Mark V 35 tube wear in 25 and 10 watt mode

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hoffy

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Hi there fellow Boogie owners. I have been wondering how it works regarding lower wattage modes on Mesa amps where only two of four power tubes are used, like on Mark V 35. What is happening with the two remaining EL84s when they are not being used? Are they being worn the same or less or not at all? Let us say, what if I mostly used the 25 watt mode on the Mark V 35? Would it mean that one pair of the power tubes will get worn faster?
If that is so, it would make sense to swap the two pairs from time to time to keep the tube matching equal for the 35 watt mode, but does anyone know which ones are the ones being used and which pair is only idling?

Thanks a lot!
 
Not sure if I can help....The plates are being used. Not quite like pulling 2 tubes on amp. They need to be there.
 
Hi there fellow Boogie owners. I have been wondering how it works regarding lower wattage modes on Mesa amps where only two of four power tubes are used, like on Mark V 35. What is happening with the two remaining EL84s when they are not being used? Are they being worn the same or less or not at all? Let us say, what if I mostly used the 25 watt mode on the Mark V 35? Would it mean that one pair of the power tubes will get worn faster?
If that is so, it would make sense to swap the two pairs from time to time to keep the tube matching equal for the 35 watt mode, but does anyone know which ones are the ones being used and which pair is only idling?

Thanks a lot!
I found that I would get noise from the 2 tubes that were being used all of the time as the set was getting old and near the end of its life. What I do is replace all tubes and save the other 2 tubes that were not making noise as spares. When noise starts to come back on the 2 tubes that are on all of the time (I believe they are the 2 outside tubes)I replace them with the spares. I got about an extra 6 months out of the set.
 
if it has 4 power tubes, can you increase it to 50 watt with minor fixes? the 25 has 2
 
I just assume that the pair that is used more will have more wear and swap their positions every few months, switching the inner pair with the outer pair. All 4 tubes should be matched, so using them in any position should be fine as long as you're only using the same matched quad set.
 
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