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
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
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
My Peavey JSX had a sudden volume drop during band rehearsal today. I thought something really serious happened, so I stopped playing immediately. Glad I came across this video today!!! Hopefully it's just the power tubes and I didn't cause any damage to anything.
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…
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?
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 : )
This video was very helpful. Last couple of days I noticed a very mushy sound coming from my JCM 900 MK 3. Ordered a set of harma valves from Watford valves also 👍
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.
Watch for defective tubes when purchasing new, as they're hard to pinpoint because you'll only notice it in the guitar tone, glassy sounding, unless you have them tested professionally, the tube depot just nailed me, it took me a few months until I realized what the issue was
My 5150 dropped volume to fully quiet a couple of times. And popped a fuse another time. It has been behaving flawlessly since. I've also stopped using a passive attenuator, thinking maybe that was part of the issue? Or failure is imminent, and it is just not tripping out now due to lower load. Probably should get new power tubes.....
You should make a video about humming in tube amps. I have a tube amp that randomly hums and sometimes don't, I have sent it in for fixing and even changing power and pre amp tubes and it wont fix it. All the knobs on the amp doesn't make the hum louder and I have powered it up in different places so incase it was the an outlet problem and nothing can fix it. I talked to a tube amp professional and he said that its probably nothing that you should worry about, but its still strange. One of natures mysteries.
yep, my Laney GH100R had a dead valve and i kept using it, burning out some protective condensers or something. didn't blow a fuse, which it should have, according to the amp tech i brought it to. he throughly checked the thing, replaced all defective components and all 4 el34 powertubes. set me back 170€, but the amp works now great again.
My brother has a Carvin V3M and both the power circuit and amp circuit seem to drop out intermittently. Changed out the tubes but no difference. That said, we were never able to bias because it's a live bias but I don't think a crap bias is enough to trigger the exact same problem. We have given up as of now and the thing is just sitting. Great amp but we have no idea what is wrong with it.
Hey Colin, how can you tel the difference between an issue with the power amp valves and preamp valves. I have a grandmeister deluxe 40 and it will randomly let out a high pitch hum/squeal sound but the power amp tubes aren’t indicating any issues on the tsc in the amp.
I wonder my rg80-112sc does have random volume drops but is solid state granted I am using the pull knob that already does make the amp quieter. The push/pull knob makes the amp based off of mainly vol instead of gain
There would be also the possibility of automatic bias, but I've not seen one on a valve amp yet. My stereo amp has automatic bias, but that one uses bipolar transistors.
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?
Welp was playing through my ht Blackstar mkii 6L6 40 watt combo! Notice the volume drops. On the rhythm/lead channel. So that probably means it’s truly time to get some new set of from my pre amp tubes and power tubes lol
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.
I have a Marshall power amp from 1990…it still has the original stock valves that it came with….I haven’t wanted to change them until I had to…so far,they are still kicking….30 years and counting..
i was wondering you to make a practical comparison between your old valves, against the new ones so we can hear what are you talking about, i hope to hear that on your large valve amp video, i like your videos, find very useful the infomation you give us!
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.
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
This is why BluGuitar uses instrumentation grade subminiature tubes - not only are they compact, they're rated for reliability and optimized for lifespan. ;-)
My bugera v22 started popping violently a while ago. I thought it was some cable connection but the pops became loud bangs and I started swapping tubes to find the culprit. Problem is that it took 10 mins before I got the first pops..
your info on this is amazing bro.noone did that on you tube it seems noone talk about it.thanks for doing that .i keep an eye on my marshall origin 20 head valves so far so good.ive had the amp for 1.5 years now and sound still strong.i will leve it alone until i notice something.i ply 1 hour a day so not much use.thanks again for the great info.
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!
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!
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.
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???
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 an original 2554 Silver Jubilee and when the lead master distortion channel is activated, sometimes ant random, the distortion will drop to a mild distortion and then jump back to full distortion again. Sometimes when it drops to a mild distortion, the only thing that will get it back to full distortion is when I strike the strings hard (increasing the voltage from the guitar pickups) before it drops out again. Could this be a faulty valve issue or an issue with the rectifier?
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 have a Marshall DSL15H, it was working fine a couple a weeks ago and I havent used it since. Yesterdat when I went to play. I turned it on and there was no volume around a minute later I raised the volume to 10 and then I could finally hear a very faint sound. So I figured there was an issue and turned it off. Do you think it could be the power tubes? Or preamp tubes? Thanks for any help
Hi Colin I’ve just made a vid about swapping out the EL84’s in a Bassbreaker15, I saw a bright light out the back of the amp then turned it back on after it cooled and the first in line didn’t glow, put a new set in and the same one started to glow like mad and smelt a bit smokey, I haven’t turned it back on since, What is happening???? Any help would be greatly appreciated!! Great channel btw 👍🏼
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 :)
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.
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?
TATA what would happen if i took out my power tubes eg 6l6gc's too maybe wipe them and then put them back in the same position or maybe swap their positions around?
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.
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.
Valves need to run at the proper idle current to operate properly. Biasing is the act of setting that idle current. Biasing too hot and the valves will burn out quicker, biasing too cold and the amplifier isn't going to sound very good. If the bias is way off then the amplifier can be damaged as the valves pull too much current or voltage through the surrounding components.
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
Not sure if anyone asked.. What dressing/ tubing are you using on your EL84 retainers? That white looks nice, would like to do something similar to my Dark Terror 😂 🤟
I would like to add that I believe tubes might last a little longer in well ventilated places and cooler climates. I played for a long time in a hot LA studios and I feel like everyone in LA has had to do a tube change but as you go further north, seems like fewer and fewer people have had tube/valve changes. That being said, even in a hot LA practice space with no AC, I never had to replace preamp tubes. Maybe some friends did it with their power tubes for the all new tubes and hassle at once. I bought a used ADA MP1 to match tones with another guitarist when they were out of style and people were selling them for cheap, I didn't even know they had preamp tubes in them until I got rid of mine. Never had an issue and they got gigged a lot and lots of practice for about a decade in hot practice rooms in LA.
The strange thing is that I never had a failing power amp valve and only had to replace pre amp valves on my amps. So far I played years with my amps with cranked volume, had one of them at a repair shop for a service and after 5 years the power amp tubes are still good....and I got the amp second hand without changing the tubes from the previous onwer, who also got the amp second had and didn't change anything for years.
el34s are good for 2500+ hours and preamp tubes are supposed to last up to 10000.. so usually there's no point in changing valves all the time if they're good quality and the bias is set properly
I got notification of this video yesterday, but I didn't click it. This morning, I tried to play my amp and all kind of weird nose came out. The clean channel became distorted. Overdrive channel was worse. It produced feedback like crazy. On top of this problem, there was crackling, pop, volume change, and all kind of extraterrestrial noise from both channel. I plugged my guitar and cable to my DI and everything was ok. So the amp must be the problem. After watching this video, I'm 100% sure there is problem with power tube. The sad thing is I very seldom use this amp because I hate its sound. Now it is dead. Sad but true.
I've had EL34 valves fail spectacularly, they ended up with no bias, red plated and took out the cathode resistors, they exploded. Simple repair and new set of valves later it's back up and running
Correct. You should be able to run that basically forever. The only reason to change the valve would be to mess around with the sound. Some valves will have more gain than others or have a different response.
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?
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.” :)
"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
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.
I had valve failure on a motorbike once... that also resulted in immediate silence of a previously loud device! 😂
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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!!!
Nailed it! Thank you! Sound was crakling, volume droppin, just swapped out tubes, done! Marshall 20 watt JMC 800 studio series.
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!
You have come a long way man. I remember when you kinda started, you already had a following, nice going congrats.
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.
Thanks! This video came at just the right time as my Fender Twin has begun failing and squealing.
Just got my first tube amp! Needed this video so much. Thank you and can't wait for the full dive video!
Thanks for this Colin, this has come at just the right time for me…..cue ordering 4 EL84’s….
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.
Dude, great information as always.
Also really dig the new hairdo! 🕺
My Peavey JSX had a sudden volume drop during band rehearsal today. I thought something really serious happened, so I stopped playing immediately. Glad I came across this video today!!! Hopefully it's just the power tubes and I didn't cause any damage to anything.
I’m so glad this amp is cathode bias, never changed valves before, feel like I might be able to with this! Great video thanks!
Good info. Enjoyed the 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…
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?
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 : )
This video was very helpful. Last couple of days I noticed a very mushy sound coming from my JCM 900 MK 3. Ordered a set of harma valves from Watford valves also 👍
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.
Watch for defective tubes when purchasing new, as they're hard to pinpoint because you'll only notice it in the guitar tone, glassy sounding, unless you have them tested professionally, the tube depot just nailed me, it took me a few months until I realized what the issue was
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 5150 dropped volume to fully quiet a couple of times. And popped a fuse another time. It has been behaving flawlessly since. I've also stopped using a passive attenuator, thinking maybe that was part of the issue?
Or failure is imminent, and it is just not tripping out now due to lower load.
Probably should get new power tubes.....
You should make a video about humming in tube amps. I have a tube amp that randomly hums and sometimes don't, I have sent it in for fixing and even changing power and pre amp tubes and it wont fix it. All the knobs on the amp doesn't make the hum louder and I have powered it up in different places so incase it was the an outlet problem and nothing can fix it. I talked to a tube amp professional and he said that its probably nothing that you should worry about, but its still strange. One of natures mysteries.
yep, my Laney GH100R had a dead valve and i kept using it, burning out some protective condensers or something. didn't blow a fuse, which it should have, according to the amp tech i brought it to. he throughly checked the thing, replaced all defective components and all 4 el34 powertubes. set me back 170€, but the amp works now great again.
My brother has a Carvin V3M and both the power circuit and amp circuit seem to drop out intermittently. Changed out the tubes but no difference. That said, we were never able to bias because it's a live bias but I don't think a crap bias is enough to trigger the exact same problem. We have given up as of now and the thing is just sitting. Great amp but we have no idea what is wrong with it.
Hey Colin, how can you tel the difference between an issue with the power amp valves and preamp valves. I have a grandmeister deluxe 40 and it will randomly let out a high pitch hum/squeal sound but the power amp tubes aren’t indicating any issues on the tsc in the amp.
I wonder my rg80-112sc does have random volume drops but is solid state granted I am using the pull knob that already does make the amp quieter. The push/pull knob makes the amp based off of mainly vol instead of gain
There would be also the possibility of automatic bias, but I've not seen one on a valve amp yet. My stereo amp has automatic bias, but that one uses bipolar transistors.
So the joyo bantamps are basically like a solid state?
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?
Great video. Right to the point!
Just started the video and I’ve noticed some woofing sound if the preamp on my blackstar series one is too high
This came at EXACTLY the right time, thanks!
Welp was playing through my ht Blackstar mkii 6L6 40 watt combo! Notice the volume drops. On the rhythm/lead channel. So that probably means it’s truly time to get some new set of from my pre amp tubes and power tubes lol
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.
I have a Marshall power amp from 1990…it still has the original stock valves that it came with….I haven’t wanted to change them until I had to…so far,they are still kicking….30 years and counting..
i was wondering you to make a practical comparison between your old valves, against the new ones so we can hear what are you talking about, i hope to hear that on your large valve amp video, i like your videos, find very useful the infomation you give us!
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.
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
Not sure if you thought about it, but what about videos about output transformers going bad?
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
This is why BluGuitar uses instrumentation grade subminiature tubes - not only are they compact, they're rated for reliability and optimized for lifespan. ;-)
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
My bugera v22 started popping violently a while ago. I thought it was some cable connection but the pops became loud bangs and I started swapping tubes to find the culprit.
Problem is that it took 10 mins before I got the first pops..
your info on this is amazing bro.noone did that on you tube it seems noone talk about it.thanks for doing that .i keep an eye on my marshall origin 20 head valves so far so good.ive had the amp for 1.5 years now and sound still strong.i will leve it alone until i notice something.i ply 1 hour a day so not much use.thanks again for the great info.
Love your videos (particularly these kind of "PSA" videos)!
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!
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!
I would love to see what you can do with the rob scallon shark1 guitar
This is why I play solid state pedal platform amps.
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.
Love it!!! Cathode biased... That's handy information
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!!!
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?
great video. especially because I have got exectly the same app. nice to know I can change them (on this amp) myself. cheers
I have an original 2554 Silver Jubilee and when the lead master distortion channel is activated, sometimes ant random, the distortion will drop to a mild distortion and then jump back to full distortion again. Sometimes when it drops to a mild distortion, the only thing that will get it back to full distortion is when I strike the strings hard (increasing the voltage from the guitar pickups) before it drops out again.
Could this be a faulty valve issue or an issue with the rectifier?
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 have a Marshall DSL15H, it was working fine a couple a weeks ago and I havent used it since. Yesterdat when I went to play. I turned it on and there was no volume around a minute later I raised the volume to 10 and then I could finally hear a very faint sound. So I figured there was an issue and turned it off. Do you think it could be the power tubes? Or preamp tubes? Thanks for any help
Hey I’ve got an EVH stealth 50 watt and it blew a fuse , should I take it in , or just replace the fuse myself
What would cause a pre amp tube to blow?
Hi Colin I’ve just made a vid about swapping out the EL84’s in a Bassbreaker15, I saw a bright light out the back of the amp then turned it back on after it cooled and the first in line didn’t glow, put a new set in and the same one started to glow like mad and smelt a bit smokey, I haven’t turned it back on since, What is happening???? Any help would be greatly appreciated!!
Great channel btw 👍🏼
will failing valves affect tone ,just the even sound without the drop in volume?
Are there huge differences in tune brands? Like are there specific tube manufacturers I should generally stay away from?
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 :)
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.
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?
TATA what would happen if i took out my power tubes eg 6l6gc's too maybe wipe them and then put them back in the same position or maybe swap their positions around?
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.
Makes me remember the reason why I stopped using valve amps in favour of more reliable and maintenance free Solid State amplifiers.
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.
Nice video! Thank you
this was the perfect video for me dude thank you.
I needed this video so much, thanks.
Very informative
What do we mean by Biasing an amp?
Valves need to run at the proper idle current to operate properly. Biasing is the act of setting that idle current.
Biasing too hot and the valves will burn out quicker, biasing too cold and the amplifier isn't going to sound very good.
If the bias is way off then the amplifier can be damaged as the valves pull too much current or voltage through the surrounding components.
@@ScienceofLoud thanks alot brother! Keep up the good work coming!
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?
I can't wait for the next video, amps still feel like magic :D
Thank you so much for these vids
What el84 valves do U recommend. But not china
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
Not sure if anyone asked.. What dressing/ tubing are you using on your EL84 retainers? That white looks nice, would like to do something similar to my Dark Terror 😂 🤟
I would like to add that I believe tubes might last a little longer in well ventilated places and cooler climates. I played for a long time in a hot LA studios and I feel like everyone in LA has had to do a tube change but as you go further north, seems like fewer and fewer people have had tube/valve changes.
That being said, even in a hot LA practice space with no AC, I never had to replace preamp tubes. Maybe some friends did it with their power tubes for the all new tubes and hassle at once. I bought a used ADA MP1 to match tones with another guitarist when they were out of style and people were selling them for cheap, I didn't even know they had preamp tubes in them until I got rid of mine. Never had an issue and they got gigged a lot and lots of practice for about a decade in hot practice rooms in LA.
Thank you for this. Very helpful. Subbed and liked.
The strange thing is that I never had a failing power amp valve and only had to replace pre amp valves on my amps.
So far I played years with my amps with cranked volume, had one of them at a repair shop for a service and after 5 years the power amp tubes are still good....and I got the amp second hand without changing the tubes from the previous onwer, who also got the amp second had and didn't change anything for years.
el34s are good for 2500+ hours and preamp tubes are supposed to last up to 10000.. so usually there's no point in changing valves all the time if they're good quality and the bias is set properly
@@metamaggot These are 6V6 valves. Still going strong after about 6 or 7 years. Some preamptubes had to be replaced to get rid of weird noise though.
I got notification of this video yesterday, but I didn't click it. This morning, I tried to play my amp and all kind of weird nose came out. The clean channel became distorted. Overdrive channel was worse. It produced feedback like crazy. On top of this problem, there was crackling, pop, volume change, and all kind of extraterrestrial noise from both channel. I plugged my guitar and cable to my DI and everything was ok. So the amp must be the problem. After watching this video, I'm 100% sure there is problem with power tube.
The sad thing is I very seldom use this amp because I hate its sound. Now it is dead. Sad but true.
Cool Video man!
At first I was all excited thinking I could just swap the tubes, and then you literally used my Kraken as an example. Rip lol
I've had EL34 valves fail spectacularly, they ended up with no bias, red plated and took out the cathode resistors, they exploded.
Simple repair and new set of valves later it's back up and running
TATA - My main amp (Vox MV50 Clean) has a NuTube in it, the hell does that mean!?
So those hybrid amps like the joyo or micro terrors with a tube in the preamp won’t most likely ever have to be changed?
Correct. You should be able to run that basically forever.
The only reason to change the valve would be to mess around with the sound. Some valves will have more gain than others or have a different response.
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?