought it used with a REALLY bad hum with the amp volume off. I'm a

tech and my comments here revolve around construction and physical design.

The innards are real inaccessable and the power supply uses some really physically BIG capacitors which are poorly isolated from shock.

This amp appeared to take a slight drop, and the printed circuit board

did not fare well. It took quite a bit of board point to point land

fixing to repair a completely avoidable problem IF the capacitors

had been secured to the PCB with silicone RTV AND had been selected

with a lower profile.

Many of the pots are pretty scratchy, considering my 52 pro has the

original pots on it and they are FAR less scratchy, I'd say Fender

went really cheap on these crappy pots.

The input jacks are plastic junk, and none of the authorized factory service centers had them when I opened up the amp. They are a bear to replace if you need to, this can be expensive, as I said above, it's not very easy to open this clam up.

I've owned a lot of Fender amps, and the only problem I really have

with the Ultimate Chorus is its construction. I suspect that all "modern" Fenders are similarly made so caveat emptor…

If you travel, and give hard service to amps, the UC is NOT one I'd

take to the road with, unless you had a spare amp.

IF OTOH you are of a careful nature, and know a decent tech you

will be as happy as I am with mine, which believe it or not I am…

but I DO have a decent tech, AND I'm easy on my stuff

If you never have a problem with the UC, I'm sure you'd rate it high.

If you DO, I'm sure it'll be in the bottom of the bay!

Gary Nappi (10/29/2003)

I use various different guitars, including a Paul, a Strat, a Firebird, L5-style Hollowbody, etc. I even mess around with pedal steel. I play hard rock, so I'm after a very fat midrangey sound. The clean channel is okay, but a little thick sounding. The distortion is very buzzy, but in some ways I like that. Combined with the mid boost it gives off a hollow buzzy tone, somewhat like what Tom Scholz got on the first two Boston albums. For recording the amp has a killer crunch, like an old Hiwatt or Marshall half stack used in conjunction with a fuzzbox.

As with most Fender solid state amps made in the early to mid 1990s, this amp came with the Fender 75 watt 'blue label' speakers made by Eminence. I find the Eminence speakers to be papery and somewhat thuddy sounding, so as soon as I got the amp I replaced them with Celestions.

See various other submissions for features. The only thing I wish it had was a footswitchable reverb. The amp is made in USA, likely a mid-1990s model. I do like the built-in chorus, and that eliminates the need for any stompboxes. The only effects I use are distortion (almost always) and chorus (occasionally).

I bought the amp used, and so far no problems.

I've been playing for almost 30 years and I've gone through several amps. The sound I'm after is somewhere between Fender and Marshall, and Fender amps with Celestion speakers come very close. I don't know if I'd buy this amp again, but I really like the nasty midrange honk. It really stands out in a band situation, although the buzzy distortion sounds out of place at times. I also have a Fender Princeton 112 (great for recording guitar solos) and a Fender Automatic SE (good for playing in situations where I have to travel light). Both of the other Fender amps also have Celestion speakers. All three sound quite different from each other, so there is no repetition in my small amp fleet.

Leslie (06/14/2005)