Anyone else having problems with the longevity of Mesa tubes

[picnic]

Sorry for the trouble post. Shredder typing
CT, do you fun the fan?

 

[Platypus]

I don't think the fact that it is a combo is an issue, all of the combos I've ever owned vibrated the crap out of my tubes and I've never had a problem, it sounds like your amp to be honest or some bad luck with tubes.

 

[fireonhigh]

i have been useing the mesa branded 454s .no problems ,,i just wish they still braned them ..are they svetlannas?? any how i get a killer low end,,pres from mesa?? no problems there either,,,my playing?? lol yeah always need to be better

 

[nocluejimbo]

It's just you.

 

[user 1198]

Sorry for the trouble post. Shredder typing
CT, do you fun the fan?

No, I don't actually have fun with the fan, but I do leave it running all the time . Another case of keyboard shredding syndrome :wink: . I get that every now-and-then myself.

I'm going to see how these latest set of tubes do before I come to any conclusions. It has to be bad luck with getting good tubes. If it were the amp I think I would be having other symptoms by now. The amp sounds incredible, so I'm not too worried that it's the amp.

 

[user 1198]

It's just you.

nocluejimbo,

Thanks for the constructive feed back. I noticed 95% of your posts offer this level of insight and depth .

Keep up the good work with all your posts. I'm sure everyone on the forum values your opinions. NOT!

 

[user 1198]

Thanks for all of the replies. I'll post back in this thread if these new tubes die an early death.

 

[t0aj15]

Yeah, the customer service rep. at Mesa said that if it happens one more time that he will refere me to a local repair center to have the amp checked out.

I went through this with both my Mark IV and my 50/50 poweramp and the Mesa authorized repair shop told me both amps were fine, it was the tubes. He also told me he had a 50% return rate on Mesa tubes. I went through eight power tubes in the 50/50 until I figured the hell with the warranty, gave up on Mesa tubes and called Bob at Eurotubes and bought some JJ's. Not a problem since.

 

[user 1198]

Yeah, the customer service rep. at Mesa said that if it happens one more time that he will refere me to a local repair center to have the amp checked out.

I went through this with both my Mark IV and my 50/50 poweramp and the Mesa authorized repair shop told me both amps were fine, it was the tubes. He also told me he had a 50% return rate on Mesa tubes. I went through eight power tubes in the 50/50 until I figured the hell with the warranty, gave up on Mesa tubes and called Bob at Eurotubes and bought some JJ's. Not a problem since.

t0aj15,

Thanks for the info. I have a feeling that I am in the same situation as you.

From what I have heard, it is a lot harder to get good tubes these days than it was back in the old days. I guess the production and quality control was better back then.

 

[hillbillysoulbro]

I put GT 6l6-s-gold series grade 4 in my Lonestar and they changed the sound of the amp,the amp seems cleaner and I'm not sure if that is better.I'm trying to play it for a few weeks and make a decision on it.I think they are rebranded JJs. Maybe I'll get 8 months out of these.

 

[francric]

What's the warranty on tubes?

 

[user 1198]

What's the warranty on tubes?

All Mesa tubes have a 6 month warranty.

 

[plumptone]

I saw this thread when it first started, and didn't need to reply. Now I do. I've been playing Boogies since the mid 80s. I never had any issues with their tubes. Back then I was playing out 5 nights a week and rehearsing once, so the amps were getting heavy use and were being driven hard. My first Boogie was a studio .22, and I ran the original tube compliment for almost 3 years before I had to change them. I changed to Groove Tubes, hated the way they sounded, and got a full compliment of Boogie tubes back in there, and thay also lasted a solid 3 years. I moved on to a .50 caliber head and had similar success. Then came the DC-3 - an amp I still own and love dearly. 4 years for the original set. When they had to be changed I swapped out for JJs, and found the sound a little better, but the difference was barely perceptible.

But...July of this year I took posession of an F-50 - custom ordered mind you, in wicker and wood. I've gigged with the thing maybe 10 times, and have used it in rehearsal weekly. This week I had a pre-amp tube go microphonic. While this *could* be an indication that quality control / tube build quality is weaker now than in years past, I think the more likely reason is that when you're dealing with tubes, like almost anything else for that matter, every once in a while you're going to get a dud. Things can happen to tubes in transit, and frankly, every once in a while out of the thousands of these things that must be made every day, one or two is going to get through that shouldn't.

If folks are having repeated issues with tubes in a particular position, it's possible that there's something internally wrong with the amp. I'm going to be provided with a replacement from MB directly. Use your warranty rights! If you have an inherently bad tube, chances are that it's going to fail within 6 months. It's definitely a hassle when stuff like this happens, but if you follow the sage old advice of always keeping a couple of known good tubes on hand, you should rarely have a problem that will completely shut you down. That's all - just my .02.

 

[francric]

I agree with you plumptone but don't you think that in codes situation it's a bit strange that he has had so many tubes problems?

 

[plumptone]

I agree with you plumptone but don't you think that in codes situation it's a bit strange that he has had so many tubes problems?

I think it's extremely strange and I'm sure it's also incredibly frustrating. The power tubes going bad that fast could well have something to do with how hot the amp is biassed, the environment in which it's performing, or any other number of factors. But I think it's well documented that power tubes will crap out much faster than preamp tubes as a matter of course. I have a number of friends who swap out power tubes every six months just as part of their routine maintenance, so I'm not sure if the problem's all that unusual in a general sense, or with respect to the majority of LS owners.

As far as the preamp tubes are concerned, basically what's happened for Code is that he had a bad reverb tube, which could possibly be chalked up to simple bad luck, since the problem hasn't come up again yet. It doesn't sound like he's had that problem on a continuing basis. He's had to swap out V1 a couple of times (the first time it was presumably the 12ax7 that came with the amp, the second time was a replacement direct from MB)- that would concern me too. V1, as we all know, is the one where you are going to notice the problems most quickly since it's in the first position. I think the "solution" proposed by MB is probably the only way to go right now - wait and see if V1 craps out again - if it does, there could be something wrong with the internals. If not, it's probably just bad luck unfortunately - 3 bad tubes in a row.

For what it's worth, in case anyone's interested, I replaced my microphonic V1 with a JJ I had lying around, and I think it actually makes my F-50 sound a bit more Fendery in the clean channel (if that's even possible!) I like it, but no more than the way the amp sounded with the stock 12ax7. As soon as I get my replacement from MB, I'll try to do a serious comparison - it's just SUCH a pain in the ass accessing that tube though!!!

 

[Dreads]

My Lonestar came with bad tubes.. I didn't even bother to deal with them. I pulled their tubes and put in Ruby el34bstr power tubes and a mix of JAN Philips 12ax7WA'a and shuguangs (9th gen? I forget) and never looked back. All the odd scarey noises are since gone. Love-ill-ly.