I am a dumbass: V3 kills my tubes.

I was fucking around, trying all kinds of combinations when I lost the volume of CHI and CHII, I found the problem was V3: Which I had just inserted a Mesa Russian tube into. I replaced it out, and it was just fine. I tried to use this tube in other locations, but it deadens what ever it is suppose to power. I thought, hey just a bad tube right?

So then I try a new Tung-sol in V3, hoping to get more variation to my sound, and guess what? CHI and CHII hardly had any sound, CHIII and CHIV had the normal volume, but less distortion. Again, Changed he V3 out, and back to normal. And again, I tried the Tung sol in V1 (which had worked with no problem before) and the tube does nothing. Second tube killed in under 30 minutes.

all this time and no replies... i suggest you open up the chassis and look at it. Maybe somethign will look obvious. I know that's what I would do.

GIG4FUN said:

all this time and no replies... i suggest you open up the chassis and look at it. Maybe somethign will look obvious. I know that's what I would do.

Click to expand...

I switched back to the Mesa chinese tube, no problems. It seems to be able to withstand the voltage or whatever of V3.

Keep an eye on it and your nose too, I recently had a similar problem with the volume issue and it ended up burning up the diodes between v3 and v4, it burnt through the board and now the board has to be replaced. It smelt like something was burning. You may want to open the amp up and take a look around just to be safe.

hey, i have maybe got a similar problem with V2 on my mesa express 5:50, it seemed to have alot of tube rattle when i first got it so i took it into the shop and had the v2 power tube replaced (it was slightly microphonic) so they replaced it with a fresh one, and i just did a tap test with the pencil and this tube seems to be louder already than the other tubes which doesnt make any sense as it is the newest? and also shouldnt V1 be the loudest considering its the first in the signal chain? but no V2 is, louder so im wondering if there may be a problem with this socket or wotever? any help would be much appreciated please PM me with responses

Here ya go:
(This should be a sticky, but no one reads those anyway )
http://forum.grailtone.com/viewtopic.php?t=25102&highlight=memo