Re: [Harp-L] Old Used Tubes in New Amps



Oh yeah.  Old used tubes are a blessing.

If you have some you want to throw away, throw them my way... heh.

I scour flea markets and garage sales for old tubes and presently have old
military US Navy Jan 12AU7s in V1 of two of my amps.  And some used Mullards
in V1 & 2 of my 68 BF'ed Super reverb.  12AT7 in V1 and 12AX7 in V2.  I use
the reverb channel for guitar... and it is sweet.  Oh, and a pair of old
RCA's in the power amp.  Did I say sweet?  Sweeeeeet!

However, I don't yank out all the tubes in one fell swoop.  I start with V1
and swap until I find one I like better that the rest.  Then I go to V2
rinse and repeat.

Usually reberb and tremolo oscillators I leave alone unless they actually
start going bad.  Check the schematic.

An 80%er in the rectifier can give beautiful sag too.  Don't overlook that
swap.

Plug 'em in and try 'em.  The worst that can happen is you take the swaps
out and put the originals back in.

I also keep a complete set of tubes that have been tested in the amp (my
second best sounding set) in a little box nestled down inside the back of
the amp J.I.C. something dies during a gig.  You won't have time to swap one
and test, swap another and test till you find the bad tube... just change
them all, finish the gig, then later go back and find out which one failed.

Having a selection of old tubes around can give peace of mind, too and give
your band mates reason to be nice to you as well.  Heh.

I love old tubes.

Keep in mind that 12AU7s draw more current than 12AX7s, even tho they have
less gain.  Some newer amps with circuitboard construction, especially them
made in China, might have lesser components populating them boards.  Every
penny counts to those manufacturers.  Good old hand wired point to point
amps - no problem.

PEACE
Splash

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Wolf Kristiansen" <wolfkristiansen@xxxxxxxx>

> Here's what I did to my '95 Blues Deluxe today:  I got rid of all the
preamp tubes it came with, and substituted some old, used tubes.




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