This may be a dumb question....

[beans-on-toast]

Carefully inspect the power tube bases and the glass envelopes just in case they were marked, 1 to 6.

Otherwise rebias. It never hurts to do this after shipping just in case the bias pot setting changed due to being bounced around during shipping.

 

[Pbassmanca]

6 heads and 4 cabs in my living room and I can’t find a single speaker cable

Now that's a living room decor......

 

[dbase]

I just had this thought pop into my head... what if the shipping guy doing the delivery plays drums in a band ... and he notices that this is a bass amp he's shipping ... will he have respect for the amp and treat it as fragile.. or get revenge for all those drummer jokes we post .. Hmmmm! just sayin,

 

[mesaplayer83]

I'm not going to say that you're wrong, but this could be kinda like the old "duck and cover" mentality. If you ship with the tubes in, it'll probably still be okay, but might have a slightly higher probability of damage than with tubes out, such that somebody who ships lots of amps might have an incentive. Just like with duck and cover, you're probably still dead or at least injured, but the likelihood of that death/injury is statistically significant in larger numbers.

I bought my Mesa 400 from an out of state GC, and I'm really glad they pulled the tubes and shipped them separately - it was in a Calzone plywood and aluminum road case, and took such a shot during shipping that it ripped the rack rails out of the road case, and the amp was bouncing around loose inside of it.... There is no doubt in my mind that the damage would've been worse if the tubes were left installed...

 

[el murdoque]

Honestly, I think pulling the tubes when shipping is absolutely useless. I've shipped and had shipped a number of tube amps over the years, and all of them had the tubes inside and none of them have ever had a problem.

Within the last 10 months, I've had three tube amps shipped to me with a total of three damaged tubes.
I've switched to asking people I send amps whether or not I should pull out the tubes and ship them in a cushioned envelope.

 

[pie_man_25]

I just had this thought pop into my head... what if the shipping guy doing the delivery plays drums in a band ... and he notices that this is a bass amp he's shipping ... will he have respect for the amp and treat it as fragile.. or get revenge for all those drummer jokes we post .. Hmmmm! just sayin,

At any rate, we should fire him, just to be safe.

I bought my Mesa 400 from an out of state GC, and I'm really glad they pulled the tubes and shipped them separately - it was in a Calzone playwood and aluminum road case, and took such a shot during shipping that it ripped the rack rails out of the road case, and the amp was bouncing around loose inside of it.... There is no doubt in my mind that the damage would've been worse if the tube were left installed...

Thanks for sharing it's always good getting more anecdotes, as they can help to broaden up the bigger picture. As we all know, shipping can introduce all kinds of unpredictable variables, and basses and amps can be simultaneously big, heavy, and sensitive pieces of equipment.

 

[BassmanPaul]

On older fender tube amps there used to be a chart stapled inside the head box showing where the tube types should go. Is there not one in your amp?

If not do a search on the Fender site for your amp. It should show you where the tubes go.