If a fuse goes do the tubes go too?

[sgtbaker]

My fuse blew out but I don't know why. Does anyone know what the problem might be?

 

[Russ]

Could be power tubes on the way out. It could also be you came out of standby too quickly. It could have been a spike. It depends. Usually under normal use if your amp is healthy it means your power tubes are ready for replacement and are getting ready to go. Be glad your fuse blew. If your power tubes went it could have taken a resistor or worse thereby causing you to have to replace them and have work done. Double check your speaker cables and amp v. speaker impedance settings. Make sure you have the proper load on your amp too.

 

[sgtbaker]

Well one of the EL34's wasn't lighting but I tried playing through it but there was just a ringing sound and nothing coming through. Then the new fuse I put in blew after about 30 seconds of being on.

 

[edgarallanpoe]

Well one of the EL34's wasn't lighting but I tried playing through it

Why?

 

[sgtbaker]

My guitar teacher said he had tubes go at gigs but it shouldn't matter so I listened to him. And I wanted to see the tubes were the problem or something else.

 

[Russ]

Before you buy new tubes try reseating the suspected bad tube. If it is still acting up then swap it with its match or another tube if a matched quad and see if it still acts the same or if it is just any tube in the same socket is affected. If the suspected tube is bad in another socket it is just a bad tube. Also try to let your tubes warm up some before taking your amp out of standby. Hitting the tubes with power isn't very nice without at least a warm up period and can prematurely wear out your tubes. I read in my Mesa manual that even 30 seconds should be plenty of time though I tend to really let them warm up first (more like a few minutes but at times have had them on standby for a couple sets).

 

[Russ]

I got interrupted, sorry. If it is a bad tube socket then you need your amp worked on.

 

[sgtbaker]

Thanks

 

[Guitarzan]

How I've typically seen it is that the tubes go first and the fuses are a secondary condition to a faulty tube. Then again you my have a transformer issue.