kyldh
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- Mar 3, 2014
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Just a little background on what I've been going through:
My previous "rig" was a Triple Rec and Music Man HD-130. I used this for about a decade and didn't have many issues. Replaced a tube here of course and there but nothing major. Fast-forward to the Roadster head... I sold those other 2 heads to consolidate into this single head. I bought my Roadster shortly before my band stopped playing out and I switched over to doing mainly acoustic "coffee shop" gigs. And actually, I also paid to completely re-tube the head right before our last gig a couple years ago. It's maybe gotten 10-15 hours of play time since receiving all new tubes.
So, in short, I have experience with other tube heads, and I'm not actually even using the Roadster all that often.
That all being said, I swear every single time I turn it on, I discover a new issue. Normally a bad tube. You guessed it ---> That's the reason I don't use it very often.
For a while there my reverb stopped working so I got some recommendations from a Mesa tech, tore it apart, tested the tank with a multi-meter, put it back together again. Reverb works now... not sure why because all connections seemed tight beforehand and I didn't actually replace anything.
I was so happy to have the reverb working again but now, I turn it on and I have a "crackling" sound nonstop. I'm guessing there's a bad tube somewhere.
So, I understand that tube heads require a little TLC, but I'm maybe only putting 30min hour on it per month (at the absolute most) and like I said, every time I turn it on, something else seems to have gone wrong.
I apologize for the long-winded post. Just trying to get my point across I guess. So as the title already asks... would a power conditioner help perhaps? Could dirty power maybe be screwing with my head and killing tubes prematurely? I never used a conditioner on my previous heads, but I also never owned them while living in my current house.
My previous "rig" was a Triple Rec and Music Man HD-130. I used this for about a decade and didn't have many issues. Replaced a tube here of course and there but nothing major. Fast-forward to the Roadster head... I sold those other 2 heads to consolidate into this single head. I bought my Roadster shortly before my band stopped playing out and I switched over to doing mainly acoustic "coffee shop" gigs. And actually, I also paid to completely re-tube the head right before our last gig a couple years ago. It's maybe gotten 10-15 hours of play time since receiving all new tubes.
So, in short, I have experience with other tube heads, and I'm not actually even using the Roadster all that often.
That all being said, I swear every single time I turn it on, I discover a new issue. Normally a bad tube. You guessed it ---> That's the reason I don't use it very often.
For a while there my reverb stopped working so I got some recommendations from a Mesa tech, tore it apart, tested the tank with a multi-meter, put it back together again. Reverb works now... not sure why because all connections seemed tight beforehand and I didn't actually replace anything.
I was so happy to have the reverb working again but now, I turn it on and I have a "crackling" sound nonstop. I'm guessing there's a bad tube somewhere.
So, I understand that tube heads require a little TLC, but I'm maybe only putting 30min hour on it per month (at the absolute most) and like I said, every time I turn it on, something else seems to have gone wrong.
I apologize for the long-winded post. Just trying to get my point across I guess. So as the title already asks... would a power conditioner help perhaps? Could dirty power maybe be screwing with my head and killing tubes prematurely? I never used a conditioner on my previous heads, but I also never owned them while living in my current house.