Just realized I was cooking my output transformers by running them way too hot for like 2 years

Used to just crank the bias until it sounded fat but after I swapped to a Weber bias probe and actually read the numbers last month I dialed it back to 70% and my 6L6s stopped red plating on me, has anyone else dealt with that sweet spot between tone and tube life?

2 comments

2 Comments

caseyw1211d ago

Yeah man, been there. Red plating sucks, glad you caught it.

dixon.willow10d ago

Nah, red plating ain't always a bad thing. Sometimes you gotta push a tube right to the edge to get that sweet breakup tone. I've had amps where the tubes were barely glowing and sounded dead flat, then I'd hit that red glow and suddenly it was magic. The real problem is when you don't know what you're looking at or you're running it like that for hours on end without checking bias. A little red in a power tube under heavy load just means it's working hard. The guys who freak out about any hint of color usually never actually heard what a cranked tube amp can do. Now if you're seeing a steady glow that doesn't fade when you back off the volume, that's different. That's bad. But a flash of red on a hard hit? That's just an honest tube earning its keep. You'd have to be running it for months like that to cause real damage.