Newbie TR owner: Are my tubes OK?

[Freefall]

I just got a used 2 channel TR shipped to me today. The guy who shipped it to me packed it quite well, and he removed all the tubes and packed them carefully.

The potential problem is, I know which types of tubes go where (rectifier, power and preamp), but I don't have any idea what position each tube was originally in. Does it matter if I re-install the tubes in different positions than they were originally? I am particularly wondering about the pre-amp tubes: can I use any of them for V1? Can I put any of them in V5 as the phase splitter? The manual says not to change the tube positions.

One other question... for now, since I'm impatient and wanted to know if the amp works, I just installed the tubes in whatever order. The amp works, but I notice that one of the rectifier tubes is not glowing orange like all of the other tubes in the amp. This is true no matter which channel or mode I use, or type of rectification. The amp still works on both channels, although I'm not sure if the sound is totally fine. This non-glowing rectifier tube also looks different than the other two, while they're all stock Mesa tubes, this one has a regular plastic base while the others have metal wrapped bases. Also tried swapping tube positions, but this is still the only one not glowing. So I'm wondering: is it likely that this tube didn't survive shipping? If it hadn't, would I still be able to get sound?

Sorry for the length of the post. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[fluff191]

In my recto the only 12ax7 that was different was V1 which had "russian - 1" on it instead of "chineese - 2" like the rest of them. Shouldn't make much of a difference if all of the tubes are indeed Mesa. If you are really that worried about it, you could always just order a matched set and start fresh. Or call Mesa themselves. They are great at answering questions.

As for the Rectifier tubes, not glowing is OK. They will never glow like the power tubes. Hope this helps.

 

[Freefall]

Yes, all the tubes are Mesa, so I hope the order might not matter.

As for the recto tube, though, I just thought it was strange that two of the three of them are glowing, just like the power and preamp tubes, but one of them is completely dark. Anyone wanna take a look at the back of their triple and tell me what you see? Thanks!

 

[Fixxer6671]

What is a "TR"?

 

[Freefall]

TR = triple rectifier

 

[fluff191]

Ok I did some research for you.

From http://www.kbapps.com/tubecare.html:

" Troubleshooting rectifier tubes is easy; they're either dead or alive. If the rectifier tube lights up when you turn the amp on, it works."

So there ya go.

 

[muramasa]

I have a 2ch triple recto too, and the rectifier tubes all light up on mine. You could just switch the amp to "silicon diode" and play it till you get a new rectifier tube.

By the way, nice amp and i hope you enjoy it. I'd like to see some pictures if possible.

 

[Freefall]

Thanks for the info guys! I'll be ordering the new tube today.

 

[R_ADKINS80]

The guy you bought it off of commited the number one sin when removing the original tubes from an amp, if they were the original tubes. Always label your tubes. 99.9% of the time ,in my experience, it does make a difference which slot the tubes go in even if they are the same type. My triple rec was this way. I had 1 russian and 4 chinese preamp tubes in my amp and I labeled each where they came from the factory. I have switched them around just to see if it was crap or not.....and it's not. Even switching all the chinese tubes around and leaving the russian one alone yielded different tones. It was almost as if mesa did what I currently have done to it, which is critique each preamp slot for the best tone, and I can honestly say that with the original tubes as they were labeled to go in the amp sounded best, but my critiquing has yielded far superior tone to the stock tubes. YMMV.