Originally Posted by
tfarney
Oh, I'm an old guitar player and I completely get the NOS thing. What I'm trying to figure out is if there are types of valves that are better for hifi than others, and specifically, if any of the valves that are common in guitar amps and, therefore, have a large market assuring on-going production, are good hifi valves in the right amp design. Those common guitar amp valves would be EL34, EL84, 6v6, 6L6, KT88.... In particular, I've seen quite a few low-powered (what I need) valve amps on the net built around EL84s and 6v6s. These are great tubes for low-power guitar amps, but the requirements are quite different (avoiding clipping vs generating it).
I once had a pair of NOS Visseaux 6v6 GTs from 1951 in my '65 Deluxe Reverb. Many would have considered them a bit clean for that application, but they delivered this wonderful warm, glimmering clean tone, and when you did push them into clipping they took on a texture that was a perfect balance of cream and grit. Ah, those were the days...
Tim