Tube amplifiers seem to have garnered a lot of mystique over the years. I hope to be able to sort from of the fact from fiction for you here.
Do tube amps sound better than solid state amplifiers?
In my opinion … yes they have a warmer sound, great dynamics and a more pleasant breakup than a solid state amp. The downside of course is the higher maintenance cost.
How often should I change my tubes?
If you are using your amp say 4 hours a day 5 days a week = 20 hours per week. Then you should change your tubes every 6 months if you want to maintain the best sound quality. A year ( approx 1000 hours ) should be the absolute maximum on a set of tubes. Yes, they may still light up and produce sound, but it will not be a very good sound.
What Brand of tubes should I use?
Here is a subject that has a lot of misinformation associated with it.
There are some differences in sound between different brands of tubes. For instance as a general rule Groove tubes tend to provide a much harsher ( edgy ) sound than say JJ tubes. However aside from the harshness of groove tubes I find that most of the other main stream brands are similar in sound quality. The one place I find a big difference is reliability. The tubes we use here at the shop are all pre tested and burned in for maximum reliability and sound quality. The JJ tubes that we prefer to use in repairs carry a 6 month warranty from the supplier. There are of course NOS tubes and other rare tubes that have a nice tone and a hefty price tag, but in most situations and for most people they are not worth the hefty price tag. When we do a repair we will of course use any tube that you desire for your tube amp repair, but in most situations find that our customers are very pleased with our preferred choice of JJ tubes for their amp repair.
My new tubes make my amp sound so much better, surely this brand must be better than what I had.
Consider the following scenario to illustrate why people think the tubes that they recently had installed in their amplifier are so much better than the brand they had in there. (In other words how tube rumors get started J )
Most people do not change their tubes until they have a repair issue. We find that on a average most tube amplifiers we take in for repair have not had their tubes changed for 2-3 years ! After 2-3 years any set of tubes are not going to sound good in your amplifier. So pretty much no matter what tube is installed now will sound so much better that what you had that you will think the new tubes are best thing since sliced bread. In other words it is not so much the brand of tube that you installed, but the fact that you changed the tubes at all that made the amp sound so much better.
Where should I buy my tubes.
Why from me of course J
Beware! There are a lot of sources for tubes and name brand alone does not assure you are getting a quality tube.
You should as a general rule avoid the internet tube warehouse type places because often the tubes they sell are seconds of inferior quality. The initial cost may be cheaper, but the repair bill when they take your amp down will not be. The old adage of you get what you pay for defiantly applies here!
Music stores that sell tubes usually sell what they can buy cheap, sell cheap and make a good profit on. Their choice of what to carry is often not based on careful research. For this reason most music stores are not a good source for tube purchases & information about tubes.
Even some repair shops unfortunately will sell cheap inferior tubes because they feel their customers will kick about the price if they don’t do this. What a good repair shop will do is sell the best quality most reliable tube they can obtain at a reasonable cost to the customer. If this means sacrificing some business so be it, because a good repair shop will realize that quality and long term reliability will save the customer far more in the long run than the small amount of money they would save initially by using cheap inferior tubes!
Sorry if It sounds like I am a soap box here, but I am very passionate about providing quality service and a reliable products to my customers.
I will never sell or use something at my shop that is not of good quality, poor quality parts make poor quality repairs, which makes for amplifiers failing in the middle of a gig …and that’s no good at all.