Yuck, oh my just yuck

Grandor

New member
Just plugged into my rig and I mean, come on. My tone has been getting progressively worse over the past 6 months... maybe it IS time for new tubes... 18month old tubes = omg... eww.

Just wanted to say that...
 
Re: Yuck, oh my just yuck

My 5150 really needs tubes bad, it has this really thin trebley tone. Im pretty lazy though.
 
Re: Yuck, oh my just yuck

Tubes in my classic 30 are 12 months old, sounding okay still. Probably get one hour a day on average.
 
Re: Yuck, oh my just yuck

I just replaced my tubes this year in my Mesa Boogie ... 28 years. I play a lot ... had no idea that you might need to replace them more often. Then I broke one ... retubed the power tubes ... sounded the same (whew ... I was worried). Retubed the preamp tubes ... put the old V2 12AX7 and V2 12AT7 back in ... they sounded better. Go figure. Unusual I know but true.
 
Re: Yuck, oh my just yuck

I just replaced my tubes this year in my Mesa Boogie ... 28 years. I play a lot ... had no idea that you might need to replace them more often. Then I broke one ... retubed the power tubes ... sounded the same (whew ... I was worried). Retubed the preamp tubes ... put the old V2 12AX7 and V2 12AT7 back in ... they sounded better. Go figure. Unusual I know but true.

exactly what happened to me! spended money on 5 12x7c's replaced em , and it sounded ok, put back in the old ones and sounded better!
 
Re: Yuck, oh my just yuck

Environment also has a lot to do with tube life...tubes are...well...very temperamental.

They could last you forever or 30 minutes...just depends, lol.
 
Re: Yuck, oh my just yuck

Some tubes have an incredibly long life span. Look at some of the NOS and even ANOS tubes we are buying for top $$ that are 40+ years old. As a general rule, power tubes go long before pre-amp tubes. Assuming that you don't break a pre amp tube, it could conceivably have a life of 10,000 hours of use or more.

Bottom line is if you don't like your tone, change them. It's a cheap and easy way to affect your tone. Just save your old ones just in case.
 
Re: Yuck, oh my just yuck

Dude, I still have the original power tubes in a '68 Fender Bandmaster my uncle passed on to me. Still sounds great.

I remember reading an interview with Malmsteen re: tubes in his Marshalls. He was saying that he's never changed the tubes in many of his amps (even though he's endorsing JJ's...). He beats the crap out of his, as well, lol.
 
Re: Yuck, oh my just yuck

I've got a recording session coming up in a few weeks. My Legacy's been running on 4 out of its 5 preamp tubes for a little over a year and the power tubes have been worked to the point where the GT paint logo has been scorched from orange to brown. Things are getting a little noisy too.

I have no clue how long the tubes have been in my Peavey Classic 50, but the amp is 15 years old and the tubes are these RCA ones with gold logos. The Power tubes are Sovtek. It sounds fine so I think those will stay put. I should probably still get a backup set though.
 
Re: Yuck, oh my just yuck

preamp tubes should last for a long time. power tubes can too but its much more dependant on how hard you run them
 
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