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AMPEG SVT-CL

William_Mc

William_Mc

Guest
Oct 6, 2015
2
0
42
#1
Looking to replace the tubes in this amp i had bought used a few months ago. I am wondering about the if getting all the tubes matched is absolutely necessary for this amp. I was thinking about getting these tubes in matched pairs so if one of my tubes went out prematurely i would only have to replace 1 other tube instead of 5. Any thoughts?
 
#2
William_Mc said:
Looking to replace the tubes in this amp i had bought used a few months ago. I am wondering about the if getting all the tubes matched is absolutely necessary for this amp. I was thinking about getting these tubes in matched pairs so if one of my tubes went out prematurely i would only have to replace 1 other tube instead of 5. Any thoughts?
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The output tubes are not used in pairs, they are triads. Replacing all the tubes just because is a waste of time and money. Matching is only needed on the output tubes. If one fails you have the option of just replacing one if you can get a closely graded tube or replacing a triad of tubes since the tubes get biased in two triplets, not three pairs.
 
#3
Agreed with B-string 2. What's wrong with it where you think you should completely retube it? It's very rare that all the tubes are shot in an SVT. Won't say it never happens, but the likelihood is low.
 
#5
The seller had told me the tubes were brand new when I made the purchase and after i took it home it had stopped working. Me and a friend of mine were trying to do some trouble shooting and we took the power amp tubes out to find 3 of them had broken guide pins. We had used a tube tester to check to see if they were all still good and they passed but i started to question whether or not these tubes were brand new like he had said and decided to replace them. Everyone one i know that plays guitar or bass has told me 6550s are the American version of the KT88s and will work in this amp so i decided to try those out. The amp ended up having an issue near the master volume pot and i had a tech fix it. Didn't cost much but a few twenties and a couple weeks of my playing time (the tech was sick for most of the two weeks).
 
#9
Guide pins are there to make sure the tube is plugged in correctly. A broken guide pin does not make the tube bad - but plugging it in wrong will cause the amp to go into power fault mode. You may just need to double check the tubes positions.
 

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