What are the Original Tubes for the MkV?

[OryCheyne]

I tried searching the forum for a previous post to answer this, I just spent a long time looking but couldn't find an answer. Sure someone has mentioned it somewhere, sometime! Help

I bought my markV new (it was 5 years old in the shop, and looked after really well), it had ST440s in it when I bought it. Each set are '440 ac 10 Yellow'. One of the outsides is rattling and I finally got around to buying a new pair. By chance the pair I bought are the same 440 ac 10 Yellow. - good for spares.
Just wondering if 440s are the originals for the MkV or no?

Cheers.

 

[Grundletaint]

Yep. The color doesn't mean anything aside from helping them match tubes. Mine had reds, I got a green pair, and now both are in it.

If they're the same color then you can swap them around. Since you got yellows you could just use one of them to replace the rattling tube.

 

[OryCheyne]

Thanks for the info Grundletaint
So I guess Mesa have been selling these str440 for several years.
I picked these up for $50aud each, less than $80US for the pair at current exchange rate. Hard to pass up, not to mention I needed them anyway.

Ory

 

[Grundletaint]

Thanks for the info Grundletaint
So I guess Mesa have been selling these str440 for several years.
I picked these up for $50aud each, less than $80US for the pair at current exchange rate. Hard to pass up, not to mention I needed them anyway.

Ory

They have. Here's a good post from Randall about them.

http://mesaboogie.com/amplitudes/2012/March/mesa-tube-color-codes-by-randall-smith.html

 

[OryCheyne]

Thanks again.
That link is pretty much exactly what I needed. You're a top resource given you have just two posts.
I swapped out the rattling valve (far right looking from the rear), something loose inside it.
I noticed there is still some rattle at higher volumes with not a lot of bass setting it off. A typical setting would be in crunch mode, gain 3 o'clock, volume 10, bass 10, master volume 10, low eq at 0 or above.
This was with using a loud LP admittedly, normally plugging in a stray. I didn't change out any of the other valves, yet. I was just happy to get some time to play. Maybe tomorrow will tap on the remaining tubes and take a lucky shot. I already suspect the next in line.

Any body spend much time chasing rattily tubes?
Something I hadn't noticed until today, the V doesn't seem to have chassis suspension built in like the mk11. Is there anything isolating the amp from the cab? If no, I'm gonna be searching for some bullet proof valves.

Ory.

 

[Grundletaint]

Thanks, happy to help! I had an account here years ago while I still had my Mark IV but I have no idea what credentials are so I just created a new one.

Check your preamp tubes, too. I once had a rattle that I thought was a 6L6 but it was coming from behind it. I also found a couple of tubes that weren't completely seated in their sockets, possibly from shipping. The rattling tube was my V6 and made the FX loop function 10x better.

Also, always move your amp and try it again when you're rattle chasing. Sometimes what seems like a rattle may be something else in the room.

One more thing to note is to try and let the tubes cool down as much as possible before you move it around after a gig or something if you can. Bumping a wall, etc. is more likely to knock something loose in a hot tube.

They also make silicon tube dampeners like this: http://www.eurotubes.com/store/pc/viewCategories.asp?idCategory=8. I don't have any personal experience but I've heard many good reports.

A combo amp can be hard to deal with since the tubes are right up on the speaker. I had a RedPlate RP40 where the tubes were like a half inch away from the speaker and rattle was unavoidable, even with a brand new set of tubes. I sold it and put those same tubes in the Mark V and they were fine. Now they are my backup set.