My VB2 has lost mojo

[bassvi]

My beloved VB2 finally went down about a month ago, I took it to my Peavey authorized tech and he fixed it. The inner fuse blew and a tube went bad, he said it had cold solder joints and he retubed it with Svetlanas.

It sounded great in my basement when I got it home.
At recent gigs I have been too loud onstage using it with my NV610, so I tried using an Ampeg 1x15 cab with it at my last gig... not loud enough and sounded really farty when i got to my solo.

I ran it through my GK and GB cabs at home and it still seems to be breaking up way too early now. Is it the Svetlanas? Someone told me if I replaced the preamp tubes with Tung-Sols it would have more headroom, I don't know. I'm just really bummed because this was the best sounding amp I have ever played before it went down, and now my solid states sound better. Any ideas? THX

[B-string]

Go back for a re-bias. New Svets are not that stable and IMO/IME not worth installing. Winged "C"s would have been a whole lot better.

[rodl2005]

shouldn't make that sort of difference replacing the pwr tubes. Has the bias slipped? Been done correctly when re-tubed??? Sounds to me like this sort of problem OR one or more of the pwr tubes are just NO GOOD?????? eeeek!!
How come you've been TOO LOUD at recent gigs?? The volume control works? ;-)
That amp has a gain/master eh??
In any case- ppl with far more knowledge than I will surely chime in...
Good Luck. I'd like one of these amps myself. Never see 'em here????? Strange coz we see EVERY other Peavey!! :-/

[bassvi]

Originally Posted by rodl2005

shouldn't make that sort of difference replacing the pwr tubes. Has the bias slipped? Been done correctly when re-tubed??? Sounds to me like this sort of problem OR one or more of the pwr tubes are just NO GOOD?????? eeeek!!
How come you've been TOO LOUD at recent gigs?? The volume control works? ;-)
That amp has a gain/master eh??
In any case- ppl with far more knowledge than I will surely chime in...
Good Luck. I'd like one of these amps myself. Never see 'em here????? Strange coz we see EVERY other Peavey!! :-/

The sound guy wants basically no stage volume so he can have complete control over the mix, which I can understand from his point of view. Funny thing is it's a rock band and in the funk band I play in I can get away with a lot more robust stage volume. But yeah, I tend to be what a lot of people seem to consider on the loud side- even though I'm just trying to match volume with drums and guitar. We do play with dynamics so I'm not blasting constantly. I just seem to have a different concept than most people of how the bass should sit in the mix, I guess. Maybe I've been listening to Rush too long, lol.
Fortunately I play well enough to be tolerated in spite of this and I have lots of gigs.

Anyway, thanks for the suggestions about the bias and power tube situation, I'll check on that. Would just like to get my amp back to sounding like it did before.

[BbbyBld]

As was said, the amp may not have been re-biased correctly.

Some EL34s sound very thin in the VB-2. Hopefully you still have your original tubes, because he/you could have just replaced the one using the matching number on the base.

Svetlanas

We don't use those because they are not as reliable.

Use JJ EL34, Electro-Harmonix 6CA7, or Ruby EL34BHT (or EL34BG).

[bassvi]

Thanks for the info Bobby. I'll take the amp back to the shop (Midwest Sound- he is an authorized Peavey service center, I found him through the Peavey website) Doesn't sound like he did quite enough research when fixing the amp.

[Tractorr]

Has anybody else seen a really long discussion about tubes in a VB2? I saw one at some point (I think a Peavey engineer was participating) but can't remember if it was on TB or another forum. Since then I have searched TB and Google and not been able to find it.

Anyone else seen this thread?