Power Tubes not fully seating.

[pivot]

Its been a year and a half and I replaced the power tubes in the Mark V head with new tubes from Mesa but they do not seat all the way into the socket you can see about an inch for 2 of the tubes exposed. When I called Mesa they said this was ok and I havent noticed any problems with tone or anything else with the head but... Being a tweaker this has got me nervous since we tour allot. I have the head in a road case but wondering if any of you out there have this same problem. I dont want to use after market tubes. I looked on google and saw that some people suggested that mesa's tubes may have a little extra metal on the tube pins and they dont always fit all the way in. I would have thought Mesa would check this before sending them out.

 

[boogieman60]

If you look closely you will see some excess wire sticking out of the pins on the bottom of the tube . Just clip them off carefully with a sharp mini cutting pliers. then use a SMALL amont of dielectric grease on the pins and all should go well. This seated My tubes correctly.

 

[pivot]

Thanks for the quick reply ill give it a try.
I'm sure this has already been said but.. shouldn't this have been done before it left the factory?
I bought the tubes specifically from boogie to avoid any problems and to retain the same tone?
E

 

[boogieman88]

I also have issues with seating power tubes in my V. On mine, it's the screws that hold the tube clamps in place and the fact that the top of the sockets themselves are basically level with the chassis. The base of the power tubes hits these screws, and there is just no way to seat them any further. On my IV's the socets protrude plenty well enough to get a nice tight seating. The only way I've been able to come close to getting a tight fit is to pull the V's chassis out and press down on the tube socket while seating the tube in. This, along with some other things about the V really bother me.

 

[pivot]

Weird. The screws are not in the way of the power tubes on my head. It seems like there is something on the pins preventing them from fully seating. I think the suggestion to clip the access metal off might fix it but Im really nervous about clipping anything on the tubes especially if they are the ones sent to me from mesa. So far my head has not had any problems knock on wood but im just a tweaker and see allot of the forum pics with tubes fully seated in the sockets in the pictures.