valves

[daveblue222]

hey,

i think one of my 6l6 tubes have packed up, it doesnt appear to glow after using the amp and the amp now has a little less in volume when in use and sounds tinny and a bit distorted on the clean setting. our these common factors which occur when a valve goes?

fender matched pairs are pretty impossible to get hold of, so what would everyone recommend as a replacement???

cheers

 

[Track Rat]

This is where I get mine.
http://www.tubedepot.com/

 

[daveblue222]

hmm swapped the tubes around and the one that didnt work worked fine in the other socket. i then swapped them back around to there original position and now both are glowing fine. along with better sound.


???


may still get some new ones though

 

[dementedchord]

sounds like the sockets need to be adjusted... power it down and drain the caps... then take a small screwdriver (i use a dental pick) and close up the tabs that grab the tube... dont over do it though as you can close them too much...

 

[daveblue222]

how do i drain the caps???


cheers

 

[hungovermorning]

If you're looking for replacement tubes, I think that Ruby 6L6s are the best. Plenty of experience with em, they're reliable and a lot more open sounding than the alternatives.
Try the tube socket trick first though, if the tubes are fine maybe a resistor failed or even the secondary on the output transformer.

 

[Sonixx]

Dougs Tubes

Eurotubes

KCA

The Tube Store

Tube Depot

I would not recommend just slapping in any set of power tubes. At a minimum, have a tech look at the bias with the new tubes and determine the bias point.

 

[dementedchord]

how do i drain the caps???


cheers

the "right" way is to short the voltage to grnd through a resistor... equally effective but not recommended dont use the resistor just wire... in most cases you can simply hold a chord and turn the power off the chord will pull the voltage down... if you use this method i would still short the line before opening it just to be safe...