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Post by cvogue on Jan 19, 2018 15:04:25 GMT -5
Cool, keep us posted.
"I love it when a plan comes together"
- The A Team
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Post by briman on Jan 19, 2018 17:55:36 GMT -5
Cool, keep us posted. "I love it when a plan comes together" - The A Team Lol now i got the A Team song stuck in my head! Murdocb was the best on that show! That is great news Gtrjunior!! I bet you felt releived that it is not your trannies or something more major than a simple tube replacemnt. I never get feedback on my QR's but probably because i am always in gear 2 with gain only at 1 oclock. |
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Post by gtrjunior on Jan 19, 2018 18:12:50 GMT -5
Absolutely....the first thing I did when I removed the amp from the box Is inspect for signs of something burned out....luckily the fuse did its job.
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Post by splawndude on Jan 19, 2018 22:48:07 GMT -5
Ok....GREAT NEWS!! I had a set of RI Mullard EL34 Tubes on hand and just put them in the QR. I got them biased up and they are holding a 33mA setting. I went with 65% dissipation. Plate voltage was 475. The 6CA7 tubes are scheduled to arrive on Monday so I’ll leave the amp out of the head box until then. I have a few errands to run right now but when I get back I’ll fire up the amp and play for a little bit and report back then. splawndude....thanks a million for your biasing tutorial. It’s helped me both times I’ve biased. You did a tremendous job with it. Clearly you put a LOT of work into it....so thank you for that. NP. And thanks. Can't wait to hear your report on your incoming JJ's. I really want that to work because I see new production JJ's as a bit of toss. Lots of people complained big time maybe 5 years ago about the JJ EL84s. That's the eighty fours. Seemed to have lots of quality issues. I've been pretty happy with JJ overall so I want them to succeed. I use JJ's for my 6L6 amps and lots of preamps in different places. Bucketlist item is truely to stock up on a bunch of NOS tubes. I know sooner or later I'll plobably have some kind of Snax or Kemper or Katana but I want to 'prep' on some NOS tubes lol. The funny story on the tutorial, if I have not memtioned it enough, is that when I made that tutorial I knew nothing about biasing. I started off doing tons of research and picking and chosing what I thought where the best parts of other tutorials and decided to make my own. When I look at it now it looks very wordy. I don't like that but I also remember what it was like being a novice and therefore felt to leave it alone. I had the thing 'blessed' by several amp builders and I think I submitted it to mods here at a very busy Splawn forum at the time for a 'blessing' before I posted it. Anyway - glad it helped. I still refer to it to this day. Especially the safety stuff because sometimes when you are in the heat of the moment you can get distracted pretty easily. Peace. |
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Post by splawndude on Jan 19, 2018 22:51:24 GMT -5
Great vid. Kind of painful in some places but probably better than I could do. At the end there....he's right. THat is a valid way to check for fuses. If you pull all your power tubes and turn it on an the fuse blows then there you go. Scary as that seems. Obviously you would never want to run a signal thru that way but he's right. Good stuff. Never seen that before. |
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Post by briman on Jan 19, 2018 23:24:41 GMT -5
There are some real good amp techs on youtube offering their knowledge but there are also idiots on there giving bad advice so you have to do your own homework to know which guys know what they are doing.
I used your tube biasing tutorial also splawndude! Thanks a million for that.
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Post by splawndude on Jan 20, 2018 0:57:17 GMT -5
There are some real good amp techs on youtube offering their knowledge but there are also idiots on there giving bad advice so you have to do your own homework to know which guys know what they are doing. I used your tube biasing tutorial also splawndude! Thanks a million for that. If it helps just one person then it accomplishes it's goal. Glad it helped you. ...and yes, there is a ton of good info out there and there is a ton of crappy info out there. Sometimes hard to decipher. |
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Post by schmasty on Jan 20, 2018 9:33:17 GMT -5
I have had the same issue you encountered. A tube can go at any time and most warranties are only 6 months.. I asked Scott what the Quickrod is biased to when I got my 2012 and he said 32ma hope this helps.. And yes I dam near sh!t my pants when the tube blew. thank goodness the fuse does its job protecting the amp...
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Post by gtrjunior on Jan 20, 2018 12:30:52 GMT -5
I have had the same issue you encountered. A tube can go at any time and most warranties are only 6 months.. I asked Scott what the Quickrod is biased to when I got my 2012 and he said 32ma hope this helps.. And yes I dam near sh!t my pants when the tube blew. thank goodness the fuse does its job protecting the amp... Yeah, when I blew the fuse the first time I was ok with that....I’ll just replace the fuse. When it blew the second time and had a big blue flash from the tubes I though....that’s not good. When I did the bias math it came out to 33mA but once it settled it was just below that. So thats where I’m going to bias. I just got my set of 6CA7 delivered today!! So in about an hour they should be in the amp followed with a “first impression” review! |
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Post by gtrjunior on Jan 20, 2018 17:43:14 GMT -5
The 6CA7 are installed....I’m not sure how I feel about them.
The clean channel sounds good. But then again it sounded good before too.
The gain channel still sounds like it always did but with maybe a bit more “glassiness” in the highs....which I don’t like. Great for cleans but it’s not what I want on the OD channel.
Plus, I’m hearing a crackling sound when I stop playing. It lasts for just a second or so but it’s there. I’m going to clean the tube sockets again....just did it when I installed the Mullards but didn’t just now with the JJ’s. It’s possible that some Dirt was on the JJ pins.
I’m going to give these tubes a few days before I decide what to do. I might end up putting those Mullards back in. Idk
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Post by gtrjunior on Jan 20, 2018 19:07:46 GMT -5
I hooked up my pedalboard with the BB Preamp and I liked the tone a lot better. Still not 100% sold....I’m going to take it to rehearsal next weekend and see how it goes.
Also, seems like cleaning he pins worked. The crackling seemed to be gone.
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Post by briman on Jan 21, 2018 2:38:46 GMT -5
I think you would like tung sols or electro harmonix. They have a lot top end bite with tight bottom and creamy mids. They both sounded amazing in my Competition.
Aren't you waiting for tubes from Scott also? At least you know you can get your previous tone back with those.
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Post by gtrjunior on Jan 21, 2018 6:24:09 GMT -5
Yes, I have tubes from Scott coming as well.
When I was biasing, I was using a cheapie Bugera 2x12 cabinet as my load box. It has whatever their stock speakers are in it. I read online that it’s somewhat close to a V30 (or at least their version of). So when I put the Mullards in and tested them, I was playing through that cab. And like I said, they sounded good.
When I put the JJ’s in, I biased and then plugged into my Port City with Small Blocks. It sounded grittier/grainier. I’m going to plug back into the Bugera with the JJ’s and see what that sounds like....maybe it’s the speakers that I’m not liking? I could get a WGS Veteran 30 and try pairing it with one S Block.
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Post by schmasty on Jan 21, 2018 6:28:23 GMT -5
Yep that's what happened I was at practice flip the standby switch all I hear is a click.... No sound. Check all my cables, pedalboard make sure I have them in the effects loop correct check.. Turn power back on look at tubes seems ok the power tubes had a glow to them take off standby zero.. Turn off check fuse yep blown. Shine flashlight in the back and can see the filament on the third power tube was not connected at the top off the tube.. Left a very uncomfortable feeling in my gut.. If you bought the tubes from Scott and have requested the number that your head shipped with it may take a few weeks. He actually does the matching. I trust the man he does make great amps..
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Post by gtrjunior on Jan 21, 2018 10:16:42 GMT -5
Yep that's what happened I was at practice flip the standby switch all I hear is a click.... No sound. Check all my cables, pedalboard make sure I have them in the effects loop correct check.. Turn power back on look at tubes seems ok the power tubes had a glow to them take off standby zero.. Turn off check fuse yep blown. Shine flashlight in the back and can see the filament on the third power tube was not connected at the top off the tube.. Left a very uncomfortable feeling in my gut.. If you bought the tubes from Scott and have requested the number that your head shipped with it may take a few weeks. He actually does the matching. I trust the man he does make great amps.. Yup, I ordered a set from Scott but i also ordered a set from tubedepot.com which have arrived and are currently in the amp. I’ll save the Splawn tubes for backup for now. I swapped a 12t-75 from my Marshall cab with one of the Small Blocks in my Port City....already I like the mixed tone better. It sounds more rude. Lol I’ll live with this setup for a while and see what happens. I just can’t stop tinkering though!!! |
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