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Post by drbill on Mar 3, 2018 11:01:33 GMT -6
I don't think it's nearly as malicious as you make it out to be John. LOL The guy wasn't a tech - merely an uninformed barely out of HS kid, fairly ignorant, and didn't even know what kind of amp I had - much less if it was self biasing or not. But thanks for that, Now that I know if self biases, I'm going to throw in an old 6V6 I found laying around in the interim. Will report back.... OK, glad you're up and running. A couple things you should know - first, if it's a little amp with a single output tube it's self biasing. At least I've never heard of one that wasn't. (Push-pull amps can be either way.) Second, a good "seat of the pants" to determine how much life is left in a used tube is to look at the "getter", which is the silver-black deposit on the glass envelope. It might be a spot on the side or it might be a coating in the top or something similar. The purpose of the getter is to absorb stray ions floating around in the tube which will compromise performance. (Hence the term "getter" - it's there to "get" that stuff and render it inert.) If a tube is approaching the end of its life the getter will start turning white instead of a healthy silver-black. The greyer or whiter the getter is, the more worn out the tube. Of course there are a number of other things that can adversely affect the life of a tube (shorts, dead filaments, loose elements that make it microphonic - which are obvious - lotsa stuff) but as long as a tube stays on the "main sequence" of tube life, the getter is a good indication of how worn out it might be getting (Lousy pun intended.) And the kid should have asked before immediately trying to sell you on the most expensive "solution".... Thanks for the info John. Appreciated. The kid was actually quite helpful. He offered to order a single for me, and suggested several alternatives. But all he had on hand was a package of two together that he couldn't break open. This is a tiny mom/pop music store. I'm actually surprised they had any tubes. LOL All good now though. Will check the tubes life next time I have the amp opened up. Cheers, bp |
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Post by johneppstein on Mar 3, 2018 15:53:40 GMT -6
OK, glad you're up and running. A couple things you should know - first, if it's a little amp with a single output tube it's self biasing. At least I've never heard of one that wasn't. (Push-pull amps can be either way.) Second, a good "seat of the pants" to determine how much life is left in a used tube is to look at the "getter", which is the silver-black deposit on the glass envelope. It might be a spot on the side or it might be a coating in the top or something similar. The purpose of the getter is to absorb stray ions floating around in the tube which will compromise performance. (Hence the term "getter" - it's there to "get" that stuff and render it inert.) If a tube is approaching the end of its life the getter will start turning white instead of a healthy silver-black. The greyer or whiter the getter is, the more worn out the tube. Of course there are a number of other things that can adversely affect the life of a tube (shorts, dead filaments, loose elements that make it microphonic - which are obvious - lotsa stuff) but as long as a tube stays on the "main sequence" of tube life, the getter is a good indication of how worn out it might be getting (Lousy pun intended.) And the kid should have asked before immediately trying to sell you on the most expensive "solution".... Thanks for the info John. Appreciated. The kid was actually quite helpful. He offered to order a single for me, and suggested several alternatives. But all he had on hand was a package of two together that he couldn't break open. This is a tiny mom/pop music store. I'm actually surprised they had any tubes. LOL All good now though. Will check the tubes life next time I have the amp opened up. Cheers, bp I miss the days when you could buy tubes at any supermarket or large drugstore. And get a chocolate malt at the drugstore, too! |
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Post by ragan on Mar 5, 2018 22:58:35 GMT -6
Got mine today.
This is straight up a really nice little amp! Gain staging and tone controls are implemented nicely, very sculptable, the 1 watt setting (unlike many such settings I've used on various amps, including some expensive boutique offerings) is actually both significantly quieter and also still responsive and nice sounding.
Amazing buy. I'm gonna play and track the hell out of this thing.
Wish I would have grabbed the 5w too. I'll be keeping my eye out for another sale. kfhkh
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Post by winetree on Apr 3, 2018 12:46:24 GMT -6
 Had some extra knobs. Makes knowing what's what easier. |
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