Tube matching question

[tomteriffic]

Possibly a dumb question or a moot point but...

In an amp sporting 4 EL-84's, such as, say a Classic 30, a Crate Vintage Club, smaller Mesas, etc. does the inside pair/outside pair rule of thumb apply, as it often does with 6L6 / EL-34 amps?

I'm just wondering since I have a quad of EL-84's that has one pair pretty close and another pair pretty close, but the extremes are kind of spread out. Not severely, but a not insignificant spread.

I'm not talking cork-sniffing or tube matching fanatic here, and I know that at least one of the amps I have (the Crate, believe it or not) is Class A, which makes it a moot point, but I wasn't sure if some of the others operated in pairs, and, if so, which tube's typically operate in pairs? Inside pair/outside pair or??? Just as a rule of thumb?

I've been "tubing" downstairs and just got to wondering about it.

I also realized that if I needed to re-tube all of my EL-84 amps power tubes, it'd take me 16 tubes. And I just sold 2 EL-84 amps!

[Brewmaster]

I know in my amps that the Inside pair/outside pair rule applies. I don't recall if that is the case with the

Classic 30.

Overall I'm not that hung up about power tube matching so long as they aren't too far apart.

[tomteriffic]

Nor am I, Dan, but it just seemed to make sense to do them in pairs that were the closest to each other.