TUBE QUESTIONS

[JACKSONFREAK]

Re: TUBE QUESTIONS

Annah; Yeah that same skin oils rule applies to tubes. If you touch them with your bare fingers/hands they'll get a hot spot and burn out faster. Just use a clean oil free wahs cloth or something to get them out. No twisting needed on the Power tubes just kinda wiggle them out while pulling up. Good luck.
Gil

[OklaStrat]

Re: TUBE QUESTIONS

I don't buy the 'hot spot' theory - a halogen/arc halide bulb is a LOT hotter than a tube is, and also, what wears out is the cathode coating on the tubes, not from the glass.

It's not going to hurt to make sure you don't leave any finger oil on the tubes, but I've never wiped my tubes before installing, and nearly 20 years later, I haven't had ANY power tube get 'hot spots'.

They will get a silver coating where the getter is, but that's normal, and has nothing to do with where you finger oil em up.

Annah, don't forget to change the driver tube along with the power tubes... heck, it may even just be your driver tube. swap out the 2nd tube closest from the input jack for the tube closest to the power tubes (likely furthest one from the input) and see if your symptoms change. The driver tube will wear MUCH faster than the other preamp types do.

Pete

[Soloist1]

Re: TUBE QUESTIONS

No problem John. Get yourself a variety and swap em around in different sockets till you get the tone you like. Annah I have a CAE 3+ and a Mesa 20/20. I'm not sure how your amp is built but mine has a specific socket for each channel that makes up part of the gain stack. The RCA tubes with the exception of the 5751 effect every channel since they are part of the stack. I like the RCA's for these sockets because they seem very balanced tone wise. The 7025 brightens things up a lot and adds lots of gain. I like that for all my channels so I'm running that in the initial socket. I put the Mullard and the Telefunken in the OD channel sockets because they each have a very distinct tone which gives me more variety between channels tone wise. Basically you have to experiment with what tube goes where. Here is an auction on ebay for 2 Mullards and an RCA that the bone head calls a Chinese tube. lol
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...item=927472240
I would stir clear of this auction though. The guy doesn't know what he has and they aren't tested properly. Make sure when you buy tubes they are tested. That's the nice thing about buying from Pete, you know what your getting. Whenever you change power tubes you should change all of them and make sure they are matched.

[Riffmeister]

Re: TUBE QUESTIONS

Annah,

All the guys are right about the power tube thing, but as far as pre-amp tubes go, I have a Marshall DSL, and here's what I put in it. It gives me the exact kind of sound you described you are looking for.

I put EH 12ax7's in all but the driver spot. In that I put a JJ. They are extremely quiet, and my clean sound is warm, but not muddy and my lead channel Screams. Hope this helps.

[tlingen]

Re: TUBE QUESTIONS

Rick, do you mean Electro-Harmonix 12AX7EH's? So they sound pretty good hey?

Has anyone else tried these?

[Riffmeister]

Re: TUBE QUESTIONS

Yea, the Electro-Harmonix 12ax7. This was the first set of preamp tubes I installed after taking out the crappy stock tubes. I used these at the suggestion of my tech. This guy is a whiz, and he has done work for guys like Warren Dimartini, and others, when they have come to town.

They just sounded so good to me, that I haven't even tried the Chinese tubes that a lot of people also recomend.

[tlingen]

Re: TUBE QUESTIONS

Thanks Rick. I'll have to pick some up and give them a whirl [img]graemlins/band.gif[/img]

[Riffmeister]

Re: TUBE QUESTIONS

Just remember too try a JJ in the driver spot with them, or you may just like the EH there also, so try both ways. Let me know how you like them.