Valves are extremely robust and will last a long time, but eventually they will wear out and need to be replaced. When valves start to fail you need to know the warning signs to prevent damaging your amp. Buy a Orange Rocker Terror - Thomann: www.thomann.de/gb/orange_rocker_15_terror.htm?offid=1&affid=367 Sweetwater: imp.i114863.net/vnymLv Valves purchased from: watfordvalves.com/index.asp #valve #amplifier #fail More from CSGuitars: Gain access to exclusive content at: www.patreon.com/csguitars Join CSGuitars Discord - discord.gg/d7b6MY8 Buy CSGuitars Merchandise - www.csguitars.co.uk/store Website - www.csguitars.co.uk Contact - colin@csguitars.co.uk
You could give the same advice on galloping how to play an hour and a half of top speed megadeth or slayer slow and steady or you'll burn 🔥up your arm then you won't be playing anything and the audience doesn't understand
Try "Uncle Doug"s channel for great videos on amp repair/maintenance. The Guitologist used to be a good channel but I haven't watched for a while as he became a bit of a dick, too much youtube drama. There are quite a few other channels but I enjoy Uncle Doug's easy-going style.
Oh God Watford Valves! I mean to do a video about what a load of tosh their products are. 'Harma Double Diamond' are just rebrands of various crap valves from around the world. Often if you look carefully you can see what they really are. They often won't even bias up to spec
The timing of this video is scary! I run my Mesa mini rectifier hot and loud into a Fryette power station as an attenuator to record with and just this week I’ve been getting a lot of squealing noises (no volume drops) from it which I’ve just been thinking was feedback or something. I’m definitely going to check out the power valves now…
This is why BluGuitar uses instrumentation grade subminiature tubes - not only are they compact, they're rated for reliability and optimized for lifespan. ;-)
Had a problem with my Blues Jnr a couple of months ago. It began to crackle periodically. When I looked at the power amp valves, one had started to red plate. Changed the valves and no issues since. The annoying thing is that they only 2.5 years old with about 50 hours of low volume use.
I will admit, I took Colins advice and snagged some Watford pre-amp TUBES and they’re fantastic. Shipping took a bit but I’m in MT so it’s understandable lol
One of the many reasons I prefer solid state. Every time the tubes need to be changed it’s like $150 because I have four EL34s in a hundred watt amp head. Really overkill for what I do as a musician. Next tube amp will only have one or two tubes to replace because 100 watts is stupidly loud and a waste unless you are gigging regularly. Who wants to buy an attenuator when you could just buy the right size amp and not waste all that electricity and have to cough out tons of cash for quad sets of matched tubes.
I have an older tube / Valve combo amplifier and I got it some 17 or 18 years ago ( Used ) I changed the power tubes to get a different / better sound shortly after i got it . Since I have never changed them , they just keep working despite I use it a lot . But I did experience a preamp tube starting to sound ' microphonic ' , when you tapped gently on the tube it keep ' ringing microphonic ' . A bit like tapping on a spring reverb . It was the tube in the preout stage and needless to say it is also that one that got hm , a bit overdrived when experimenting with distortion sound . I simply replaced it and all back to normal . But because the amplifier is quite old now im soon going to do a capasitor change . Some capasitors have slightly changed values over the years . Not much and they still working very good , but better be safe than sorry . If a capasitor suddenly stop working .. Well that will be not good . Maintenance on tube /valve amplifiers is actually not such a big ting as many people think . Most have fixed / automatic bias adjustment so even if you try other tubes to change the sound they mostly just adapt to the new ones . ( some may need a resistor and / or capasitor change in the bias circuit if tube is too different type ) But most run year after year and just fine without any failures . You have to keep an eye at it and know the signs of failing tubes . But again also solid state amplifiers have their problems . ( I had a few that failed over the years ) Transistors can for shure wear out / get dammaged ( especially if driven hard and cooling is weak ) and capasitors can fail too ect ect . So all in all - Know your Amp and the signs of failure no matter if solid state or tube based . Edit - I found this book ( In PDF format ) Getting the most out of Vacuum Tubes by Robert B Tomer . ( The best explanation of all ways tubes / valves they fail , why and how to prevent ) It is from 1960 . This is great reading for understanding tubes and why they fail . worldradiohistory.com/BOOKSHELF-ARH/Sams-Books/Getting%20The%20Most%20Out%20Of%20Vacuum%20Tubes%20-%20Robert%20B.%20Tomer.pdf I highly recommend reading it : )
Will preamp valves wear out more frequently if you run aggressive boost all the time? Maybe if you do that they'd be seeing a lot more use than they would normally? Just curious.
If you volume starts fluctuating and you probably put less than 30 hours on it in a 6 month period after buying it brand new. Could it be dust or something?
I have a 2 year old 50 watt EVH Stealth. I was playing today and the crunch channel went to almost silent all of a sudden. I checked the clean channel which was also very quiet. The lead channel wtill worked fine and was loud as usual. Could a bad power tube cause this where one or 2 channels are quiet but another still works fine?
Here's a semi-related TATA. Why do so few amps have a fail safe design to protect the valve amp if you forget to connect a speaker load? Seems as daft as a cambelt design that destroys the engine if it breaks.
Hi Colin! My tube amp has lost the high end. I am not completely sure if this is a sign of dying tubes or something else. I have a combo amp (Harley Benton Tube15) I run my overdrives in front of it and modulations in the FX loop. The thing is that because of my workflow the send of the amp goes to a cab sim and never returns to the amp. To avoid having the sound of the amp's speaker I connected a cableless jack to the return to mute the speaker. Could this have damaged the amp? Should I try replacing the power tubes even though I seldomly used the speaker? Thanks in advance! Love your videos :)
Thank you for this great video as always ! I know this was about tube amps, but I was wondering what are the good current loud solid state amps out there for guitar these days ( that are not modeling amps ) ?
I got a bugera G5.. hardly used it as I have other amplifiers, used it the other day worked great for the first day, second day massive volume drop and crackling when it gets to full volume, is that the power valve?
at $600+ the rock terror 15 you dont want to burn out. however you could buy an old tube powered radio. or stereo system at a yard sale or from an electronics recycler so you can experiment with to make the youtube videos.
Hey Collin, look at my tatas! Why is it minus 5 or any other number when recording? Is it negative loud, and if so, why isn’t it silent? Not a practical question I know, but still, a tata is a tata.
zero dB represents the point at which clipping occurs. Clipping refers to the fact that you’ve reached the limits of the equipment, the peak, where your sinusoidal wave “clips” and becomes a square wave. It’s reached the top, and so flattens out. This is distortion. This is why you want to stay below zero dB. Square waves can also damage speakers. working with digital you dont want clipping, because digital clipping sounds like shit, opposed to analog clipping, which is quite nice.
My valvestate has 30 years, it squeals at louder volumes, the sound is a little mushy, and the valve is the original, is this a rare case of a failing pre amp valve? This is my first amp, I bought it used (Can anyone answer me without this "throw it in thrash" bullshit, reality is different in your country, and if you can buy an awesome amp for a decent price I'm happy for you)
@@Ndlanding there is a valve, one in the pre amp, mine is a 40W, I love mine, it serves me very well, here in my country prices are shit and a Randall head costs 4000 bucks, so I won't donate it thanks
Question: I have the cute Marshal DSL1HR. I really like that thing. However, recently, the volume started to drop to pretty much zero "randomly". So, I assume a tube swap is in order. However, the only amp technician in my area I could find estimated a cost of 150 to 200€ for that.... for an amp priced 250€ new. How do I find out if I can swap the tubes myself or not? So far I've had no luck finding that out.
The DSL1HR barely qualifies as a valve amp, it's using an ECC82 as a power valve (which is typically a preamp valve) and is almost certainly cathode biased due to that. I would grab an ECC82 and replace the powevalve and see what difference that makes. You can get an 82 for about £12.
@@ScienceofLoud I've found several ECC82 valves. Are there "functionally different" ECC82 valves out there (i.e. different sockets or something like that) or should they all basically fit and it's an issue of quality / voodoo?
@@ScienceofLoud Just wanted to let you know: I ordered a tube and did the swap myself. Everything seems to be working just fine. Thanks for your input.
TL;DR: If your amp starts acting weird/ not sounding right, crackling, hissing, pops or goes quiet, turn it off right away and have a look at the valves.
@@Charlie6969 I realise “look at the valves” was a figure of speech; the question that immediately came to mind was how do you diagnose a faulty valve? Reminded me of people who, when their car breaks down, open the bonnet, stare at the engine then realise they have no f**king idea what any of the parts do or what could possibly be wrong…
@@captainobvious9668 Try replacing them, if that fixes them, great. You can get an idea with a good valve tester. In my experience, the valves themselves are usually the culprit in these cases.
@@captainobvious9668 With tubes you most certainly can see when they're bad just by looking at them. Not all the time, but sometimes it can be obvious. Especially with JJ tubes with that red paint on them. You can visually see when they're burning out because that paint starts fading and turning brown. Also bad tubes tend to glow excessively compared to the others. So there you go; diagnosing a bad tube just by looking at it. It's totally possible so don't really see where the sarcasm fits here.
i'm perfectly content with my solid state (Boss Katana 50 I) but I recently got to play a real valve amp at my school and darn it feels and sounds good
@@unclejack2093 Yeah I played solid state amps for basically my first decade playing guitar, but recently I've gotten a 15 watt tube amp, and the difference is so massive it makes me look back and regret the amount of time I spent with SS's. They're perfect for somebody who just wants their guitar louder, like they're (relatively) cheap and light as hell, so they certainly have their pro's, but in my opinion trying to really express what you want to through a solid state as opposed to a tube amp is like trying to cook without salt. Even though you have all the "real" ingredients (the notes, the picking dynamics etc.), the dish just tastes flat and uninteresting, but you put some salt in there and suddenly you can taste all the intricacies of the flavor profiles. Hopefully this isn't nonsense lmao. Enjoy that Katana fam, I've heard those are really nice amps
@@alexbiggs9208 I agree, there's no doubt that valve amps sound more natural, however now that I've got a real comparison I managed to get really close to a valve sound with my Katana so I'm not complaining. Of course it's not the same thing, I might get a valve amp in the future but for now I've got all I need!
i've touched tubes daily for years now, doesnt do anything at all, that myth comes from radio transmitter or high power rectifier tubes, like kiliwatt level
My Rocker 30 head is 13 years old and still has its original valves. Although I rarely needed to push the master beyond 10 o'clock, and only whilst using it regularly in my last band over a period of 6 years. Still sounds killer.
The first tube amp I ever owned I purchased from the used section of my local guitar store. Had tried it in store and it sounded great, so I brought it home. After probably a month and a half of using it at relatively low volume, I had a jam session with my brother, and the first time turning the volume past 4, I found the clean channel breaking up in a rather unpleasant way. I immediately suspected a worn tube, and since the store I bought it from has a 3 month warranty policy on used gear, I brought it in to get it looked at. The tech informed me there were some loose connections and a bad tube, and both issues were repaired under said warranty.
"...shouldn't be tight-fisted about it". Not much scope for that any more I'm afraid, with this bloody war in Ukraine, the price of valves has skyrocketed. Last year I bought a KLD amp kit, which comes with eveything but the valves. I figured I would buy the valves when I start building. Bad move. Should have bought them last year, when they were still plentiful and cheap. So two Tungsol 6L6es and three EH 7025s (all made in Russia) cost $410 AUD. The 6L6es were $100 each, the 7025s $70 each. Gone are the days of cheap valves. Fast approaching are the days of "no bloody valves at all". 😞
I love this channel. Valuable and practical information delivered in a clear way. No trying to be a comedian or your best friend or screaming in your face. Subscribed!
ive always just played whatever amps i could afford. ive owned several solid state amps and a few valve amps. not to sound like a snob but even to my amateur ears my marshall dsl40 sounds better than anything ive ever owned before. then again its the most expensive amp ive ever bought so that may have something to do with it. stay safe everyone and keep playing! we need more rockers out there!
My amp will work as it warms up, in a few minutes, up to 10, it makes a whaaaaaaaa sound. Loud, bad...wtf. help...Egnater Tourmaster. It sounds awesome, until that sound. It'll cool down, same....plz
Valves wear mostly when started up from being cold and also when shut down when the HV.is still present in the PS.......and wear also when pulling electrons out of the cathode coating insterad of the electron cloud . As long as the cloud can provide the electron flow and the valve works at the correct operation conditions ( this implies also the correct filament voltage !!! )......protected on start up and shut down by draining the power supply capacitors before shutting down the filament .........quality valves, especialy good nos valves can have a very long (er ) life ......... the lifespan expectancy of current production valves varies and is always inferior to good nos valves .. Valves in my preamps and CD player have over thirty years of service ans still sound great, better than any new production valve..........power tubes can go from only 1000 hours up from close to 8-10 K hours ............ECC83 even up to 100K hours .........;when used correctly . The BBC NEVER shut down their valve amplifiers and maximize to extend their usefull life . kind regards
It would have been funnier if you trolled the "YOU TOUCHED THE SACRED VALVE WITH YOUR FLESH, YOU HEATHEN MONSTER!" crowd by licking them before you installed them. Also... thou shalt only install fresh tubes with a wooden mallet hammered in a clockwise fashion. n'eer use a rubber mallet! thine old gods art allergic unto rubber, and the magik smoke of headrooooom must remain pure (im joking, in case someone actually tries to use a mallet!!!) (make sure its wooden)
the back tire on my motorbike was done in one season. my only tube amp is a 5 watt class-a EL-84, I use a large plate pre-amp tube and run enough boost that all the clipping happens in the power amp. ( because it sounds better to me ) do you think I will get a year out of my 7189? ........ I have to have ways to cope, and if that's more tires and power valves then so be it.
Great video. One thing I would strongly disagree with, though. And I make this observation as an amp tech who specializes in vintage tube amps for a living. You say preamp tubes don't need changed often. That might be somewhat true if all you use is heads that are never stacked on top of the speakers. But in any combo amp, the tubes are often only inches away from the speaker(s), and those vibrations, especially at gigging volumes, will turn a tube microphonic after a while. Some brands more quickly than others, but none are immune. A microphonic tube can test very strong, but be unusable. I work on tube amps, and every amp that comes in for service gets the tubes pulled and tested for strength. Then after any maintenance or repairs are done, the tubes are put back in and tested for microphonics in the amp. I have a bin full of tubes that failed that test. But aside from that, be aware that preamp tubes, especially if acquired from a vendor who does not test for strength or microphonics, can be bad right out of the box. The minimum performance standards for a new tube to pass Q.C. for general use are much less stringent in certain regards than the requirements for good performance in a tube amp. I had a customer who purchased a brand new high dollar "endorsement" model from one of the major brands, and brought it to me because he couldn't get it dialed in. Three of the seven tubes were bad! Brand new, amount of use played no factor, just poor quality control. Lesson there: always try to purchase tubes from a reputable vendor, and big name amp makers cannot always be relied upon to be reputable vendors of tubes. One other thing to avoid that will reduce tube life and require more frequent tube changes, and this is mainly for the gigging players, is avoiding moving the amp around when warm. The tubes are made with very tiny, very tight tolerances inside. As they run, they warm up to extremely hot temperatures, and those internal components expand. When you turn the amp off, it is ideal to let the amp cool down for a while before loading it in the car and driving away. And lastly, 98% of tubes do not give any visual indication they are bad. I have had numerous customers drop off an amp and say that they looked in the back and the tubes "look okay". Most of the time there will be no visual failure to see. But always remember, if you do look in the amp and see that any of the tubes have a flakey, smokey white coloration in them, DO NOT TURN THE AMP ON!! That means the tube seal is no good and will not work properly. It could mean anything from just no sound all the way up to killing other components. Do not operate an amp with a smoked tube.
so, i have a carvin x100b from the 80s. it has carvin branded tubes so i'm assuming that they're original. it seems to work fine and sound right, so was it just not used much or am i ignoring blatant issues?
I have just bought my first valve amp a Prima Luna 100 integrated amp so I have never yet bought any valves. I have two questions; 1] is there any useful information I can get by watching guitar amp tutorials such as yours or are hifi amps too different to be comparable? 2] The EL84 valve is an option for my Prima Luna, so any detail about practical things such as do they run hotter? is there any difference in life expectancy from EL34? haw does the sound compare? etc. Knowing that valves are consumables I will have to buy new ones and I'm hoping to maximize the top end clarity and head room. thanks in advance for any advice anyone can give me.
what do you think it's the problem when playing the volume drops as well gets staticky...like if the dial on the radio is not properly tuned into the station frequency. Thanks!
My 5150 has the volume drop, just like you say, sporadic. is it possible it could be the pre amp tubes. I just turn the amp off when this happens because i had no idea what was going on. What Does biasing mean? How do you know if your amp needs to be biased or not?
Preamp tubes don't wear out? What? I'm assuming that depends on how much gain your preamp has? I have a Boogie Mark IV for example. Surely those will die in at least a couple of years of regular use?
So I have my first tube amp and I'm dumb, but when I turn it on I can play for a few minutes and it quickly loses volume and goes dead ass silent. Assuming it's just the tubes that need replacing, ja?
I found that playing my amp cranked for hours every days generally causes significant damage... Because my wife loses her fucking shit and starts kicking the arse out of my amp 🤣
has anyone recorded the screeching sound? i started getting it recently and im getting my amp repaired but to be honest I think it sounded extremely cool and if there was a way to control it…. like you said it’s basically impossible to guess when it’s going to happen but it’s such an intense sound
JJ tubes have that red etching on them. Once that red starts fading and turning brown, that's pretty much your cue that they're going bad and need to be changed before they start causing more issues. You don't want to get them bad enough that it's shorting out and blowing fuses because then it's starting to do damage to components that are going to be far more expensive to replace than a couple of tubes. You really have to be ignorant of the signs to get it that far though but people do all the time. Fuses don't blow for no reason, don't just replace the fuse and think it's fine just because it didn't blow again. A fuse blowing is literally telling you there's something more going on. Can't stress it enough.
I remember changing my first set of valves. Wondering why it didn't sound right and then finding out what biasing was. I don't have the balls, skill or qualifications to be messing around with live electricity so I took it straight to the local music shop for them to do the dangerous bits. Great vid as always Colin.
Biasing is easy, just don't be a retard. Some amp manufacturers have a bias test point, some will use the HT fuse as the test point, and some will require a socket probe. Which is basically an extra tube socket that plugs into your multimeter and is sandwiched between the socket in the amp and your tube. As long as you make sure that your amp has a load, you know the appropriate mA to look for (between 60mA and 120mA), you just gotta use alligator clips and a small flathead on the bias knob. I've been inside tube amps more times than I've ever needed to and I have absolutely no electrical experience other than specific tutorials and the basics of tube amp design.
I've had my amp for 6 years now, up untill recently when I bought an interface it's been played at volume 0.7 out of 10. When I hook it up to the interface the clean channel goes to 4.5 and the drive channel to 7. I honestly have been worried that the tubes need replacing already, but I replaced the power tubes 4 years ago because a component on the circuit board short circuited, taking out the power section (the amp company has since upgraded that component.... I got it for free.) So yeah.... 😂 what to do what to do.
Does anyone make a matched sextet of 6L6GC for my super twin reverb? Do they still make transistorized replacements that go in the valve sockets for a solid state a replacement for rectifiers,preamp and power tubes???
I'm more concerned about changing power tubes as they should be biased for the amp. I know that some companies sell sets for particular amplifiers but I don't know if that means that they are plug and go without biasing.
Are you saying there’s nothing wrong with a amplifier when the tubes fail? That tube failure is caused only within the tubes? That’s incorrect. If the bias circuit in a amp fails…such as the bias capacitor…the power tubes will red plate. Tubes can also red plate due to dirty or loose power tube sockets
No, I'm saying that valves are consumable units with a life cycle - they will eventually wear out through normal use. I'm not talking about other circuit failures that cause valves to red plate or fail in other ways.
Completely unrelated to the topic of the video, but I didn't realize the sentence "the valves need changed" was a valid grammatical construction in Scotland. I thought this usage was confined to certain parts of the US, and most of the rest of the world would say "the valves need changing" or "the valves need to be changed". Colin is always teachin' me stuff he isn't even tryin' to teach me.
@@Ndlanding Interesting, because as someone raised in Canada I have almost the exact opposite reaction! But honestly I'm most likely to say "Need to be __ed" anyway. Language is cool.
Valves are extremely robust and will last a long time, but eventually they will wear out and need to be replaced. When valves start to fail you need to know the warning signs to prevent damaging your amp.
Buy a Orange Rocker Terror -
Thomann: www.thomann.de/gb/orange_rocker_15_terror.htm?offid=1&affid=367
Sweetwater: imp.i114863.net/vnymLv
Valves purchased from:
watfordvalves.com/index.asp
#valve #amplifier #fail
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you put the too afraid in too afraid to ask
You could give the same advice on galloping how to play an hour and a half of top speed megadeth or slayer slow and steady or you'll burn 🔥up your arm then you won't be playing anything and the audience doesn't understand
Try "Uncle Doug"s channel for great videos on amp repair/maintenance. The Guitologist used to be a good channel but I haven't watched for a while as he became a bit of a dick, too much youtube drama. There are quite a few other channels but I enjoy Uncle Doug's easy-going style.
Oh God Watford Valves! I mean to do a video about what a load of tosh their products are. 'Harma Double Diamond' are just rebrands of various crap valves from around the world. Often if you look carefully you can see what they really are. They often won't even bias up to spec
I will probably come back to this video when its too late.
I already know this video will be viewed most by the people who needed to see it yesterday
@@ScienceofLoud I definitely need it yesterday 😅
@@ScienceofLoud welp. Here I am a day later lol
Absolutely here because it's too late 😅
Yep, too late for me too 🥲
“…and all the magic smoke escapes.” :)
I had valve failure on a motorbike once... that also resulted in immediate silence of a previously loud device! 😂
Thanks! This video came at just the right time as my Fender Twin has begun failing and squealing.
Thanks for this Colin, this has come at just the right time for me…..cue ordering 4 EL84’s….
Just got my first tube amp! Needed this video so much. Thank you and can't wait for the full dive video!
The timing of this video is scary! I run my Mesa mini rectifier hot and loud into a Fryette power station as an attenuator to record with and just this week I’ve been getting a lot of squealing noises (no volume drops) from it which I’ve just been thinking was feedback or something. I’m definitely going to check out the power valves now…
This is why BluGuitar uses instrumentation grade subminiature tubes - not only are they compact, they're rated for reliability and optimized for lifespan. ;-)
Had a problem with my Blues Jnr a couple of months ago. It began to crackle periodically. When I looked at the power amp valves, one had started to red plate. Changed the valves and no issues since. The annoying thing is that they only 2.5 years old with about 50 hours of low volume use.
I will admit, I took Colins advice and snagged some Watford pre-amp TUBES and they’re fantastic. Shipping took a bit but I’m in MT so it’s understandable lol
Montana?
@@TatenomicsMoneyClips yes where cows outnumber people
One of the many reasons I prefer solid state. Every time the tubes need to be changed it’s like $150 because I have four EL34s in a hundred watt amp head. Really overkill for what I do as a musician. Next tube amp will only have one or two tubes to replace because 100 watts is stupidly loud and a waste unless you are gigging regularly. Who wants to buy an attenuator when you could just buy the right size amp and not waste all that electricity and have to cough out tons of cash for quad sets of matched tubes.
I have an older tube / Valve combo amplifier and I got it some 17 or 18 years ago ( Used )
I changed the power tubes to get a different / better sound shortly after i got it .
Since I have never changed them , they just keep working despite I use it a lot .
But I did experience a preamp tube starting to sound ' microphonic ' ,
when you tapped gently on the tube it keep ' ringing microphonic ' .
A bit like tapping on a spring reverb .
It was the tube in the preout stage and needless to say it is also that one that got
hm , a bit overdrived when experimenting with distortion sound .
I simply replaced it and all back to normal .
But because the amplifier is quite old now im soon going to do a capasitor change .
Some capasitors have slightly changed values over the years .
Not much and they still working very good , but better be safe than sorry .
If a capasitor suddenly stop working ..
Well that will be not good .
Maintenance on tube /valve amplifiers is actually not such a big ting as many people think .
Most have fixed / automatic bias adjustment so even if you try other tubes to change
the sound they mostly just adapt to the new ones .
( some may need a resistor and / or capasitor change in the bias circuit if tube is too different type )
But most run year after year and just fine without any failures .
You have to keep an eye at it and know the signs of failing tubes .
But again also solid state amplifiers have their problems .
( I had a few that failed over the years )
Transistors can for shure wear out / get dammaged ( especially if driven hard and cooling is weak )
and capasitors can fail too ect ect .
So all in all -
Know your Amp and the signs of failure no matter if solid state or tube based .
Edit -
I found this book ( In PDF format )
Getting the most out of Vacuum Tubes by Robert B Tomer .
( The best explanation of all ways tubes / valves they fail , why and how to prevent )
It is from 1960 .
This is great reading for understanding tubes and why they fail .
worldradiohistory.com/BOOKSHELF-ARH/Sams-Books/Getting%20The%20Most%20Out%20Of%20Vacuum%20Tubes%20-%20Robert%20B.%20Tomer.pdf
I highly recommend reading it : )
Good info. Enjoyed the video 🎸🎸🎸
Will preamp valves wear out more frequently if you run aggressive boost all the time? Maybe if you do that they'd be seeing a lot more use than they would normally? Just curious.
great video, really liked it, thank you:)
Quality
If you volume starts fluctuating and you probably put less than 30 hours on it in a 6 month period after buying it brand new. Could it be dust or something?
Some of the frets on my guitar are not working right they buzz and make the same sounds as the fret before it
great video!
I have a 2 year old 50 watt EVH Stealth. I was playing today and the crunch channel went to almost silent all of a sudden. I checked the clean channel which was also very quiet. The lead channel wtill worked fine and was loud as usual. Could a bad power tube cause this where one or 2 channels are quiet but another still works fine?
Here's a semi-related TATA. Why do so few amps have a fail safe design to protect the valve amp if you forget to connect a speaker load? Seems as daft as a cambelt design that destroys the engine if it breaks.
when the magic smoke escapes XD
Magic Smoke
Here's a TATA. Why do the preamp tubes on some amps have the little metal jacket whereas other amps don't?
Hi Colin! My tube amp has lost the high end. I am not completely sure if this is a sign of dying tubes or something else. I have a combo amp (Harley Benton Tube15) I run my overdrives in front of it and modulations in the FX loop. The thing is that because of my workflow the send of the amp goes to a cab sim and never returns to the amp. To avoid having the sound of the amp's speaker I connected a cableless jack to the return to mute the speaker. Could this have damaged the amp? Should I try replacing the power tubes even though I seldomly used the speaker? Thanks in advance! Love your videos :)
Thank you for this great video as always !
I know this was about tube amps, but I was wondering what are the good current loud solid state amps out there for guitar these days ( that are not modeling amps ) ?
orange crush 120
Hey I have a tiny terror combo and I turned it on but have no sound at all could this be the valves ? It does power up just no sound
I got a bugera G5.. hardly used it as I have other amplifiers, used it the other day worked great for the first day, second day massive volume drop and crackling when it gets to full volume, is that the power valve?
at $600+ the rock terror 15 you dont want to burn out.
however you could buy an old tube powered radio. or stereo system at a yard sale or from an electronics recycler so you can experiment with to make the youtube videos.
Please don't think that you have bias all valves on valve change, its usually not needed. Some amp builders like to run their valves hot as well
mh but how do i know wether my valves are working on a new amp?
my amp does that, but it's a solid state amp... I fear it's days may be numbered...
👍
Hey Collin, look at my tatas! Why is it minus 5 or any other number when recording? Is it negative loud, and if so, why isn’t it silent? Not a practical question I know, but still, a tata is a tata.
zero dB represents the point at which clipping occurs. Clipping refers to the fact that you’ve reached the limits of the equipment, the peak, where your sinusoidal wave “clips” and becomes a square wave. It’s reached the top, and so flattens out. This is distortion. This is why you want to stay below zero dB. Square waves can also damage speakers.
working with digital you dont want clipping, because digital clipping sounds like shit, opposed to analog clipping, which is quite nice.
My valvestate has 30 years, it squeals at louder volumes, the sound is a little mushy, and the valve is the original, is this a rare case of a failing pre amp valve?
This is my first amp, I bought it used
(Can anyone answer me without this "throw it in thrash" bullshit, reality is different in your country, and if you can buy an awesome amp for a decent price I'm happy for you)
@@Ndlanding there is a valve, one in the pre amp, mine is a 40W, I love mine, it serves me very well, here in my country prices are shit and a Randall head costs 4000 bucks, so I won't donate it thanks
Very disappointed, I was expecting sparks a la Tesla at the end of the video :D
So how do I change the valves in my tube amp? 🤔
You can try talking to them, but for that to work they really have to *want* to change.
Question: I have the cute Marshal DSL1HR. I really like that thing. However, recently, the volume started to drop to pretty much zero "randomly". So, I assume a tube swap is in order. However, the only amp technician in my area I could find estimated a cost of 150 to 200€ for that.... for an amp priced 250€ new. How do I find out if I can swap the tubes myself or not? So far I've had no luck finding that out.
The DSL1HR barely qualifies as a valve amp, it's using an ECC82 as a power valve (which is typically a preamp valve) and is almost certainly cathode biased due to that.
I would grab an ECC82 and replace the powevalve and see what difference that makes. You can get an 82 for about £12.
The price your tech is quoting will be the standard revalving price for a full size head, there is no need to pay that for the amp you have.
@@ScienceofLoud Hey! Thanks for the reply. I'll give that a try.
@@ScienceofLoud I've found several ECC82 valves. Are there "functionally different" ECC82 valves out there (i.e. different sockets or something like that) or should they all basically fit and it's an issue of quality / voodoo?
@@ScienceofLoud Just wanted to let you know: I ordered a tube and did the swap myself. Everything seems to be working just fine. Thanks for your input.
Great Video, first 10 Viewers, Woot
My name jeff
who is too afraid to ask? That concept seems so ridiculous
You've clearly never been a beginner trying to ask basic questions in an Internet forum.
Poop
It’s pronounced Poo
@@PooNinja my bad
@@Jessemang1 it’s cool I’m used to it 🤣✌🏽
TL;DR: If your amp starts acting weird/ not sounding right, crackling, hissing, pops or goes quiet, turn it off right away and have a look at the valves.
Yes, "look at the valves" - because you can diagnose faults with electronics by "looking" at them. Great tip.
@@captainobvious9668 Perhaps I could have worded that better, but I meant start by replacing/diagnosing the valves. That better?
@@Charlie6969 I realise “look at the valves” was a figure of speech; the question that immediately came to mind was how do you diagnose a faulty valve? Reminded me of people who, when their car breaks down, open the bonnet, stare at the engine then realise they have no f**king idea what any of the parts do or what could possibly be wrong…
@@captainobvious9668 Try replacing them, if that fixes them, great. You can get an idea with a good valve tester. In my experience, the valves themselves are usually the culprit in these cases.
@@captainobvious9668 With tubes you most certainly can see when they're bad just by looking at them. Not all the time, but sometimes it can be obvious. Especially with JJ tubes with that red paint on them. You can visually see when they're burning out because that paint starts fading and turning brown. Also bad tubes tend to glow excessively compared to the others. So there you go; diagnosing a bad tube just by looking at it. It's totally possible so don't really see where the sarcasm fits here.
Imagine that the first computers used hundreds if not thousands of valves and they basically advised "never turn the valves off and it'll be perfect".
the ENIAC used 18K tubes and there was a team of people who went around continuously replacing tubes.but it could add 5000 numbers in one second.
Me, who only uses solid state amps because I like the sound of abused solid state amps: "Ah yes, very helpful information."
i'm perfectly content with my solid state (Boss Katana 50 I) but I recently got to play a real valve amp at my school and darn it feels and sounds good
@@unclejack2093 Yeah I played solid state amps for basically my first decade playing guitar, but recently I've gotten a 15 watt tube amp, and the difference is so massive it makes me look back and regret the amount of time I spent with SS's. They're perfect for somebody who just wants their guitar louder, like they're (relatively) cheap and light as hell, so they certainly have their pro's, but in my opinion trying to really express what you want to through a solid state as opposed to a tube amp is like trying to cook without salt. Even though you have all the "real" ingredients (the notes, the picking dynamics etc.), the dish just tastes flat and uninteresting, but you put some salt in there and suddenly you can taste all the intricacies of the flavor profiles.
Hopefully this isn't nonsense lmao. Enjoy that Katana fam, I've heard those are really nice amps
@@alexbiggs9208 I agree, there's no doubt that valve amps sound more natural, however now that I've got a real comparison I managed to get really close to a valve sound with my Katana so I'm not complaining. Of course it's not the same thing, I might get a valve amp in the future but for now I've got all I need!
I'm getting some Mike Patton vibes from this gentleman 😀 lol Great video Colin!^^
what are you doing here?! :O
I did a double take when I saw your name! So glad to hear you're into guitars!!!
"touches one valve with a cloth and the other with fingers" ...... Collin fueling the confusion wether cloth or not.... What a classic move
i've touched tubes daily for years now, doesnt do anything at all, that myth comes from radio transmitter or high power rectifier tubes, like kiliwatt level
For the love of God, don’t throw in a 20 amp fuse when the 2 amp fuse blows either!
Or equally bad, wrap the fuse in aluminum foil and put it back in like my dad would do.
we all know someone who has done this!
My last set of JJ 6L6s lasted 15 years. I ain’t even mad that they blew. I’m actually impressed.
That is very impressive
My Rocker 30 head is 13 years old and still has its original valves. Although I rarely needed to push the master beyond 10 o'clock, and only whilst using it regularly in my last band over a period of 6 years. Still sounds killer.
The first tube amp I ever owned I purchased from the used section of my local guitar store. Had tried it in store and it sounded great, so I brought it home. After probably a month and a half of using it at relatively low volume, I had a jam session with my brother, and the first time turning the volume past 4, I found the clean channel breaking up in a rather unpleasant way. I immediately suspected a worn tube, and since the store I bought it from has a 3 month warranty policy on used gear, I brought it in to get it looked at. The tech informed me there were some loose connections and a bad tube, and both issues were repaired under said warranty.
"...shouldn't be tight-fisted about it". Not much scope for that any more I'm afraid, with this bloody war in Ukraine, the price of valves has skyrocketed. Last year I bought a KLD amp kit, which comes with eveything but the valves. I figured I would buy the valves when I start building. Bad move. Should have bought them last year, when they were still plentiful and cheap. So two Tungsol 6L6es and three EH 7025s (all made in Russia) cost $410 AUD. The 6L6es were $100 each, the 7025s $70 each. Gone are the days of cheap valves. Fast approaching are the days of "no bloody valves at all". 😞
I love this channel. Valuable and practical information delivered in a clear way. No trying to be a comedian or your best friend or screaming in your face. Subscribed!
TATA - My main amp (Vox MV50 Clean) has a NuTube in it, the hell does that mean!?
You need an amp with tartin instead of Tweed, paint or anything else
Leuk at thes handsome yong man.
ive always just played whatever amps i could afford. ive owned several solid state amps and a few valve amps. not to sound like a snob but even to my amateur ears my marshall dsl40 sounds better than anything ive ever owned before. then again its the most expensive amp ive ever bought so that may have something to do with it. stay safe everyone and keep playing!
we need more rockers out there!
My amp will work as it warms up, in a few minutes, up to 10, it makes a whaaaaaaaa sound. Loud, bad...wtf. help...Egnater Tourmaster. It sounds awesome, until that sound. It'll cool down, same....plz
Valves wear mostly when started up from being cold and also when shut down when the HV.is still present in the PS.......and wear also when pulling electrons out of the cathode coating insterad of the electron cloud .
As long as the cloud can provide the electron flow and the valve works at the correct operation conditions ( this implies also the correct filament voltage !!! )......protected on start up and shut down by draining the power supply capacitors before shutting down the filament .........quality valves, especialy good nos valves can have a very long (er ) life .........
the lifespan expectancy of current production valves varies and is always inferior to good nos valves ..
Valves in my preamps and CD player have over thirty years of service ans still sound great, better than any new production valve..........power tubes can go from only 1000 hours up from close to 8-10 K hours ............ECC83 even up to 100K hours .........;when used correctly .
The BBC NEVER shut down their valve amplifiers and maximize to extend their usefull life .
kind regards
It would have been funnier if you trolled the "YOU TOUCHED THE SACRED VALVE WITH YOUR FLESH, YOU HEATHEN MONSTER!" crowd by licking them before you installed them.
Also... thou shalt only install fresh tubes with a wooden mallet hammered in a clockwise fashion. n'eer use a rubber mallet! thine old gods art allergic unto rubber, and the magik smoke of headrooooom must remain pure
(im joking, in case someone actually tries to use a mallet!!!)
(make sure its wooden)
the back tire on my motorbike was done in one season.
my only tube amp is a 5 watt class-a EL-84, I use a large plate pre-amp tube and run enough boost that all the clipping happens in the power amp. ( because it sounds better to me )
do you think I will get a year out of my 7189? ........ I have to have ways to cope, and if that's more tires and power valves then so be it.
Great video. One thing I would strongly disagree with, though. And I make this observation as an amp tech who specializes in vintage tube amps for a living. You say preamp tubes don't need changed often. That might be somewhat true if all you use is heads that are never stacked on top of the speakers. But in any combo amp, the tubes are often only inches away from the speaker(s), and those vibrations, especially at gigging volumes, will turn a tube microphonic after a while. Some brands more quickly than others, but none are immune. A microphonic tube can test very strong, but be unusable.
I work on tube amps, and every amp that comes in for service gets the tubes pulled and tested for strength. Then after any maintenance or repairs are done, the tubes are put back in and tested for microphonics in the amp. I have a bin full of tubes that failed that test.
But aside from that, be aware that preamp tubes, especially if acquired from a vendor who does not test for strength or microphonics, can be bad right out of the box. The minimum performance standards for a new tube to pass Q.C. for general use are much less stringent in certain regards than the requirements for good performance in a tube amp. I had a customer who purchased a brand new high dollar "endorsement" model from one of the major brands, and brought it to me because he couldn't get it dialed in. Three of the seven tubes were bad! Brand new, amount of use played no factor, just poor quality control. Lesson there: always try to purchase tubes from a reputable vendor, and big name amp makers cannot always be relied upon to be reputable vendors of tubes.
One other thing to avoid that will reduce tube life and require more frequent tube changes, and this is mainly for the gigging players, is avoiding moving the amp around when warm. The tubes are made with very tiny, very tight tolerances inside. As they run, they warm up to extremely hot temperatures, and those internal components expand. When you turn the amp off, it is ideal to let the amp cool down for a while before loading it in the car and driving away.
And lastly, 98% of tubes do not give any visual indication they are bad. I have had numerous customers drop off an amp and say that they looked in the back and the tubes "look okay". Most of the time there will be no visual failure to see. But always remember, if you do look in the amp and see that any of the tubes have a flakey, smokey white coloration in them, DO NOT TURN THE AMP ON!! That means the tube seal is no good and will not work properly. It could mean anything from just no sound all the way up to killing other components. Do not operate an amp with a smoked tube.
so, i have a carvin x100b from the 80s. it has carvin branded tubes so i'm assuming that they're original. it seems to work fine and sound right, so was it just not used much or am i ignoring blatant issues?
I have just bought my first valve amp a Prima Luna 100 integrated amp so I have never yet bought any valves.
I have two questions; 1] is there any useful information I can get by watching guitar amp tutorials such as yours or are hifi amps too different to be comparable?
2] The EL84 valve is an option for my Prima Luna, so any detail about practical things such as do they run hotter? is there any difference in life expectancy from EL34? haw does the sound compare? etc.
Knowing that valves are consumables I will have to buy new ones and I'm hoping to maximize the top end clarity and head room.
thanks in advance for any advice anyone can give me.
OK you should clear up one thing. WTF is "magic smoke"? Are you really saying to actually watch for smoke?
You have come a long way man. I remember when you kinda started, you already had a following, nice going congrats.
what do you think it's the problem when playing the volume drops as well gets staticky...like if the dial on the radio is not properly tuned into the station frequency. Thanks!
My 5150 has the volume drop, just like you say, sporadic. is it possible it could be the pre amp tubes. I just turn the amp off when this happens because i had no idea what was going on. What Does biasing mean? How do you know if your amp needs to be biased or not?
Preamp tubes don't wear out? What? I'm assuming that depends on how much gain your preamp has? I have a Boogie Mark IV for example. Surely those will die in at least a couple of years of regular use?
So I have my first tube amp and I'm dumb, but when I turn it on I can play for a few minutes and it quickly loses volume and goes dead ass silent. Assuming it's just the tubes that need replacing, ja?
I found that playing my amp cranked for hours every days generally causes significant damage... Because my wife loses her fucking shit and starts kicking the arse out of my amp 🤣
did anyone ever experience a veeery high pitched sound from their amp? like 5000hz? is that a broken valve?
has anyone recorded the screeching sound? i started getting it recently and im getting my amp repaired but to be honest I think it sounded extremely cool and if there was a way to control it…. like you said it’s basically impossible to guess when it’s going to happen but it’s such an intense sound
Haha. I think i have a tube failing partially just because my valve warranty just expired
JJ tubes have that red etching on them. Once that red starts fading and turning brown, that's pretty much your cue that they're going bad and need to be changed before they start causing more issues. You don't want to get them bad enough that it's shorting out and blowing fuses because then it's starting to do damage to components that are going to be far more expensive to replace than a couple of tubes. You really have to be ignorant of the signs to get it that far though but people do all the time. Fuses don't blow for no reason, don't just replace the fuse and think it's fine just because it didn't blow again. A fuse blowing is literally telling you there's something more going on. Can't stress it enough.
My 6 month old victory has 3 out of 4 pre amp tubes failed. They are ehx wich is the only brand of pre amp tubes i ever had fail
I have a 100w head and jam with a drummer with the volume at about 3. Does that mean my tubes are gonna last long?
My power valves have lasted 10 years. It’s always a 12ax7 preamp valve for me that goes bad.
So basically it's like cancer or some other terminal illness but for amps.
What el84 valves do U recommend. But not china
I remember changing my first set of valves. Wondering why it didn't sound right and then finding out what biasing was. I don't have the balls, skill or qualifications to be messing around with live electricity so I took it straight to the local music shop for them to do the dangerous bits. Great vid as always Colin.
Biasing is easy, just don't be a retard. Some amp manufacturers have a bias test point, some will use the HT fuse as the test point, and some will require a socket probe. Which is basically an extra tube socket that plugs into your multimeter and is sandwiched between the socket in the amp and your tube. As long as you make sure that your amp has a load, you know the appropriate mA to look for (between 60mA and 120mA), you just gotta use alligator clips and a small flathead on the bias knob. I've been inside tube amps more times than I've ever needed to and I have absolutely no electrical experience other than specific tutorials and the basics of tube amp design.
Makes me remember the reason why I stopped using valve amps in favour of more reliable and maintenance free Solid State amplifiers.
Last time I commented early Colin still didn't cut off that magnificent hair!
Not only was it never built the box was never opened.
Dude, great information as always.
Also really dig the new hairdo! 🕺
Love it!!! Cathode biased... That's handy information
I’m pretty sure we have the same mustardy shirt
So the joyo bantamps are basically like a solid state?
I've had my amp for 6 years now, up untill recently when I bought an interface it's been played at volume 0.7 out of 10. When I hook it up to the interface the clean channel goes to 4.5 and the drive channel to 7. I honestly have been worried that the tubes need replacing already, but I replaced the power tubes 4 years ago because a component on the circuit board short circuited, taking out the power section (the amp company has since upgraded that component.... I got it for free.) So yeah.... 😂 what to do what to do.
You're supposed to service your motor vehicle?
if you have to ask if the tube is bad its probably not bad
Discord Squaaad !
Squaaaaaaad
Squad!
Does anyone make a matched sextet of 6L6GC for my super twin reverb? Do they still make transistorized replacements that go in the valve sockets for a solid state a replacement for rectifiers,preamp and power tubes???
Tube depot will match and burn in tubes in any numbers you want (if you want 6 they will match them)
@@DarrenWaters75 thank you Sir!!!
I'm more concerned about changing power tubes as they should be biased for the amp. I know that some companies sell sets for particular amplifiers but I don't know if that means that they are plug and go without biasing.
Just commenting for the algorithm
This is why I play solid state pedal platform amps.
Are you saying there’s nothing wrong with a amplifier when the tubes fail? That tube failure is caused only within the tubes?
That’s incorrect. If the bias circuit in a amp fails…such as the bias capacitor…the power tubes will red plate. Tubes can also red plate due to dirty or loose power tube sockets
No, I'm saying that valves are consumable units with a life cycle - they will eventually wear out through normal use.
I'm not talking about other circuit failures that cause valves to red plate or fail in other ways.
Completely unrelated to the topic of the video, but I didn't realize the sentence "the valves need changed" was a valid grammatical construction in Scotland. I thought this usage was confined to certain parts of the US, and most of the rest of the world would say "the valves need changing" or "the valves need to be changed". Colin is always teachin' me stuff he isn't even tryin' to teach me.
@@Ndlanding Interesting, because as someone raised in Canada I have almost the exact opposite reaction! But honestly I'm most likely to say "Need to be __ed" anyway. Language is cool.
That ending though 🤣
Smooth tires grip the road better.