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Post by iggs on Dec 4, 2006 19:46:54 GMT -7
So finally I get the Bias Rite and decide to try those Tung-Sol KT66 out. I already used the Bias Rite on my other amp and it works great, everything is fine. I plug these in, wait a few minutes for them to warm up, turn the Standby ON ...BBBBBZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ ... noise and nothing else from the speaker, one of the tubes looks like it's about to melt with orange glow surrounding the plates and the other one seems dead as well since the Bias Rite reading does not look normal. I quickly turn the amp off and pray to the good lord that nothing happened to the Route 66. Plug the old GT KT66C in and all seems fine ... phew ... nothing damaged other then a few years of my life gone ...
@%#$@^#@ YOU TUNG-SOL!!!!!!!
Ok, I know that they might have arrived damaged or bad but that's it for me and TS KT66 in my Route 66.
I can only hope I can return or exchange at Tube Depot since it's been a while since I got them, I did not anticipate having to wait so long for the Bias Rite.
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Post by myles on Dec 6, 2006 19:23:50 GMT -7
Tube Depot are cool folks. On these big KT66s shipping damage is not all that uncommon no matter how well they were packed.
You probably had a tube that was shorted.
Be sure to tell them you want a "mid range" tube when you get a warranty replacement set.
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Post by iggs on Dec 7, 2006 7:27:09 GMT -7
Yeah, I just figured it got damaged in shipping, Tube Depot guys do seem like good folk, answered all e-mails promptly and did not give me any hassle about the return/exchange, but I still opted to replace the TS set for a "Sino" (Shuguang) KT66 ... I biased the amp at around 36mA with the GT KT66C #4 and I really like the sound. I tried the GT KT66HP #2 as well and did not like it as much ... "darker" sounding to my ears ... the amp opens up a bit with the KT66C. I like the way my Route 66 sounds now so I'll keep the extra set of Shuguangs as backup.
Maybe if some other brave soul tries out a pair of those Tung-Sol KT66 in their Route and gives them a good review I'll try them out again, for now I'll play it safe with the Chinese ones.
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Post by iggs on Jan 8, 2007 10:40:34 GMT -7
So the curiosity got the best of me after I spotted the Tung-Sol KT66 in a local store so I figured I'd give them another try and return them if anything is wrong. Well, exactly the same thing happened AGAIN as before.
Once the amp was warmed up and Standby was ON, both tubes read only around 400V on the plate (readings taken with Bias Rite) and the cathode current was off the chart (I assume) because the only thing on the BR was a "1" on the left side of the screen. One of the tubes was red-plating seriously and the only thing coming out of the speaker was noise. They were both tested and checked out fine at the store, current draw was 48mA for both.
Maybe I got a bad one again, but I'm more inclined to think that something's up with these Tung-Sol KT66 in Route 66, can't even begin to guess why would they not work specifically in Route 66 so I'll leave that to the experts.
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Post by zdogma on Jan 8, 2007 20:24:19 GMT -7
I've NEVER had a bad GT KT66HP (ive had 2 quads), so that's pretty unimpressive.
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Post by mward on Jan 9, 2007 7:19:43 GMT -7
The doc himself has posted in another thread that the tung sol kt66s are bad.
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Post by iggs on Jan 9, 2007 7:25:14 GMT -7
Yeah ... they may be fine in other amps as long as pin 1 on the tube socket in the amp is not used as a tie-point for anything.
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Post by zdogma on Jan 9, 2007 14:40:17 GMT -7
Yeah ... they may be fine in other amps as long as pin 1 on the tube socket in the amp is not used as a tie-point for anything. Thanks for the good info, iggs. Hopefully it will help avoid future mishaps.
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Post by nitehawk55 on Jan 14, 2007 17:20:37 GMT -7
I would think somebody at Tung-sol is going to get thier Pee-pee slapped for a boner like that . It will certainly hurt the reputation of that company to let faulty product like that out the door .
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