Blew a preamp tube in the Quick Rod last night

[sosomething]

thank god

If you're gonna have an amp problem, it's the best problem to have.

I don't know if I can express the relief you feel when, after having your amp fizzle out into "no sound mode," you look in the back and see that one little soldier whose light has ceased to glow.

Had it back up and running GREAT in 5 minutes.

For the record, the tube that died was a Tung Sol 12AX7 which was in the phase inverter socket when I got the amp. Replaced it with an 12AX7EH Gold Pin and man... I don't know if the Tung Sol had been dying a slow death of degrees or if I really prefer the EH-GP in this amp, but the sound after putting it in was HUGE, CRUSHING, and IMMEDIATE.

Such a great amp.

Thanks for reading my story!

 

[B Bent]

Re: Blew a preamp tube in the Quick Rod last night

I know it may just be me, but I have had the worst luck with DOA or noisy Tung Sols in multiple amps. Gotta love an easy fix though.

 

[Left_Hand_Strat]

Re: Blew a preamp tube in the Quick Rod last night

simple and effective is what this world needs.

that's what makes a good product, reliable and easy to fix

 

[sosomething]

Re: Blew a preamp tube in the Quick Rod last night

Your threads are like watching Law and Order: SVU hoping for a cleavage shot.

I do not understand what this means.

I know it may just be me, but I have had the worst luck with DOA or noisy Tung Sols in multiple amps. Gotta love an easy fix though.

Yeah, I don't know how old that tube was so I can't comment on their reliability from experience, but I think I'll just be sticking with my gold pins for now.

 

[sosomething]

Re: Blew a preamp tube in the Quick Rod last night

Can't wait for the next one!

awwwww

 

[sosomething]

Re: Blew a preamp tube in the Quick Rod last night

OK stop it

 

[tone4days]

Re: Blew a preamp tube in the Quick Rod last night

glad it wasnt serious

do you go for matched/balanced tubes in the PI slot? or intentionally NOT matched /balanced? or just 'whatever'?

 

[DankStar]

Re: Blew a preamp tube in the Quick Rod last night

Good thing you wear that belt consisting of leather and fresh preamp tubes.

 

[TeleLubber]

Re: Blew a preamp tube in the Quick Rod last night

I like it when you can fix somethin that simple..
My Twin was dying a slow death recently, makin funny cracklin noises.. wasn't tubes tho.. then one day as I was trying to ignore the intermittent annoying noise .. SQUEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAALLLLL!!!

Heart dropped right outta my chest.. splat

Turned out to be not one, but two leaky filter caps.. not so cheap repair.. I got it re-tubed while I was at it..

New tubes sound great.. dont they?

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: Blew a preamp tube in the Quick Rod last night

glad it wasnt serious

do you go for matched/balanced tubes in the PI slot? or intentionally NOT matched /balanced? or just 'whatever'?

I thought they had to be balanced. Is there some benefit to using unbalanced?

 

[misterwhizzy]

Re: Blew a preamp tube in the Quick Rod last night

glad it wasnt serious

do you go for matched/balanced tubes in the PI slot? or intentionally NOT matched /balanced? or just 'whatever'?

If I remember right, the long-tail pair that is typically used in a phase inverter is mismatched anyways, so getting matched and/or balanced tubes for that slot would be a waste of money.

There are surely more knowledgeable people here, but that's my recollection.

 

[tone4days]

Re: Blew a preamp tube in the Quick Rod last night

i have no first hand knowledge on the matter ... i have read that unbalanced can impart some extra harmonic mojo blah blah blah .. you know, cus its all rock n roll, man and it shoudlnt be all perfect .. yadda yadda

so thats why i asked - figuring sosomething is a serious guy when it comes to this kinda stuff and could fill us in with what he has actually observed

t4d

 

[Red_Label]

Re: Blew a preamp tube in the Quick Rod last night

Your threads are like watching Law and Order: SVU hoping for a cleavage shot.

I watch EVERYTHING hoping for a cleavage shot.

Am I doing it wrong?

 

[sosomething]

Re: Blew a preamp tube in the Quick Rod last night

I'm glad we solved the PI slot mystery!

As for me, I honestly have no idea what the difference between balanced/unbalanced tubes is - I just put tubes in there until it works again and make sure I like the way it sounds.

Good thing you wear that belt consisting of leather and fresh preamp tubes.

I've upgraded to a full utility belt that holds all my soldering tools as well.

 

[tone4days]

Re: Blew a preamp tube in the Quick Rod last night

I'm glad we solved the PI slot mystery!

As for me, I honestly have no idea what the difference between balanced/unbalanced tubes is - I just put tubes in there until it works again and make sure I like the way it sounds.



I've upgraded to a full utility belt that holds all my soldering tools as well.

well, there we have it

the engineer side of my brain would not be able to deal with unbalanced /unmatched in the PI slot ... so if it sounds better unmatched/unbalanced, i owuldnt want to know

 

[sosomething]

Re: Blew a preamp tube in the Quick Rod last night

well, there we have it

the engineer side of my brain would not be able to deal with unbalanced /unmatched in the PI slot ... so if it sounds better unmatched/unbalanced, i owuldnt want to know

I don't have an engineer side to my brain. My whole skull is filled with right brain.

 

[sosomething]

Re: Blew a preamp tube in the Quick Rod last night

I'm like Rain Man in reverse.

 

[crusty philtrum]

Re: Blew a preamp tube in the Quick Rod last night

Balanced valves in the PI mean little because usually the associated circuitry and the output transformer are not usually well balanced anyway. It is much more of an issue in hi-fi and audiophile applications where they will spend serious dollars for well-balanced output transformer windings and carefully balanced circuitry around the PI.

For guitar purposes we don't really want such precision balance, and it may well work against us as guitar players. It can be the imbalances that give guitar amps some of their characteristics that we find appealing. The same applies to power valves to some degree, although it is helpful if those valves are drawing roughly the same current as one another. (some amps have a bias adjustment for each valve, allowing non-matched pairs to run comfortably together).

I wish the opening post was in the AxeFX thread as a case in point about how the old valve technology allowed what seemed to be a dead amp to be brought back on line by simply removing the valve and replacing it with another one. There is still a lot to be said for the old technology, and simple tube replacement is surely one of the big ones, alongside the glorious sound.

Despite the fact that for some people, the pioneering days of early valve amps was a looong time ago, there were still some very clever and practical minds at work behind what is now an old technology.

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Blew a preamp tube in the Quick Rod last night

What a coincidence.

My quick rod blew right above a tube last night. : popworm::butkick::laugh2:

 

[ex-250]

Re: Blew a preamp tube in the Quick Rod last night

I don't have an engineer side to my brain. My whole skull is filled with right brain.

I take this as a prime opportunity to post an awesome song.