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how often do you change your preamp tubes?


fusionid

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I have one amp with with 48 year old preamp tubes going strong, and one with 39 year old preamp tubes going strong....

 

 

Knock on wood of course.

 

 

 

People freak out about changing their tubes way too much.

 

 

As far as power tubes go, just change them when you start hearing volume fluctuations, and that's it.

 

If the amp isn't giving you problems, why spend money and change tubes that DON'T need to be changed?

 

Just play and have fun.

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Originally posted by butterknucket



People freak out about changing their tubes way too much.



 

 

+1!!!

 

tubes will last friggin YEARS!

obviously you want them to sound good, not just technically work. so their musical life will be a tad shorter than their shelf life but still...

relax, guys.

 

 

i've played 60's Fenders with the origial tubes and they sounded awesome. my last main amp was an '80 Acoustic Control Corp with mostly original tubes and it kicked butt.

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Originally posted by erksin

Swapping them for different tones is fun, but I've rarely needed to change a pre because it went bad - I can only think of two instances spread out over 9 amps in the past 20 years...

 

 

+1, maybe 4 12ax7 in 20yrs. if you're constantly pummeling your amp with a high-ouput device (boosters pinned, etc), i could see it needing it more frequently.

 

swapping preamp tubes is a cool way to get new flavor, or rather variation on the same flavor, to an amp or even just a single channel.

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Originally posted by yablokonooza

Semi recently, I thought I may have to swap out my venerable Fender preamp tubes, but my trusted tech claimed there are years, if not decades, left in 'em (as long as I don't do something mega-stupid).


cheers!

 

 

I still have plenty of life left in my original '63 Gibson and '65 Ampeg preamp tubes - both tested well within spec recently at my tech. RCA and Telefunken baby - top quality!

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Originally posted by butterknucket

That can actually be dangerous and cause damage to the amp, but only change them when you notice they're starting to go bad.

 

 

 

dude, its a voltage gain stage..there's no damage

 

the same goes for putting boosts in front, no change

 

 

if anything the only thing that will burn out your preamp tubes is cathode poisoning..so put the amp on standby for two minutes before you turn on and turn off the amp

 

and..don't buy amps with starved plate voltages (to make the tube distort sooner)

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Originally posted by Ray20

dude, its a voltage gain stage..there's no damage


the same goes for putting boosts in front, no change



if anything the only thing that will burn out your preamp tubes is cathode poisoning..so put the amp on standby for two minutes before you turn on and turn off the amp


and..don't buy amps with starved plate voltages (to make the tube distort sooner)

 

 

 

I was referring to power tubes.

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