How often do you replace your power tubes?

B

B2D

SDUGF Riffologist Supremö
I'm wondering... how often do all the tube amp guys here who play and gig them regularly need to change theor power tubes?

I have a Carvin Legacy that I use with an attenuator. The amp gets run about once a week for four hours at gigging power levels. When i got the amp I has it biased specifically for some GT EL34s, and it sounded excellent. That was in July-August '05 I believe.

Now the amp's starting to get more noticable odd transients and noise, and the tone doesn't sound as good as I'm used to. I'm thinking it's time for a tube change here pretty quick.

I know the #1 rule is to use your ears and eyes, but I'm curious as to how often other people here who gig their amps regularly change tubes. I've heard stories of older amps with older tubes going several years (Jeff Beck and Tom Morello both claim to have Marshalls that have never had their tubes changed ) with the same tubes, but no one I know can seem to get theirs going much past the 2 year mark. I run an attenuator too so that might take off some life as well.

So what's the story?
 
Re: How often do you replace your power tubes?

Sometimes, the bias point drifts off a little, just from the wear. Before changing out year old tubes, sometimes I'll just play the amp outside it's chassis, and tweak the bias pot with a plastic handled screwdriver to see if the tone tightens up again. I did that recently, and surprisingly, it sounded like a new set of tubes again.

After a 1 1/2 years of regular use, it's usually worthwhile to pop a new set of JJ EL-34's in there, since a whole quartet is less than $50.
 
Re: How often do you replace your power tubes?

Gearjoneser said:
Sometimes, the bias point drifts off a little, just from the wear. Before changing out year old tubes, sometimes I'll just play the amp outside it's chassis, and tweak the bias pot with a plastic handled screwdriver to see if the tone tightens up again. I did that recently, and surprisingly, it sounded like a new set of tubes again.

After a 1 1/2 years of regular use, it's usually worthwhile to pop a new set of JJ EL-34's in there, since a whole quartet is less than $50.
Click to expand...

I'm assuming I'd be adjusting the bias by ear, right? ;)

I'm currently running GT Gold Series EL34's. I wanna change the amp out to all JJ's but the EL's sounded so good in there so as you can imagine I'm a little nervous about making an expensive move to something I don't like as much. But then again I've never encountered a bad set of JJ's.
 
Re: How often do you replace your power tubes?

There is no real way to put a time on a tube's life. There are many factors on how long they will last. Right now I have used G.E. 6L6s from the 60's in my HRD. They work and sound great! The NOS JAN Phillips 6V6's in my Princeton developed filament rattle after 10 years and where replaced with JJ's. Being a fixed bias amp I never checked them a year ago when I put them in. I just installed 1 ohm resistors to check bias and it turns out they diffed 9mV apart? (Could have been like that since day one?) So in short the things that will hasten a tubes demise would be #1) Hot bias #2) Excessive rattling (i.e.) Tubes in a small combo, Or just banging the amp around among other things.
 
Re: How often do you replace your power tubes?

Not too often...I rotate amps quite a bit so that they don't get in the hundred hour use range for probably a year or two. I have been using 7581A or 6CA7's in a lot of my amps and they last forever (I have one set from the 70's that still tests good) if you don't bias them too hot. Other amps get Winged C 6L6, which seem to last about 6 months. A cold bias sounds pretty bad, but 70% max diss or more will burn them out pretty fast...
 
Re: How often do you replace your power tubes?

I don't change power tubes too often. Over the past few years, I've swapped amps long before the tubes wore out. :p
 
Re: How often do you replace your power tubes?

When I just played my Fender TRRI about an hour a day, I noticed a change at about 8 months and for as cheap as they were, replaced.

My Bruno cowtipper has NOS and they sound the same as first day I fired amp up. The day I notice a difference, will change quick just the same.
 
Re: How often do you replace your power tubes?

So the basic message is kind of like: "The rate at which shoes wear out depends on how often you wear them and what you do with them." Gotcha.

In other words, use your eyes and ears. :) Well to me they LOOk fine but they sound like they're a bit worn. Two of them have gotten hot enough (I'm assuming from heavy attenuation at a particular gig or jam) to have scorched the red GT paint on the side into brown.
 
Re: How often do you replace your power tubes?

When the base is discolored, I usually find that they are biased too hot. This was pretty apparent with the old Svetlana stuff and they were pretty worn out by the time the brown bases turned darker. When you retube, try a lower bias setting---the tone will be a little different, a little less power maybe, but your tubes will last longer.
 
Re: How often do you replace your power tubes?

ES350 said:
When the base is discolored, I usually find that they are biased too hot. This was pretty apparent with the old Svetlana stuff and they were pretty worn out by the time the brown bases turned darker. When you retube, try a lower bias setting---the tone will be a little different, a little less power maybe, but your tubes will last longer.
Click to expand...
The base is just fine, I'm talking about the red GT paint on the glass.

I'm fine with changing tubes once a year, I just was wondering if that was normal by any standard.
 
Re: How often do you replace your power tubes?

I've had my amp for 2 years and never changed the tubes. Maybe I should now...
 
Re: How often do you replace your power tubes?

I have a combo so if i go over to my parents house and turn it up it seems to cause tube rattle pretty easily, so twice a year?
 
Re: How often do you replace your power tubes?

My amp actually has things that go over them to hold them down to keep from rattling, this is a rattle that is inside the tube that if you shake them slightly in hand you can hear. From reading it seems like some cheaper tubes have problems with it often in combos.
 
Re: How often do you replace your power tubes?

the tubes in my drri rattle and theyre pretty new. I need to look into those tube dampers.
 
Re: How often do you replace your power tubes?

i changed the tubes in my 5150 head and my Classic 50 head almost 9 years ago.... but they do not see action that often as that rig is overkill... i keep saying i'm getting tubes for some of my combos but never do.... My c30 i bought maybe 4 years ago used and never changed the tubes... normally i change the tubes in a used amp right away.. My C30 gets used a fair bit... If it ain't broke don't fix i guess.. but i should get some new tubes and see if it adds some sparkel back to the C30
 
Re: How often do you replace your power tubes?

My classic 30 hasn't had tubes changed for over a year now. Sounds just as good as the day I bought it, I'm just hoping they last another year.
 
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