NEW Tubes suck.....unreliable.

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Racerxrated

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Well, the 'New Tubes are Shit' bug has bitten again.....

My great sounding MT 100 came with TAD 6L6GC Redbase. Sounded killer! Until one redplated...I immediately shut the amp off. Pulled out my tube tester (from the early 60s lol) and all the 'new' tubes tested at 85, where 80 is minimum good, 120 is max. Pulled out a quad of Sovtek Military wafer bottoms, from the early 90s and they tested at 105. Not surprising...I've said this for years, new tubes are shit and I am glad I have a stash. The amp still works, but one of the bias points (where the tube redplated) has no reading. But, the replacement tube works fine, amps sounds great. I'll be returning this one for another, and before firing it up I'll replace those crap tubes with something out of my stash.
I don't buy new amps often, the last was a Naylor SD60 that came with the same wafer Sovteks, no issues. But the previous new amp before that one was an EVH which also had a power tube issue, a crap JJ.
 
I could not agree more !

I have mostly stopped myself from using newer production tubes, over the last 6 or 7 years.

Yes, for the most part the newer stuff "does the job", and functions (upon arrival), but the reliability and durability factors are just not there.
NOS offerings are usually more durable, sound better, and last longer.

I have a few quality tube testers that do not lie, and I have been putting them through their paces a lot over the last 10 years.

Of course, a newer, faulty tube can slip by at the factory, but most of the time I attribute new tube failures to nearly nonexistent quality control, and horrible production processes. These days, I think pride of craftsmanship and quality control are dead, and failure rates are calculated into the equation, ie. "..if our tubes last 2 years instead of 8 years, then we make more money in the long run, when the customer replaces the dead tubes".

Automation sucks, too !!

The funny thing is that most of the CURRENT, NEW OLD STOCK tube offerings are still such good quality, but are sometimes the ones "passed over", and chosen NOT to initially be used, years ago. :ROFLMAO:
 
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Well, the 'New Tubes are Shit' bug has bitten again.....

My great sounding MT 100 came with TAD 6L6GC Redbase. Sounded killer! Until one redplated...I immediately shut the amp off. Pulled out my tube tester (from the early 60s lol) and all the 'new' tubes tested at 85, where 80 is minimum good, 120 is max. Pulled out a quad of Sovtek Military wafer bottoms, from the early 90s and they tested at 105. Not surprising...I've said this for years, new tubes are shit and I am glad I have a stash. The amp still works, but one of the bias points (where the tube redplated) has no reading. But, the replacement tube works fine, amps sounds great. I'll be returning this one for another, and before firing it up I'll replace those crap tubes with something out of my stash.
I don't buy new amps often, the last was a Naylor SD60 that came with the same wafer Sovteks, no issues. But the previous new amp before that one was an EVH which also had a power tube issue, a crap JJ.
That sucks man. I bought a sextet of those TAD’s for my Mark III Coli, I didn’t have any problems, and they sounded great. I’ve got an MT100 on the way, so hopefully yours was an isolated incident.
 
The amp does still work/sounds killer; it's just that specific tube bias point has no reading. Seems like the redplating took something out. I'll get it sorted. I do know someone else that also had a TAD Redbase go bad, in a different amp though.
 
I've had JJ pre-amps go bad in my JP2C after the first 2 weeks of owning it and now the MT-100 in V3 - like we talked about xrated, after 2 days of use. You know that both Mesa and PRS are screening there tubes as much as they can and still getting junk, we live in a throw away world..
 
I had the same experience with a brand new set of JJ 6CA7's bought from Dougs Tubes. The bias would drift all over the place and the tubes didn't sound right.

I replaced them with a new quad of EH6CA7s and those worked and sounded great. I guess they all have the possibility of infant tube mortality.

I think Dave Friedman said not long ago that he had to switch to all Electro Harmonix tubes because the JJ's were really having issues. That was about 3 years ago and I haven't heard much since then.
 
I have 2 sets of tad redbase in amps right now. They sound great I think
They do sound really good. But when one redplates, not good...maybe it's something in the amp? But, another dude had a redbase do the same thing in a different amp, so.....
 
I've rarely had tube issues regardless of brand, NOS, or new production. 95% of what I've run all these years has been new production (mostly JJ) and I've only had one bad power tube (redplated) in a used amp I bought with know idea how old those tubes were and what they'd been subjected to. That
s in 60 or so amps over the past 12 years.

Probably more to do with how they're handled vs NOS vs new production IMHO. You get folks that don't know or care how to handle them, then there're gonna have issues.
 
I just saw Blake's vid this morning .... is the MT 100 the latest and greatest ??? cause it sounded dam good !!
It’s not for everyone, but I dig it a lot for my style. Feel like hardcore metal guys won’t get along with it so much. But consider who this was made for…great for that style of hard rock.
 
Had the same issue with those same redbase tubes in my Thrasher recently. Two of four died in under a month. Also recently had issues with some JJs and 3 of 4 white label Marshall branded preamp tubes. Both my JTM30 and Mig50 are still rocking their original 30ish year old Sovtek 5881/WGC duos. I don't even care if they take the amps out at this point. Sputnik mode.
 
I just saw Blake's vid this morning .... is the MT 100 the latest and greatest ??? cause it sounded dam good !!
It is a killer sounding amp; like Blake said, great for THAT style of modern hard rock...it's exactly like what you hear in the Alter Bridge tunes. Like a boosted Triple Recto; with a low end that stays tight and is huge. Great sounding amp.
 
I've rarely had tube issues regardless of brand, NOS, or new production. 95% of what I've run all these years has been new production (mostly JJ) and I've only had one bad power tube (redplated) in a used amp I bought with know idea how old those tubes were and what they'd been subjected to. That
s in 60 or so amps over the past 12 years.

Probably more to do with how they're handled vs NOS vs new production IMHO. You get folks that don't know or care how to handle them, then there're gonna have issues.
For me, it's the opposite....the only tubes that have had issues have been the newer tubes. 4EVHs, a Naylor and now the MT....2 of the EVHs had bad pre/power tubes, both returned....the Naylor was fine, those had the Sovtek Wafer bottoms....the MT has 1 bad power tube.

In all my years playing out, not one issue with vintage tubes, ever. And none of those were new old stock...used but strong.
 
yea, its really hit and miss now.. two sets of jj power tubes sounded pretty darn good... seem to be reliable.. the 3rd set I got recently sound sub par and generally crappy, compared to the other two sets.
 
Well, the 'New Tubes are Shit' bug has bitten again.....

My great sounding MT 100 came with TAD 6L6GC Redbase. Sounded killer! Until one redplated...I immediately shut the amp off. Pulled out my tube tester (from the early 60s lol) and all the 'new' tubes tested at 85, where 80 is minimum good, 120 is max. Pulled out a quad of Sovtek Military wafer bottoms, from the early 90s and they tested at 105. Not surprising...I've said this for years, new tubes are shit and I am glad I have a stash. The amp still works, but one of the bias points (where the tube redplated) has no reading. But, the replacement tube works fine, amps sounds great. I'll be returning this one for another, and before firing it up I'll replace those crap tubes with something out of my stash.
I don't buy new amps often, the last was a Naylor SD60 that came with the same wafer Sovteks, no issues. But the previous new amp before that one was an EVH which also had a power tube issue, a crap JJ.
I don't trust the new Psvane tubes. I believe that's probably what they are..
 
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