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Tubes!
Jan 21, 2009 8:25:52 GMT -7
Post by TheRetreat on Jan 21, 2009 8:25:52 GMT -7
Hey all -- you guys have been so helpful with all of my questions so far... I'm so grateful for this board!
I'm wondering about tubes. For those of you that change tubes often, what is a good indication that it's time to change tubes? Which tubes do I change first/at all? What brands would you recommend? Any other tube advice?
As you can see, I'm pretty clueless here!
Oh yeah, I play a Mazerati with an Air Brake.
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Tubes!
Jan 21, 2009 9:31:05 GMT -7
Post by benttop (Steve) on Jan 21, 2009 9:31:05 GMT -7
You'll probably notice when it's time to replace the power tubes because you'll be wondering why it sounds so "not like my Mazerati." I remember the first time my power tubes were replaced on my Stingray - that amp has a glorious tone normally, but one night I just realized that I was struggling with it. It just sounded brittle and not musical. I had a spare set with me, so at the break I popped the back off and switched in the new tubes. OMG! My Stingray was back! Myles Rose says that he likes to see EL84's changed out about every 300 hours of use, but some performers do it as often as every 30 hours! I can't afford 30 hour replacement cycles, but 300 is a little more do-able.
Your Rectifier will let you know when it's time to change because your fuse will have blown. But if you have a good NOS rectifier, it should last a very long time.
Preamp tubes don't really wear out the same way as power tubes do, but they can cause problems too if they go microphonic, get noisy or just plain quit. If you're getting the tones you want, and there are no ringing problems or ugly sounding ghost notes, you should be fine. I wouldn't change those unless you're addressing a problem or trying to alter the tone.
So focus on the power tubes as that tends to be where routine maintenance is called for.
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