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Post subject: Tube Life
Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2007 11:14 am
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Joined: Wed Jul 25, 2007 1:23 pm
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Location: Perry, Ohio
OK....it's been a LOT of years since I last owned a tube amp. I'm currently playing thru a Hot Rod Deluxe & am pretty much gigging every weekend. I usually keep the gain control around 4 or 5, and it's rare, even at the bigger shows, that I get the master past 2 1/2. Very loud.

A couple questions here....how long, using the settings above, would one of you tube pros expect a set of tubes to last? And what are the tell-tale signs that the tubes are on their way out? Since I use the thing constantly, it's easy to become unaware of subtle tone changes, etc. that might indicate a need to replace.

I know there's lots of variables in play here, and I'm sure there's lots of schools of thought on this. But in my case, schools been out for a loooooong time.....I could use a refresher.


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Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2007 4:25 pm
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Hello~

I don't know too much more than the bit that you know, but to get the discussion going (no one's replied!), I'll reply.

I believe that it's more of a bias thing. It's based on how hot you run the amp. Now, I don't have your amp, and I don't want to spend my time looking up about it, so I don't know if you can set the bias on that thing. You probably can.

If you set the bias on the amp to high, your amp's going to eat up tubes. If you set it low, your amp's going to last long, but may sound dull.

If you play a lot, and play it loud, the tubes are going to last a shorter amount of time. I can't really suspect when your tubes are going to die out, since I don't have any experience with the Hot Rod Deluxe. But most people can tell when the tubes are dying. The amp starts sounding dull, your volume might die, etc.

So you kind of have to play it by ear. Since that's what you were going to do anyway, sorry I wasn't much of a help. Can anyone guess when it's going to die? It's kind of hard to guess without knowing the tube bias. anyway, keep on playing!


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Posted: Mon Aug 13, 2007 12:17 pm
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Your right. It has to do with whether or not your amp is biased real hot or not, also how hard you drive the tubes. I heard of people replacing tubes within a year and tubes lasting up to 5 years or longer.

It really all depends on your playing habits. I've had my DeVille 410 for about 8 months now. I play just about everyday for more than 3 hours and don't really drive the tubes that hard, I mainly stay between the point of clean and breakup. But the amount of time I play will probably take up for the less drive that I put the tubes through and they might not last as long because of this.

I'll just have to wait and see.


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