holy mother of crap! look, quick

[drew_half_empty]

i was playing a few seconds ago, and noticed a significant power drop, looked at all my cables & they were fine, glanced in the mirror thats behind my amp and there was like this orange cloud submerging the inside of the tube, so i shut it off as quickly as possible.

this means I really shouldn't turn on my amp till i get new 6l6's, correct?

also, any idea what caused this? I've never ever seen or heard of anything like this happening

[rspst14]

Re: holy mother of crap! look, quick

How long have the tubes been in there? With regular use, power tubes need replacing on a yearly basis. I'd get some new tubes and then see how everything works. Sometimes a bad tube can take out some resistors when it goes, so replace all the tubes and then make sure everything works okay.

Ryan

[drew_half_empty]

Re: holy mother of crap! look, quick

well, it was runnin pretty hot, the white logo on the front is now brownish in a couple places

I've had it since this summer, but i got it off ebay

[drew_half_empty]

Re: holy mother of crap! look, quick

well, i guess now is the perfect time to choose some tubes more to my liking

I've pretty much built my pedal around the stock tubes, so i guess I'll just go for some red label gt6l6b's, stock ones are white

will i have to rebias? if so, where's the rebias pot on a hot rod deluxe, and which way do i turn it & how much do i turn it?

[FretFire]

Re: holy mother of crap! look, quick

The take you should probably take it to will know all about that .

[Gearjoneser]

Re: holy mother of crap! look, quick

Sometimes, the bias being drastically out of balance will cause instant tube failure, but since I'm not sure your amp has a bias pot (small minipot inside near power tubes)
it's most likely a tube that decided to blow from normal use.

Before spending more money on Fender labeled GT, upgrade to Tesla JJ 6L6's, which will pop right in and be biased fine, just like the Fender GT's. You probably don't need preamp tubes, but it wouldn't be a bad idea to retube the entire amp.
If you want good tubes, shipped quickly, click on the revolution link in my signature.
He's cheaper than the competition, and his tubes are matched and packed well.
DON'T TURN THE AMP BACK ON TILL NEW TUBES ARE IN IT. If there's a strange glow with the new tubes in, shut it off and have a tech look at it. If an amp continues to fail, even with new tubes, keeping it running could result in other blown components, including your transformer.....and you don't want that! So far, the problem just sounds like a tube failure, which happens just like it happens to lightbulbs.

[edi_87]

Re: holy mother of crap! look, quick

few weeks ago my tube was the same, but instead of power drop my amp was completly silent... I replaced the bad tube with a one with the same characteristics and now everything's okay

[B2D]

Re: holy mother of crap! look, quick

I'd try to replace the tubes with the same type/label if at all possible. If you replace GT's with the same type of tube that you had before then you don't need to rebias (at least thats what their boxes say).

Waiting a little bit for the right tubes will be worth saving the money on a rebias.

An orange CLOUD? hmm thats a new one on me. Blown tube of course but I've never seen one go cloudy LOL.

[strat_master]

Re: holy mother of crap! look, quick

hmm take it to a tech, and get the ubes replaced. Replacing the pre amps? is that neccessary?

[drew_half_empty]

Re: holy mother of crap! look, quick

I'm not replacing the preamps

but if i replace the 6l6's with the same groove tubes, just red label instead of white, will i have to rebias? red's have more headroom

[mrid]

Re: holy mother of crap! look, quick

will i have to rebias? if so, where's the rebias pot on a hot rod deluxe, and which way do i turn it & how much do i turn it?

Biasing is like getting your prostate checked...everyone's afraid the first time, but it's really no big deal. BTW, I ALWAYS check the bias whenever I change tubes, especially if I had witnessed what you described.

[drew_half_empty]

Re: holy mother of crap! look, quick

where can i get a voltohmmeter & how much?

cheaper is better