when replacing tubes.....

[Anonymous]

preamp especially, but even power tubes....

do you just put it on standby?

or turn off completely?

or are brave and dumb like i have been in the past and taken preamp tubes out while the amp is on and replaced them when "rolling" new tubes.


the best thing i have found to do when replacing tubes is to have my 10 year old or 6 year old strumming on the guitar tuned to a drop d chord...that way, i can tweak and get a ballpark tone wise...and dont have to worry about banging my guitar around when im behind the amp. i can say "just keep strumming" or put ur fingers on the 2nd dot or 3rd dot and thats a G or A chord...while im rolling tubes.

it takes away the "turn off amp, put guitar down, pull tube, replace tube, get guitar on, amp on standby, turn on" cycle that just ruins the whole effort after 3 times or so.

i like expedient!

any thoughts on putting preamp tubes in and what can happen when doing that with the amp on?

 

[fek]

I am far from an expert but I have witnessed an amp builder swap pre's while only on standby. I don't think that I would try that with power tubes though.

 

[Buckeyedog]

I will swap pre's on standby. I won't do it when the amp is totally on though. Just doesn't seem like a good idea to me.

But yeah, shut down for the power tubes.

 

[Len Rabinowitz]

I shut the whole thing down, unplug it from the wall, and let it sit for a while. I would never stick my hands in there otherwise.

 

[bruce egnater]

Hmmmm..would you change your oil with the engine running?? Just kidding but.....power tubes you should shut off completely. Besides, you surely run the risk of burning your fingers = not good. Preamp tubes, you won't hurt anything but it could make a loud noise when pulling them out? I would at least put the amp in standby for a few seconds while changing the preamp tubes. Are you serious about the child banging on the guitar while you change tubes to actually hear something meaningful while you are behind the cabinet?? I assume you were joking? Does "rolling" tubes just mean changing tubes, or is there something else you are doing?

 

[Anonymous]

rolling tubes = running through a batch of them to see what sounds best.

my daughter and son can both play rudimentary songs (iron man, smoke on the water) in drop d tuning, ie banging on the guitar, making noise, etc (all in the spirit of learning). my daughter is more patient with it, and she can literally play iron man for hours.

it keeps more continuity on my end. i can roll tubes, go to standby, document, and listen all the while not having to worry about the playing aspect as much. im gonna try the looper angle at some point.

bruce, while you're around, is it safe to run a 12bz7 in any position of this amP?

is the cathode follower position more sensitive to different types of tubes?