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Post subject: looking foradvise favorite tube swaps in vibrolux custom
Posted: Wed Jul 14, 2010 2:47 am
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Joined: Sun Apr 06, 2008 3:47 am
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Hello,

I am looking for a little advise on swapping tubes in my vibrolux custom,......the original ones are in there now.
How do I know if they need changing? Can I just pull one out and exchange it for another?
what tubes might I like in the amp besides the original ones. I know different tubes will color the amp in different ways, I don't know what ones give what change in tone. I would like to get my amp to break up a little sooner if possible, since I can't really get there at the low volume I have to play it .
I would be interested in hearing other people's experiences with their tube swaps, favorite ones, etc.


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Post subject:
Posted: Wed Jul 14, 2010 9:47 am
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Joined: Sat May 08, 2010 4:31 am
Posts: 411
Location: France
Hi,

To know when a valve has to be replaced:

- Filament is open (rarely)
- small blue lighting with "pop" in the speaker --> air in vaccum
- Huge noise (I don't know physically why)
- microphonic
- Kathode poisoned by gaz molecule from other elements that reduce electron emission --> Beam intensity to low
- and for sure more ...

My advice is to have the same 12AX7 valve not used and compare with an used one in term of sound;
An other possibility is to give them to tech for evaluation.

Note that the valve lifetime is about 5 to 10Khours in normal condition but some can die earlier.

In Vibrolux, all preamp valves are 12AX7 excepted V3 12AT7. They are a lot of suppliers, russian, east europe, Chinese ... even Fender original (Groove uses often russian valves) your hear is your friend to decide what sound you like.

_________________
Tissan '52 Tele RI & Washburn Hawk 1980, Epiphone Casino MIK, Blues Deluxe RI & VOX ...


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Post subject: Tubes
Posted: Wed Jul 14, 2010 10:24 am
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Joined: Tue Jun 29, 2010 1:20 pm
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Location: Indiana
Hey jonathanstang,

I would stick with the original tubes myself, unless you are unhappy with the tone. I think that most output tubes fail in a dramatic way. What I mean by that is that there will be no doubt that something has gone wrong, like having popping noises, or a loss of volume, or something definitely noticeable. If you like the sound of the amp now, then I would say that the tubes are fine. I know that a lot of people like to change tubes and experiment for different sounds.

It is a simple matter of pulling out the existing tubes and plugging in new ones. But I think that it is always a good idea to have the bias in the amp set correctly for each type of tube, some people don't agree. If your amp has a bias adjustment, it would be fairly easy to check and adjust the bias for new tubes. If it has a fixed value of bias resistor, then in order to adjust the bias that resistor would have to be changed.

I wrote a post about tube amps that might have some useful info:

http://www.fender.com/community/forums/viewtopic.php?t=41010


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Posted: Thu Jul 15, 2010 2:41 am
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Joined: Sun Apr 06, 2008 3:47 am
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thanks for the info, your link was interesting.


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