Tube Replacement

How long can I expect the tubes on my Dual Rec to last, playing 3-4 hours a day at low-moderate levels on average?


Also, Im not sure if it's my imagination, but after playing a few hours my amp seems like lose some gain on the amp. Could that be a bad tube, I thought I saw something about bad tubes from mesa somewhere here.

My amp is only about 1 month old, straight out of the box.

I've also noticed it sometimes...I could just be fatigue of the ears....the slightly adjust to the sound.....

Tube amps do naturally change tone a bit with time, keep that in mind!

So how often do you "have" to replace tubes on average, not including when you are just trying to get better tone....6-months, a year, 2 years?

Depends on the tube and the usage...

Power tubes) 1-1/2 yrs.
Pre-amp/Rectifier) 2-3 yrs.
It's in the manual! Read it!

Believe it or not ... just changed my original 6L6 power tubes out of a 78 boogie ... 28 years. Actually broke one of the four. I play it 3-5 hours a week on average I bet. What do think about that? Three of 'em are still good. But I replaced with a matched set of groove tubes. No real change ... sounds the same.

I changed the tubes in my 2:Ninety after about 4 - 5 years of use and I bought it used.. no telling how old the tubes were before I got it..
I changed them.. and the sound was no where near impacted the way it was when I recently switched cabs or the preamp tubes with older used and NOS tubes.

Brian

jbird said:

Power tubes) 1-1/2 yrs.
Pre-amp/Rectifier) 2-3 yrs.
It's in the manual! Read it!

Click to expand...

I have read the manual a few times and didn't see where it says that.

Believe it or not, I actually read the whole manual before even plugging in my Dual Rec when I first got it Which I thought should a lot of restraint hehe.

Your tubes will last varying amounts of time. If you move your amp with the tubes hot still it can degrade the life expectancy. If you play your amp hard (loud) often it can degrade the life expectancy also. Many touring amps are retubed at least once a month. Most of them don't need it but it is a precaution to prevent losing an amp in the middle of a show. Depending upon the amount of time and how hard you push your tubes your tubes can last a really long time or maybe 6 months. If your amp doesn't get moved, you play at low volumes and not very often I would say a couple years at least.