Total Failure On My Triple Recto Head!

[MrDave]

I picked up a used Triple Recto head a few weeks ago. It's been running great until I went to power it up this morning and got NOTHING! No matter how high I turned up the volume on all channels, all I got was a very quiet clean tone. I checked my connections, they were fine. I even put the head on another cabinet, same issue. I pulled the fuse and the filament looked fine. I'm getting power to the amp, just no tone!

I pulled the chasiss this evening and had a look at the tubes. The power and rectifier tubes are all glowing fine but I noticed some issues with the preamp tubes. Going from right to left, #1 looked a little dim and #2 and #4 were totally dark.

Would a couple of bad preamp tubes cause this much of an issue? I checked out a few troubleshooting guides and they seem to be pointing in that direction.

Also, the previous owner is an amp repair guy. He claimed he just put in a nice, new set of power tubes for me. Then again I don't trust people any farther than I can throw them. Would a bad power tube cause a total loss of tone? Again, they all seem to be glowing fine.

Right now my best idea is to simply retube the whole **** thing. Power, preamp and rectifer tubes. I'm open to suggestions.

If I understand correctly, Boogies have a fixed bias so I can just plug in the new tubes and go, right?

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[Elpelotero]

From an FAQ in one of the sections:

> My amp turns on but the sound is very quiet, the sound is muffled or strange, there are microphonics (squeals, strange sounds), the channels don't function the way they used to!
You've most likely got a pre-amp tube problem. The best way to troubleshoot these is to remove the metal casings if there are any and take a pen or pencil and gently tap the glass while playing through your guitar... not hard enough that you'd break it but hard enough that you get a nice sizeable 'ding' out of it. The bad tube will make ugly sounds when struck.

Give it a try and report back.

 

[MrDave]

Thanks to everyone for all of the good advice. I replaced the preamp tubes today and we're back up and running! I removed the caps and found this guy sitting in V2. It looks like that's where the problem was coming from. It's a no name tube, I'm guessing Chinese. I replaced it and it fired right back up!

Being a used head, I thought it would be a good idea to replace all of the preamp tubes. I put a Tungsol 12AX7 in V1 and went JJ ECC803-S for the rest. I couldn't be happier! The tone is warmer, much less fizzy than before. I pulled out an Electro Harmonix 12AX7 and a couple of Sovtek 12AX7-WA's. They seem fine so I wrapped them up and started an emergency tube collection.

The power tubes still seem fine. Maybe the seller told the truth about them. I'm going to roll with them for a while and see what happens. The main thing is I'm back in business!

 

[fluff191]

Well my Dual Recto just died this morning. I just put a new set of EL34's in it last week and immediatley thought they were the problem, but didnt find anything. This gives me hope its just a simple tube problem.

I have EH's in V1,2, & 3 with the stock Mesa tubes in V4 and V5. And EH El34's for power tubes.

 

[MrDave]

Let's hope so. I know how frustrating having a dead amp can be. On the bright side, at least it didn't fail on Easter Sunday like mine did. The only place open was Guitar Center. I wasn't about to drop the $$$ for Groove Tubes at $20 each. I had to wait until Monday to get a new set from my local Mom and Pop store.

A bit of advice? I love the way the JJ's sound in this amp. The Tungsol in V1 is awesome.

 

[fluff191]

Yeah I think the mix of EH and Mesa tubes arent doing me any good. I think I'm just going to order an entire retube kit from Eurotubes. Only question now is do I get the high gain set or just the regular set? Hmmm.......