Juancito12 said:I talked to the guy at Mesa Boogie and he said it will void the warranty if the amp is fried due to non mesa tubes.
Wow... talk about fear mongering... There are other ways to sell your tubes. I like Mesa amps but don't like that they try to scare people. Plus, that whole story in my manual about Mesa's being fixed bias because bias pots can vibrate out of position just doesn't hold up to reason.
Now to be fair, Randall Smith talks at length about how some folks change the bias hotter, and it sounds better; others change it cooler and it sounds better; suggesting that many who alter the bias will find an improvement ...because it is different (google Hawthorne Effect, where a change of any sort can trigger a positive response when you deal with humans ). I think there is some validity here.
Also, to be fair to Smith, tubes have great variance in voltage and current they can tolerate/put out, even within the same tube type; then there are those who experiment with other tube types (like me ). Should a company honor its warranty when there is a significant variable out there that is beyond its control? To protect *their* interests and bottom line, their policy does make sense. Honda will void their warranty if you throw in a "performance chip" into the ECU ...and so would I.
Lastly, I feel that Smith is doing the right thing by labelling his "own" tubes simply because they meet a minimum set of parameters that helps *us* ...the end user. We get a more consistent product, in both amp tone and tube purchase. What kind of customer satisfaction/trust would there be if customers had to keep coming back because their Mesa rep kept handing him a diferent set of tubes to "try." No, they are not the best tubes, but they are certainly decent tubes, and from a reliability standpoint they are a KNOWN entity. Ask yourself this question: how many vendors will warrant their tubes as Mesa does, let alone for as long as Mesa does? This is to Mesa's credit!
Just thought I'd add some balance ...IMHO anyway
Edward