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Post by billyguitar on Feb 15, 2006 19:18:51 GMT -7
I've also posted about this in the Maz 38 section but i should have done it here. I was playing my Maz 38 and it made a small pop and then the sound went down in volume, thinned out and the amp started to hum a bit. I wiggled all of the preamp tubes. As I was doing that the two output tubes next to the PI started to glow. I shut down the amp. I then replaced all 4 output tubes with a matched det of JJs I had bought some months ago from Charlie Kittelson of Vacuum Tube Valley. No more noises. But the funny thing is, the amp sounds better than I ever remeber it sounding before. Much stronger mids and sweeter highs. I've never had a main amp with EL-84s so I'm not familiar with what can go wrong with the.
1) Does this sound like a normal tube failure?
2) I've retubed lots of amps before but never heard such an improvement. Have others had a similar experience?
3) Do most guys just routinely change the EL-84s every 6 months or so?
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Post by benttop (Steve) on Feb 15, 2006 19:45:55 GMT -7
I've also posted about this in the Maz 38 section but i should have done it here. I was playing my Maz 38 and it made a small pop and then the sound went down in volume, thinned out and the amp started to hum a bit. I wiggled all of the preamp tubes. As I was doing that the two output tubes next to the PI started to glow. I shut down the amp. I then replaced all 4 output tubes with a matched det of JJs I had bought some months ago from Charlie Kittelson of Vacuum Tube Valley. No more noises. But the funny thing is, the amp sounds better than I ever remeber it sounding before. Much stronger mids and sweeter highs. I've never had a main amp with EL-84s so I'm not familiar with what can go wrong with the. 1) Does this sound like a normal tube failure? 2) I've retubed lots of amps before but never heard such an improvement. Have others had a similar experience? 3) Do most guys just routinely change the EL-84s every 6 months or so? It could be that the tone was gradually deteriorating before the tubes gave out, which would account for the dramatic improvement. I've been fooled like this before - someone ask how long it's been since I changed output tubes, and I'm getting defensive saying it sounds fine. Then pop in the new tubes and WHOA! MUCH better. YMMV
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Post by billyguitar on Feb 16, 2006 6:08:39 GMT -7
I've just never heard such a dramatic change with 6L6s.
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gstan
Full Member
What, me worry?
Posts: 180
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Post by gstan on Feb 16, 2006 16:37:41 GMT -7
The problem is that the current species of EL84 don't seem to be very durable. Plus the Doc makes'em work real hard compared to other EL84 amps.
I've added a cooling fan to my Junior and it seems to have improved the lifespan of the EL84s a bit, but I still feel lucky if I get more than 4 months of good tone out of a set. Usually by the end of three months those little snaps, crackles and pops are starting and the background noise level starts to become more noticeable.
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