Question about Fixed Bias I know this has been aske to death

[confused]

Does that mean I have to use Mesa Tubes

I think I might switch to JJ's I have heard very good things about them

Why is said that tubes are biased cold in Mesa Amps what's the difference between hot biasing a cold why does cold biasing get a bad rep.

What are the advantages between hot and cold biasing.

 

[Grandor]

No you do not have to use mesa tubes.
However not using mesa tubes will void your warranty, I think.

JJ's are great, to get a set of JJ's which are the rated right for your amp, drop a line to bob at eurotubes www.eurotubes.com and he will hook u up with tubes for your amp that will fit it like a glove.

As to your bias questions, I'll let someone who can put the technical terms into layman terms answer that one.

 

[Russ]

The tubes are not biased cold but the amps are themselves. In order to get the proper tubes in there you need tubes that run cooler. A high bias setting on another amp will cook your Mesa tubes then kill the amp. A low bias never allows the tubes to get that hot but suffers from some power tube distortion anemia. To get the really singing sounds out of your amp you need the power tubes to be distorting slightly. This is why some people have a high bias. With a high bias it is easier to get your amp hotter thus your tubes are working harder. In the case of a Mesa amp the tubes needn't be pushed as hard thus the tubes will tend to last longer. However it is harder to get the amp to have that singing overdriven sound. Mesa amps tend to get more of their distortion from the cascading preamp gain stages. The power tube distortion tends to not be as much sought after as some deep chugging. In order to get clarity your amp must remain clean. Thus a cold bias is preferred. Remember that Mesas are hotrodded Fender type amplifiers with a Soldano type cascading gain. There are instances where power amp glory comes into play but typically people want to make distorted sounds that come out clean if that makes any sense. Basically it is like this: there is no need for a singing thud or chug. For a singing lead you may want to try a color that will get your power tubes distorting sooner. Mesa has set up color grades for their power tubes to help you tailor your amp and how it reacts to your playing. With the fixed bias you buy tubes around that bias point instead of buying tubes then having your amp adjusted to accomodate the tube. Really there are as many people that say a high bias is a bad thing as there are that say a cold bias is a bad thing. It is just a preference. Truly you want something inbetween. If you must pick one I would go with cold because it is more durable and your tubes last longer. If you pick hot it is because you want those scorching leads and don't care if your tubes last a week. Eddie Van Halen had this discussions for years about his amps and voltages. There was a big mystery surrounding it all for years. Basically to get his sound you had to literally cook your tubes. This was at a time when there was no such thing as a modern high gain amplifier. You can now approach his tone without having to buy tubes every week or amplifiers every other month. I wouldn't worry about the topic too much. Just enjoy the amp. Try lots of flavors of tubes until you find what you like. Savor that flavor as long as you can because GAS will settle in and you will move on either to different tubes, or strings, or guitars, or amps, whathaveyou. Bottomline don't let that stuff get in your way of enjoying what you are playing. Just play...