Maintaining a tube amp

Chronos-X · 29 May 2006 at 20:18

Well, plumped for one off ebay for about £8 delivered

Will see how it goes on wednesday.

SidewinderINC · 29 May 2006 at 20:50

was that buy it now from a repuatble guitar e-bay shop? i wouldnt trust buying tubes on ebay :eek:

Chronos-X · 29 May 2006 at 20:52

Was one of these - don't see whats not to trust. I've had a lot of new guitar stuff off ebay

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=9730637208

SidewinderINC · 29 May 2006 at 22:18

that seems a fair enough auction

i guess its just that i wouldnt trust buying lightbulbs on ebay, and the worst that can happen if they fail is your lights go out, not your entire guitar rig!

Chronos-X · 29 May 2006 at 22:46

Well I doubt you'd get feedback as good as that by sending out old, smashed bulbs

Was a tenner on the high street so I went with the best price

Chronos-X · 31 May 2006 at 22:45

Right, installed the electro harmonix tube today.

Wasn't blown away when I first put it in - but after letting it cook for a couple of minutes, EQ/contour/gain/volume/master experimentation is leading me to some good tones.. the real difference will be heard when I next visit the studios with it and can crank the nuts off it.

Is there any benefit in waiting for pre-amp tubes to heat up or is it all marketing bullpoo?

skinnyl · 31 May 2006 at 23:06

possibly, but maybe only for 5 minutes. it all depends on the volume. if you play loud, the tube should be working harder, getting hotter sounding good!

crank it up to 11!

SidewinderINC · 31 May 2006 at 23:23

i nearly bought knobs for my guitar that go from 0-11 instead of ones that go from 1-10

Makavelli · 1 Jun 2006 at 09:35

Chronos-X said:
Is there any benefit in waiting for pre-amp tubes to heat up or is it all marketing bullpoo?

All depends on your starting volume i would imagine, for the valve it's kind of like doing 100m sprint without warming up. As it only takes about 20 seconds for your valves to heat up why wouldn't you wait?

shazbat · 13 Jun 2006 at 12:15

Chronos-X said:
Was one of these - don't see whats not to trust. I've had a lot of new guitar stuff off ebay

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=9730637208

Hi I purchased a matched quad of EL34B and 6l6GC JJ and a couple of 12AX7 from this guy
http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Voc-Rock-Guitars .

He delivered within a 24 hour period and was really helpful in terms of explaining how I should bias my amp up. Great, I will buy from him again, much better price than most too.

collisster · 13 Jun 2006 at 23:20

Chronos-X said:
Hello all,

I've just brought home a very cool Marshall Valvestate 8240 amp, with a tube in the pre-amp. I've noticed its not 100% like one of the same I played recently, and I've heard that the valve needs replacing as a matter of mainaintance every so often.

How often should these things be swapped out and is it something you can do yourself? What's involved?

Thanks

I think its becuase the tube is in the preamp and not in the power section, so not much strain is on it so it rarely has to be replaced. I may be talking utter £$%& but listen to the other guys advice on replacing them.

RANDALL 4TW

If you like the sound of your amp at the moment dont fiddle try and match the origonal