quick noobie tube amp gain q (ampeg)

[user4224]

Never used a tube amp before, and ended up with a used ampeg svt cl.
I really like the sound when I turn the gain knob to 11, and the sales guy almost fainted. He told me the tube life gets shortened to like 1year if I do that, no matter what the volume is set at...
A technician friend say it's rubbish, so I'm asking for more opinions...

 

[vin*tone]

rubbish

 

[bongomania]

Rubbish. Yes, the harder you use a tube the more its life may be shortened, but a good-quality tube may be run hard for literally decades.

I'm guessing what he said was based on a portion of ignorance, a portion of the truth, and a portion of only having experience with crappy quality tubes.

 

[B-string]

Hope the amp didn't have a poor repair patch job done on it, the sales person may have been worried it would fail because of this?
Other than that he must be a drummer