Guitar Amplifier Tubes

High Octane Valve Guitar Amplifier

My newly built, slightly modded Lofty Octane Valve Guitar Amplifier. The tubes are: 2 x (6v6 S JJ) and 1 x (12ax7WB Sovtek) The website which has schematics, perimeter diagrams, kits, and even a productive support forum is here: http://www.ax84.com/

Tone Tips: Tube Amp Maintenance

 Another cooperative insight into the world of amp care, thanks to those guys at Gbson…Like reasonable about anything worth owning, even the best tube amplifiers elbow need occasional maintenance to extend performing at their peak.

In this age of low or no-maintenance consumer goods, where you’re more appropriate to toss your DVD player in the nearest Dumpster and moving by the local big box retailer to pick up another one for £20 than to truly get a small fault repaired (which, no incredulity, would cost you considerably more than the new unit), the inclination of routine maintenance for electronic goods has basically fallen by the wayside. Genuine all-tube guitar amps, however, even manufacturer new ones, are not like other consumer electronics products; they are the archaic technology of a former era, and thanks to that they can sound sweeter than any ornamented box of bits that has been conceived to replace them. As such, though, they emergency a regular check and tune up. Critique them right, and they’ll reward you not only with stunning modulation, but flawless performance.

I have known great deal of guitarists who were very much into tube tone, but went from amp to amp with a turnaround place that found them changing amps every couple of years or so—coincidently, about the amount of time again it took for the new tubes the amp came with to grow a scanty tired sounding, and for a few other minor care items to raise their heads. Re-tubing an amp is something you can almost always do yourself (although some unflagging-bias amps will require rebiasing when achievement tubes are changed, and that’s a job for a professional).

If you are gigging or even rehearsing regularly, achieve tubes are almost certain to need replacement every two years at superb, and possibly even every six months or so if you are really playing a lot. Even tubes that are sonically “authentic” can become noisy or microphonic, and thus force replacement. Preamp tubes generally last a lot longer, but it’s usefulness swapping in a fresh, high-je sais quoi preamp tube in the preamp and period inverter positions every so often—ideally after you have put in new result tubes—to see if it perks up your amp considerably. If so, you’ve got a tired preamp tube or two on your hands as well. Find the wrongdoer by process of elimination.

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