Tube replacement, how often do you personally replace them?

[jonl]

I know it says once a year in the manual, but so you guys do that?
Have you go e 7 years on tubes then replace them to find out the amps sounds so much better with new tubes?

 

[moltenmetalburn]

Once a year for me, lots of high volume hours though.

 

[jonl]

Once a year for me, lots of high volume hours though.

That will do it!

 

[steve_k]

I usually just play them to destruction.....or until they won't bias. Most of the time, you will find a power tube or two that will deteriorate before all the rest. I maintain my amps like a car. Keep them tuned up and fresh and they will play forever. Then again, it depends on how much you play the amp and what it is exposed to. Occasional or daily bedroom play, or pounding the shit out of the power amp nightly - makes a difference. I buy two types of tubes - SED Winged C EL34's and JJ E34L's and I only use SED's in my "good" amps or amps that have near or more than 500 plate volts, and never have had a failure. I usually throw JJ's in the Marshall mods. I keep a quad of Gold Lion KT77's around too. I always purchase the JJ's burned in for 24 hours and this really cuts down on the failures. To answer your question about 7 years, that's a bit long for an amp that is played. I can assure you that those tubes won't bias up and a freshly matched quad will surely sound much better.

 

[jonl]

Does Valve Queen burn the power tubes for 24 hours?
I biased my VH4 last week and it sounded outstanding! Still sounds good today but not like it did right after the bias. The tubes are from TAD and the head is from 2007.
These tubes are 5 years old. I know it's time for tubes, just tight in cash is all.
We are having our attic finished, the rig will go in this room! Very nice and large too!

 

[steve_k]

Does Valve Queen burn the power tubes for 24 hours?
I biased my VH4 last week and it sounded outstanding! Still sounds good today but not like it did right after the bias. The tubes are from TAD and the head is from 2007.
These tubes are 5 years old. I know it's time for tubes, just tight in cash is all.
We are having our attic finished, the rig will go in this room! Very nice and large too!

I would say you are due for some new glass then.

Yes, Laura will burn them in on the rack for you.

 

[Ventura]

Ya, it's an "ear and hear" thing. Hard to decipher if tubes are tired because you've played the amp over the course of its tube's degradation, so it's very gradual. But if the amp feels as though it's lacking some oomph, some sparkle, so potency - hey - might be time. The other way to determine is judge by hours in use, of those hours how many are truly high volume hours? You should be able to get a god idea with these approaches.

 

[jonl]

I've been chatting with Valve Queen. We are going to replace pres and power in the vh4.

 

[i.ak]

Approximately once a year for amps that see regular badn usage (rehearsals, shows and recording) and once in two years for those not used "hard" that frequently. But I always have a spareset around as many times there has been a need to replace sooner. I also check the bias every now and then when doing some other maintenance work with my setup.

 

[steve_k]

I've been chatting with Valve Queen. We are going to replace pres and power in the vh4.

Yeah, Laura will take care of you and stand behind her tubes.

 

[moltenmetalburn]

every single time i ever changed tubes, for a fault OR just routine I have been amazed at how I had not realized the sound had degraded so much.

 

[jonl]

every single time i ever changed tubes, for a fault OR just routine I have been amazed at how I had not realized the sound had degraded so much.

Was this power tubes or pre amp tubes?

 

[moltenmetalburn]

every single time i ever changed tubes, for a fault OR just routine I have been amazed at how I had not realized the sound had degraded so much.

Was this power tubes or pre amp tubes?

Power tubes, I don't touch preamps until they sound funky or make noises.

 

[Peter Diezel]

If the design don´t exceed the maximum ratings,
a vacuum tube should have a life span of 5000 to
10000 hours at least. This has nothing to do with
the performance which will decrease after 2000
to 3000 hours. And we are talking about high
quality tubes of course.

 

[jonl]

Good stuff thanks Peter!
I've got some tubes on order with Valve Queen!

 

[stephen sawall]

Sometimes several times a day .... other times many years pass. Depends on my taste & needs at the time.

 

[guitarobert]

If it's been 5 years I think you'll notice a massive improvement in tone! To my ears, I hear an improvement with new tubes if it's been about a year or more with moderate playing.

 

[durbodill]

If the design don´t exceed the maximum ratings,
a vacuum tube should have a life span of 5000 to
10000 hours at least. This has nothing to do with
the performance which will decrease after 2000
to 3000 hours. And we are talking about high
quality tubes of course.

I've been asking myself that question, too (How long between changing tubes?). Especially if you're not using an amp hardcore every day, it's kind of hard to keep track of the hours. What I get from that info is basically that changing tubes yearly doesn't make sense unless you are a touring musician or spend many hours in the studio. To use up 3000 hours of tube life in a year, you'd have to play more than eight hours every day!

Also, but this is based on personal experience, I don't know how much voodoo is behind the amp starting to sound awesome after replacing tubes. Maybe it's partially the subconcious telling you it sounds way better with those new shiny and expensive tubes. Anyway it didn't seem to work on me. A couple of years ago, when I was visiting friends in St. Petersburg, Russia, I had the chance to buy a matched quad of =C= 6L6GC directly from the Svetlana factory. I was so excited! After coming back home, I swapped the tubes in my main amp by that time (Hughes & Kettner Triamp Mk1), it still had the stock tubes in it (years old and heavily used) putting in those =C= 's. I was kind of disappointed but I didn't hear any difference.

My question is if those 2000-3000 hours are valid even if my main amp gets played an hour a day on average (actually like 4-5 hours on one day a week). I'd get close to those 3000 hours after, what, like 8 years? So changing power tubes earlier is nonsense?

Greetings,

Till

 

[Dragon]

http://www.orangeamps.com/products/acce ... nt/vt1000/

 

[stephen sawall]

If the design don´t exceed the maximum ratings,
a vacuum tube should have a life span of 5000 to
10000 hours at least. This has nothing to do with
the performance which will decrease after 2000
to 3000 hours. And we are talking about high
quality tubes of course.

I've been asking myself that question, too (How long between changing tubes?). Especially if you're not using an amp hardcore every day, it's kind of hard to keep track of the hours. What I get from that info is basically that changing tubes yearly doesn't make sense unless you are a touring musician or spend many hours in the studio. To use up 3000 hours of tube life in a year, you'd have to play more than eight hours every day!

Also, but this is based on personal experience, I don't know how much voodoo is behind the amp starting to sound awesome after replacing tubes. Maybe it's partially the subconcious telling you it sounds way better with those new shiny and expensive tubes. Anyway it didn't seem to work on me. A couple of years ago, when I was visiting friends in St. Petersburg, Russia, I had the chance to buy a matched quad of =C= 6L6GC directly from the Svetlana factory. I was so excited! After coming back home, I swapped the tubes in my main amp by that time (Hughes & Kettner Triamp Mk1), it still had the stock tubes in it (years old and heavily used) putting in those =C= 's. I was kind of disappointed but I didn't hear any difference.

My question is if those 2000-3000 hours are valid even if my main amp gets played an hour a day on average (actually like 4-5 hours on one day a week). I'd get close to those 3000 hours after, what, like 8 years? So changing power tubes earlier is nonsense?

Greetings,

Till

Agree .... with some amps I have vintage tubes in them, I put in new ones & they do not sound as good. So I just switch them back.