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Re: Tube amp is dead

12 by benadrian
Dr Tony Balls wrote: Tue May 25, 2021 9:19 am
benadrian wrote: Mon May 24, 2021 11:39 pm The amp use KT88 power tubes. A little more that EL34s,cost wise.
BLOOP, my bad.
It's understandable. That's an unusual power tube for a jcm 800.

Yes, ozzma, KT88 is the type of tube and there are many brands. Will the sound change? Probably not significantly. There are people who like to swap tubes and compare for hours. Frankly, I think most tone changes can be compensated for by changing the amp eq very slightly. Besides, this amp is probably going to show very little power amp distortion. Most of the saturation and tonal coloration comes from the preamp of this head.

Cheers!

Re: Tube amp is dead

13 by ErickC
The first thing that popped into my head upon reading the title was:

Amp has died
Amp has risen
Amp will rock again

Fucking Catholic indoctrination bullshit, that's what it is. :P
benadrian wrote: Tue May 25, 2021 11:09 am Yes, ozzma, KT88 is the type of tube and there are many brands. Will the sound change? Probably not significantly. There are people who like to swap tubes and compare for hours.
Glenn Fricker ran a test by running the same signal into the same amp with the same cab and mic setup, only swapping out the tubes, and he found that it does basically dick but change the level of output gain slightly, which most people will perceive as a difference in sound quality because LOUD!!!???1111!!11one!!1!



You can imagine that a lot of guitar players were really pissed off about it. Wait till someone informs them that fret nibs won't make them sound like Jimmy Page!
Total_douche, MSW, LICSW (lulz)

Re: Tube amp is dead

15 by andyman
ErickC wrote: Tue May 25, 2021 12:34 pm The first thing that popped into my head upon reading the title was:

Amp has died
Amp has risen
Amp will rock again

Fucking Catholic indoctrination bullshit, that's what it is. :P
benadrian wrote: Tue May 25, 2021 11:09 am Yes, ozzma, KT88 is the type of tube and there are many brands. Will the sound change? Probably not significantly. There are people who like to swap tubes and compare for hours.
Glenn Fricker ran a test by running the same signal into the same amp with the same cab and mic setup, only swapping out the tubes, and he found that it does basically dick but change the level of output gain slightly, which most people will perceive as a difference in sound quality because LOUD!!!???1111!!11one!!1!



You can imagine that a lot of guitar players were really pissed off about it. Wait till someone informs them that fret nibs won't make them sound like Jimmy Page!
I had a Laney Cub 10 which had really gritty (in a bad way) sound - you couldn't turn the tone past 4 or 5 without it sounding terrible. This was after a speaker change.
I pulled the trigger on a tube change and it was night and day - it became dramatically more usable.

I guess I'm more just highlighting that bad quality tubes vs good quality tubes did appear to matter in my case. If you've already got good tubes in there, then..

Re: Tube amp is dead

16 by thecr4ne
There's a lot of useful info on tube amps here: https://robrobinette.com/Amp_Stuff.htm

and here: https://www.youtube.com/c/dlab500/videos

Also look around for Gerald Weber's Guitar amp servicing videos. they're out there.

If you have a soldering Iron and a multimeter and some basic related skillz (IE not electrocuting yourself or burning your house down) it's not impossible to diagnose and repair it yourself. If of course you're comfortable and safe about it. If nothing else, the above referenced sources can improve your understanding of how amps work.

Re: Tube amp is dead

17 by oZZma
thecr4ne wrote: Sun Jun 06, 2021 11:55 am There's a lot of useful info on tube amps here: https://robrobinette.com/Amp_Stuff.htm

and here: https://www.youtube.com/c/dlab500/videos

Also look around for Gerald Weber's Guitar amp servicing videos. they're out there.

If you have a soldering Iron and a multimeter and some basic related skillz (IE not electrocuting yourself or burning your house down) it's not impossible to diagnose and repair it yourself. If of course you're comfortable and safe about it. If nothing else, the above referenced sources can improve your understanding of how amps work.
Thanks a lot mate.
I have both the soldering iron and the multimeter but my experience with electronics was an utter disaster. I mess up everything. I have no talent for this. I would not feel confident to this myself. But some knowledge would never hurt.

Re: Tube amp is dead

18 by ErickC
andyman wrote: Sun Jun 06, 2021 8:28 am I had a Laney Cub 10 which had really gritty (in a bad way) sound - you couldn't turn the tone past 4 or 5 without it sounding terrible. This was after a speaker change.
I pulled the trigger on a tube change and it was night and day - it became dramatically more usable.

I guess I'm more just highlighting that bad quality tubes vs good quality tubes did appear to matter in my case. If you've already got good tubes in there, then..
Right, that was another point he made, really crappy tubes or old tubes tend to sound awful because they're not working right, and when people replace their tubes, the difference they're hearing is often a new tube versus a worn-out one. Ultimately, this gives people the impression that changing tubes is always going to make these magical changes in the sound that aren't borne out by the evidence, but because tubes are a religion to some people, they have to loudly justify their purchases no matter how little the difference it makes.
Total_douche, MSW, LICSW (lulz)

Re: Tube amp is dead

19 by motorbike guy
There is no hard and fast rule that says you have to replace all your power tubes at once. If the amp is dead because of a dead tube, just replace that tube. It might not sound as good as if you replaced all of them, but it will work. Should be cheaper. Tube amps are like cars - shit wears out and they need servicing periodically.
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