blue/purple haze and pop's (road king)

[rocker43]

Hello group, it has been a while since I have been here. I was forced to sell my first road king 1 and this week I was able to buy another one. I really love these amps. I have a question for anyone owning a road king. Would you please take a look at the back when running in 6l6 mode and see if you get a purple haze on your tubes. I just fired it up for the first time today on my new combo and it stared popping. I thought it may be the power tubes red plating but they wern't just a purple/blue glow when I strike a chord. I ended up swapping the two power tubes that were doing it with the other set. It seemed to follow the sockets. Now is that normal????? If it is normal maybe I have a preamp tube going south, but before I tried to investigate any further I thought maybe someone could tell me if your power tubes glows blue. No matter which channel or mode I am playing on they do it, also has anyone seen the functions of what preamp tubes are engaged in what modes.

I have searched everywhere and everywhere again for a schematic for this amp, that is partially the reason I got rid of my first one, If anyone knows where I can find one I would love to have one.

Thanks a bunch for any feedback

 

[rocker43]

Well good news on one front. I went back down stairs and plugged in. Wouldn't you know that the day I try out my new amp my guitar input would decide to mess up. I am pretty sure the popping sound I heard was coming from the guitar input jack, I will get that soldered and move on with that. But I am still curious about the blue/purple haze. I know it is the gas inside the tubes but is it common? At least I am not red plating and my sound is great. The el34's don't give any kind of funky blue light show as I play? Thanks again for any feedback

 

[MrMarkIII]

It's gas, common, and normal. *burp*

 

[rocker43]

Thank you MrMarklll, I always like to get a baseline on what is normal when I get something new. I am so glad to get another road king, although it is a heavy monster. It sure is full of great tones.

 

[konstantine RK]

have yet to see that swamp gas in my RK1

 

[94Tremoverb]

If it looks like it's on the inner surface of the bottle, it's phosphorescence in the glass, not gas, and is not a problem. It's common in many power tubes, but not all. You do sometimes get a faint blue glow inside the plate structure that is gas and also not a problem, or a really bright blue/purple/pink glow throughout the tube that is gas and is definitely a problem - but that's a sign of imminent (or already occured) tube failure and you'll know about it because the amp will sound really bad and then it will probably blow the fuse. Do a google image search on 'blue tube glow' and you'll find some interesting examples.

 

[rocker43]

Hey thanks for the response 94Tremoverb. I did a search as you suggested and clicked on the tubestore link. My glow looks just like picture 1. They say my tubes are particularly good with regard to gas content. I used to have a genz benz el diablo and it had an open front where you could see the tubes. I sure wish these tubes were in that amp because they have a really cool look to them. Unfortanently they are in the rear of my combo and I don't get to enjoy the beautiful light show. Thanks again for your responsse.