You should change your tubes every ....

[Jacko123]

?

I see that a lot. You should change your tubes every 6 months. Nah, that's BS you should change your tubes every year. No you should just change them when they burn.

Hehe.

My real question is when people say you should change your "tubes" every X, what tubes do they mean. All of them, just the power tubes? Do pe-amp tubes last longer? What about rectifiers?

Just wonderin'

 

[Timbre Wolf]

... time you play. That's what I do, so I can hear the nuances of character in all the different types. :lol:



Okay - change 'em when you start hearing skirmishes of noise, volume cut-outs, or a significant change in tone (loss of highs)/dynamics/volume. Change when there is a problem.

Generally, power tubes wear out at the fastest rate, preamps second, and rectifier last (if it is a good one - sometimes current-production rectifiers fail first, and that's a problem).

- Thom

 

[stokes]

What Thom says.Use NOS tubes and they will last a lot longer.I have preamp tubes in my Gemini that are originals from the mid '60's.The amp has been abused to hell and they are still better than brand new JJ's and Sovteks.I recently had my son bring me his amp with KT66's because he has been using them for 3 years now,3-5 times a week,I was dead sure it was time for a change,he insited they were okay.He was right.I have a bunch of various NOS 6L6GC's,7581A's,7027's that I was prepared to replace them with and couldnt find a reason to.It is truly amazing how your mileage will increase using good tubes.In the past 5 years in my and my sons amps I have only replaced two preamp tubes because I "had to",a 12AT7 in a Dual Showman that went south and a 12AY7 that cracked "mysteriously".My younger son swears it just "happened",he didnt hit it with the power cord packing it up.Yea,right.Every other preamp tube change was made just to try something newer.

 

[Jacko123]

Great info. I have to find some good NOS tubes down the road. I'm just learning about all of this.

 

[fishyfishfish]

Other than being bored or curious, I change my tubes when they loose a bunch of high end or start to sound funky, like I have to fight notes out of my guitar or raising the volume knob higher than it used to be. I did change all my pre's to all NOS and I will never ever ever ever go back to the stuff being made today. I would rather play acoustic.