do new tubes break in

[bluebullet]

i just changed all of my tubes with jj tubes from eurotubes and was wondering if there is a break in period because when i first started playing after the change they sounded a little shrill but after a couple of hours they seemed to warm up and really start to sing

[kmanick]

Re: do new tubes break in

John at eurotubes told me to always let the amp warm up on stand by for 2-3 minutes before using it. I replaced all of the tubes in my Marshall combo with JJ's and and I heard the same thing you are the first time I turned on my amp. Now (3 weeks later) after the tubes are warmed up for the 3 minutes it sings right away.
so what do you think of the tubes?

[bluebullet]

Re: do new tubes break in

they sound really good now that they are starting to warm up tone wise, they have more gain than the gt12ax7r tubes that were in there but i dont know about the early break up on the power tubes i still have to get the volume up pretty loud to get them to break up. guess i'll have to get a hot plate. its a mesa subway rocket its only 20 watts but its the loudest 20 watts i've ever heard

[kmanick]

Re: do new tubes break in

did you get JJ power tubes as well (el84s)? I have them and they break up nicely, I actually have rolled the gain back on the amp to about 1 oclock and I grabbed an MXR eq and run it into the effects loop and use the gain from there, it's much smoother, it doesn't add distortion but it adds sustain, which is what I was looking for, it makes the amp really sing.

[bluebullet]

Re: do new tubes break in

they are jj powertubes el84, and they do break up its just that i still have to get pretty loud to hear it but on the whole the amp sounds much better than before

[bluebullet]

Re: do new tubes break in

do you have any experience with a thd hotplate or a webber mass i can order the mass for a lot less than the hotplate and was just wondering if you had any knowledge of either of them

[kmanick]

Re: do new tubes break in

No , unfortunately I can't help you out there
sorry I am using mine in a Marshall DSL 201, (it's only 20 watts as well but mine breaks up nicely at low volume). I max the master volume to get the El84s cooking and control the volume with the channel volume. dow the subway rocket have a master volume? if it does try using it that way, my marshall sounds way better that way than if I keep the master down and crank the channel volume.

[slayer]

Re: do new tubes break in

I agree, Master Volume knobs are a key to early tube breakup. I will never onw an amp without it, to me it`s priceless. Jack.

[bluebullet]

Re: do new tubes break in

it does have a master volume and i will try cranking the master and lowering the preamp and let you know if that works for me