t00b n00b question

JModius1972

JModius1972

Kick Henry Jackassowski
If one is changing the t00bs in ones amp, does one have to be careful to not get finger grease on the outside of the t00b? You know...kinda like changing halogen headlights in a car...a place for heat to build up and *BANG* it's blown?

Just cuuuuuurious.
 
TBH I have no idea. Never have heard of that being a problem, though.

And some of the guys who have worked on my amps are pretty greasy dudes :embarrassed:
 
What I was told is that yes it could be a problem but it very rarely is. If youre worried about it, it seems that cleaning with rubbing alcohol is a good way to be sure.
 
no, not an issue.

The deal with Halogen, MH, and HID lamps in the small format is that to compensate for the extreme temperature, they create microporous glass for the envelope of the lamp.


Microscopically, those lamps have tiny pores, which, when heated and expanded allow the lamp to expand and contract. If you finger-fuck the lamp, you get greasies in there which clog the pores, and then the glass won't expand symmetrically, leaving it weak, and prone to failure of the vacuum making it go BOOM. (I used to work in theatre lighting / stage production)...I have burned a few up and it's apparent when you do it because we work in crews and then like 5 par-cans in a row would be all jazzed up and singing when they turned on...No mystery who's chubby little greasy fingers caused it.

Tubes on the other hand, reach nowhere near the temps of halogen or MH lamps, so you're safe.


It's still best to wipe them down with a dry, lint free cloth just to keep stuff from getting baked on them when they heat up.
 
I've never worried about wiping the prints off my tubes, and when I had my THD Univalve, I used to swap tubes quite a bit....like if I was recording a song, I'd swap to different types of tubes for every guitar track.















Just don't grab them when they are hot, because they'll burn off your fingerprints in a hurry. :embarrassed:
 
JModius1972 said:
Gracias. I'm thinking of trying some new tubes in the Blackheart. Any recommendations?
Click to expand...

What kind of tubes does it take?

I've found that you get the most noticeable difference by swapping the preamp tubes. Switching from one brand of 12ax7 to another may or may not sound any different. I never really noticed too much difference anyway. Swapping from a 12ax7 to a 12au7 or 12at7 will make a much bigger difference.

For poweramp tubes, I've found that the difference is even more subtle, and is most noticeable when the amp is cranked. I had a set of Ei power tubes in my Classic 30 that had a really nice sparkley clean sound and when cranked had a great overdrive tone, but they got microphonic and I ended up putting a set of JJ tubes back in it.

I've got Electro Harmonix 12ax7s and JJ EL84s in both my Classic 30 and my Classic 50 and like that combination a lot.

I think my Bassman has all Groove Tubes in it.
 
Prages said:
What kind of tubes does it take?

I've found that you get the most noticeable difference by swapping the preamp tubes. Switching from one brand of 12ax7 to another may or may not sound any different. I never really noticed too much difference anyway. Swapping from a 12ax7 to a 12au7 or 12at7 will make a much bigger difference.

For poweramp tubes, I've found that the difference is even more subtle, and is most noticeable when the amp is cranked. I had a set of Ei power tubes in my Classic 30 that had a really nice sparkley clean sound and when cranked had a great overdrive tone, but they got microphonic and I ended up putting a set of JJ tubes back in it.

I've got Electro Harmonix 12ax7s and JJ EL84s in both my Classic 30 and my Classic 50 and like that combination a lot.

I think my Bassman has all Groove Tubes in it.
Click to expand...

12ax7 preamp and EL84 power.

I just read that some guy put a Mesa 12ax7 in it and it supposedly sounded pretty good.

I'll see what I can do over the weekend.
 
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