Do you see an amp tech?

[Doctor Gay]

Ahahalot of you guys have sick tube amps, but what do you do when the tubes fail? I've never owned a tube amp per the dyer consequences that can occur with tubes. There are no amp repair shops in my area, and I'm not willing to travel to the city every year just for maintenance. Any stories where the tubes never fail would help. Basically, am I being vern about fixed bias amps not paying the checks. I got my eye on a 6505+ or a Bolt Amp, but it seems it may be lust. I'll have more questions when you guys say some stuff

 

[egan.]

Dude, you're a half hour from Baltimore. You can't work out going there once a year? FWIW you can just get mail order tubes and drop them in easily you just won't get the biasing and cleaning you'd get from a tech.

 

[MatrixClaw]

The 6505+ doesn't need to be biased. Even with the bias pot on it fully up, it's still not at a high enough voltage for the tubes it runs. Peavey amps are biased super cold, unless it's modded to have a larger sweep on the pot, all you have to do is pull out the old tubes and put in the new ones.

Dunno about Bolt amps though, but biasing an amp is super simple with a multimeter and a bias probe.

 

[Doctor Gay]

@egan. i don't have people like you kicking my ass to get there, ultimately ye right.

@MatrixClaw thanks for the info. i'll have to check that with Music Land about the super cold bias thing going on.

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

My local store does restorations on old tube radios so they have this big ass old tester in the store. I've taken tubes in to be tested before.

Also I'm 40 mins from both:

www.voodooamps.com
and
www.fjamods.com

 

[Doctor Gay]

glad someone can vouche for them. there's a jsx at music land. the voodoo mod looks intriguing and sodas the valveking! -me

 

[greyskull]

I've either fixed it myself, or if it;s too big a job, sent it in to Marshall,

 

[Sloan]

I firmly believe in educating yourself about the tools you use. I have saved so many people from horrible gigs due to just learning about how shit works and being able to fix things.