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Post subject: tubes are a pain!!!
Posted: Tue Jan 19, 2016 5:46 pm
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Aspiring Musician
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Just sayin', my girlfriend thinks her Fender XD isn't sounding quite right and looking for somewhere to test the tubes is turning into a huge nightmare! Either a traveling tech has to take her amp for a couple weeks to check it out or I take the tubes to the only (antique) tube tester in the city which the old school electronics store manager says, "Only works when it wants to!" Geez... when I was a little kid, they used to be in every drug store! Anyway, just gloating for one more reason I love my Mustang III v2.0! :)

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Post subject: Re: tubes are a pain!!!
Posted: Tue Jan 19, 2016 9:28 pm
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At least there are tube testers.
There are no transistor testers you can use for the Mustang.


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Post subject: Re: tubes are a pain!!!
Posted: Wed Jan 20, 2016 10:06 am
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arth1 wrote:
At least there are tube testers.
There are no transistor testers you can use for the Mustang.


Bur really... how worried is anyone about transistors failing?

I remember as a kid, once a year my dad would take out all the tubes from our electronic devices and we'd test them all. Every year there were a few tubes that had gone bad. I'm a fan of the reliability of solid state devices!

:)

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Post subject: Re: tubes are a pain!!!
Posted: Wed Jan 20, 2016 1:40 pm
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I agree... SS is very reliable... but then again... a well built Tube Amp is pretty reliable as well... but, they do have more that can go wrong with them at the same time... at least, this is my experience over the years...

With the tubes and the XD... perhaps it would be a whole lot easier to simply get the correct replacement tubes... brand new... swap out the old ones... hold onto the old one's... then, you go to the tube tester machine... and when you hit it on a "good day" for that machine... test the tubes to find which ones may be going south... and keep the one's you know for sure are in good condition as spare's for down the line...

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Post subject: Re: tubes are a pain!!!
Posted: Wed Jan 20, 2016 5:02 pm
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Strat-Slinger wrote:
I agree... SS is very reliable... but then again... a well built Tube Amp is pretty reliable as well... but, they do have more that can go wrong with them at the same time... at least, this is my experience over the years...

With the tubes and the XD... perhaps it would be a whole lot easier to simply get the correct replacement tubes... brand new... swap out the old ones... hold onto the old one's... then, you go to the tube tester machine... and when you hit it on a "good day" for that machine... test the tubes to find which ones may be going south... and keep the one's you know for sure are in good condition as spare's for down the line...


Tubes are kind of expensive to just buy a new set on speculation! Honestly, I think my gf's just being overly paranoid and that she just lost track of the exact settings that she really liked... but that's another matter.

Another score for the Mustang! When I get all the setting I want, just make a new preset! :)

There's no inherent problem with tubes per say, it's just the utter lack of support for them today. When I started calling around at my local music stores, I was like, "So you sell all these high priced tube amps, but have no way to test the tubes???' The response was, "If you need to test your tubes, Orange makes a tube tester." Thanks! $500 for an Orange tube tester when my Mustang III v2.0 cost $300 - no thanks!

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Post subject: Re: tubes are a pain!!!
Posted: Wed Jan 20, 2016 5:38 pm
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LOL! to that last post. +1

Tubes are the story of my life. I was just a kid and wanted to watch cartoons in the morning. My parents were always calling the television repairman. Always a tube needing to be replaced every single time.

I grow up and start buying a bunch of different tube amps and i think i have had the worst luck of any person alive when it comes to tubes acting up and failing. I even make sure I warm them up and sometimes go through the break in bit. Nope!

So I buy duplicate amps as a safeguard. I went through *8* Deluxe Reverb Reissues out of the box *new* before I found two without tube issues from Guitar Center. Still own them with a bunch of spare tubes but prefer my Mustangs every day of the week for more reasons than I care to mention because I have said it all before.

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Post subject: Re: tubes are a pain!!!
Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2016 9:06 pm
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I tried early solid state amps -- awful and unreliable, so it took me a long time to consider trying again. Whole different game today than in the late 60s and early 70s. And back saving too particularly on the bass side. Nice light 500W solid state with 2 X 12" Neo speakers versus an old school Bassman 135 and traditional cab? My back thanks me for reconsidering solid state a few years ago.

Still, I have a tube Super 210, an SCXD and an old Ampeg Jet. Can't beat the sound and I have a great vintage amp guy on my speed dial just in case!


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Post subject: Re: tubes are a pain!!!
Posted: Tue Feb 23, 2016 10:01 am
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I sold all my tube amps and don't miss them, I'm enjoying my Mustang IV a lot.


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Post subject: Re: tubes are a pain!!!
Posted: Tue Feb 23, 2016 11:35 am
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I love tubes! I don't own a guitar amp without at least 2 tubes.

But why do you need to test it? Just buy a new tube and see what happens.
Or better yet, why not tell your friendly mates here in the forum what's wrong and perhaps our collective minds can figure out what's wrong. At least you'll know if a tube replacement is enough or it really needs to see a tech.

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Post subject: Re: tubes are a pain!!!
Posted: Tue Feb 23, 2016 1:37 pm
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jensljungkvist wrote:
But why do you need to test it? Just buy a new tube and see what happens.

because not everyone can afford to throw money at problems until they go away.

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Post subject: Re: tubes are a pain!!!
Posted: Tue Feb 23, 2016 1:43 pm
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strings10927 wrote:
jensljungkvist wrote:
But why do you need to test it? Just buy a new tube and see what happens.

because not everyone can afford to throw money at problems until they go away.

+1

There is also the possibility that the issue is not a tube, another component.

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Post subject: Re: tubes are a pain!!!
Posted: Wed Feb 24, 2016 12:37 pm
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Archtop Bill wrote:
strings10927 wrote:
jensljungkvist wrote:
But why do you need to test it? Just buy a new tube and see what happens.

because not everyone can afford to throw money at problems until they go away.

+1

There is also the possibility that the issue is not a tube, another component.


Exactly!!! While I wasn't convinced her problem was tube related, I priced a new set of tubes and it was going to be over $60 for cheapest set online -- and the best ones got progressively more expensive! The problem she was having was kind of intermittent (worst kind!) and I suspected it was the switches in her guitar and serviced those and seemed to fix the problem for now. Whew!

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Post subject: Re: tubes are a pain!!!
Posted: Wed Feb 24, 2016 1:03 pm
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mh2000 wrote:
Archtop Bill wrote:
strings10927 wrote:
jensljungkvist wrote:
But why do you need to test it? Just buy a new tube and see what happens.

because not everyone can afford to throw money at problems until they go away.

+1

There is also the possibility that the issue is not a tube, another component.


Exactly!!! While I wasn't convinced her problem was tube related, I priced a new set of tubes and it was going to be over $60 for cheapest set online -- and the best ones got progressively more expensive! The problem she was having was kind of intermittent (worst kind!) and I suspected it was the switches in her guitar and serviced those and seemed to fix the problem for now. Whew!

I hope that takes care of it for a lonnnnngggg time.

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Post subject: Re: tubes are a pain!!!
Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2016 11:53 pm
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Archtop Bill wrote:
strings10927 wrote:
jensljungkvist wrote:
But why do you need to test it? Just buy a new tube and see what happens.

because not everyone can afford to throw money at problems until they go away.

+1

There is also the possibility that the issue is not a tube, another component.


Wow. Did I get told off or what?
Good thing people don't just quote you out of context and burn you for it.

Great that the OP got it sorted.
And now we know tubes are not a pain, guitar switches are. :D

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Post subject: Re: tubes are a pain!!!
Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2016 9:58 am
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jensljungkvist wrote:
Archtop Bill wrote:
strings10927 wrote:
jensljungkvist wrote:
But why do you need to test it? Just buy a new tube and see what happens.

because not everyone can afford to throw money at problems until they go away.

+1

There is also the possibility that the issue is not a tube, another component.


Wow. Did I get told off or what?
Good thing people don't just quote you out of context and burn you for it.

Great that the OP got it sorted.
And now we know tubes are not a pain, guitar switches are. :D


well... I didn't "burn you" for it, but still, with current finances, throwing $60 at something has to be avoided in my world... while yeah, I accept it's a result of my bad choices etc. etc... but, guitar toggle switches can be a pain too! People online suggest just replacing them as well, but a genuine Gibson toggle switch is $25 and has to be soldered, so that was more of a pain than testing tubes. Anyway, her guitar was only a year old so I was surprised the switch went wanky so soon. Was pretty easy to just clean off the switch parts with alcohol... I'm guessing when the pots get crudded up it can be more of a pain because I know they usually fail partially or intermittently. My gf also has a nice American Standard Strat with all the switches messed up and rendering it more or less unplayable... and since I kind of hate the guitar (sorry, I'm not a strat fan... irrational I know!), I'm not offering to replace them all for her.

In a nutshell: guitar switches can be a pain too! (of course, those problems have nothing to do with whether you play through a tube or SS amp!)

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