Installed one 6L6 in backwards

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Maury

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Going to the gig tonight one 6L6 came loose so I quickly and carelessly reinstalled it in a rush. Powered the amp up and got a bad hum. Turned it off after approx 10 seconds... Thought it was a ground loop so I lifted the ground and turned it on again for 20 more seconds until I realized the tube was in backwards. Amp worked fine bit of course now i'm paranoid. Did I do any damage?
 
They have an extrusion in the post of the tube that fits a notch in the base to keep a tube from being put in any other way than correctly. I didn't think you could even do that. Maybe you are special. :wink:
 
Some sockets, especially ceramic ones, are not tightly shaped enough to prevent the tube going in the wrong way if you force it.

If you're unlucky this could have caused damage either to the amp, the tube or both, but if the amp appears to work OK you probably got away with it. Some possible orientations are worse than others... it's a bit like Russian roulette with 8 chambers :).

To check for sure, remove all the other power tubes except the tube and socket in question - then test the amp at low volume. If it works at all (although it may sound a bit odd), both the tube and the socket are almost certainly fine. If it doesn't work, put one of the other tubes in the same socket and see if it now works - if it still doesn't, you've most likely blown the screen resistor, which would be one of the possible outcomes. Keep a close watch on the tube at all times when doing this and switch to standby at the first hint of trouble.
 
I tried the bad tube in the bad socket and a new tube in the bad socket. With only one tube installed I get no sound. When I put 4 tubes in, the amp works completely fine.
 
If the socket in question produces no sound with any tube, you've almost certainly blown the screen resistor on that socket. Try the tube in question in another socket, on its own - if it also works, the tube is OK.

If you have blown the screen resistor, the amp only appears to be working OK - in fact, it's running at half power on one side of the waveform. At lower volumes you won't notice this but as you turn it up the amp will start to sound odd and a bit low on headroom.

Blowing the screen resistor will happen if the tube filament - normally between pins 2 and 7 - gets connected across pins 4 (screen) and 1 (ground), if the tube is two notches out of position, or between pins 4 and 7 (filament, but also effectively grounded), with the tube three positions out the other way... because the filament is very low resistance, it will draw a large current directly from the high voltage supply to ground via the screen resistor, and is also what causes the loud hum. It could have been worse - one notch out and the filament is then between pins 3 (plate) and 8 (also ground) which can blow the output transformer.

For future reference, any time you change or replace power tubes in any amp, *always* power up with the amp on standby, and then check that the tube filaments are all glowing correctly *before* flipping the standby off. There is only one orientation where the filaments light up, so this shows for sure that the tubes are the right way in. This doesn't work with rectifier tubes, you have to be extra careful with those since they're ahead of the standby switch. The odds are the same though - 1 in 8 correct; 4 in 8, won't work but probably no damage; 3 in 8, something dies!
 
I think my amp is ok after all!!! The socket in question was an inside pair one and I had the amp set to 50 watts. Duh.

Now that I've tried a few different tubes on that socket alone, and it works, I feel better.
Thanks for your advice. I need to be way more careful and way less dumb.
 
Played an entire gig with the amp at high volumes and no troubles at all. Thanks again for your advice.
 

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