Test Your Tubes

Synergy/MTS Forum

Help Support Synergy/MTS Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

shortlife

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 27, 2016
Messages
58
Reaction score
0
Location
Finland
I recently bought an Orange Tube tester and have been going through all my Amps and modules.
I was very surprised to find that out of the 34 tubes in my 17 modules, 9 tubes came back rated worn.
Luckily I have a collection of tubes from when I was re-tubing Amps in the past and after testing all my used stuff I was able to find good matched tubes for replacements in all the modules.

I know there will be many here that have good collections of modules, so do yourself a favor and get yourself a tester or get your modules tested some place. you will be glad you did.
 
I've been curious about these, just a hefty investment.

On the tubes that it said were worn, did you suspect then before you tested them or did they sound fine?
 
warmachine67 said:
I've been curious about these, just a hefty investment.

On the tubes that it said were worn, did you suspect then before you tested them or did they sound fine?




Some of the modules that I suspected needing new tubes did in fact have issues. Others that I had not suspected had issues too.
Although my two noisiest modules did not have any problems at all.
I have modules that I bought new in the last couple of years that had issues, and used ones that came off EBay etc that are in fine. So everything is worth checking.

I have not had time to spend with all the re-tube modules yet, but the ones I have been playing, now sound significantly different. So it is very possible to have compromised tone and not know it.
For me the tester is very worthwhile piece of gear and I feel it has already paid for itself by allowing me to recycle my old tubes to fix my current issues.
So its worth the price to me, but maybe your local amp shop could do the testing for you at a cheaper price.
 
as long as you believe your tubetester....

When don't you believe your ears instead. Preamp tubes should last a lifetime..
 
tschrama said:
as long as you believe your tubetester....

When don't you believe your ears instead. Preamp tubes should last a lifetime..



When I change the tubes that have been rated worn there is an improvement in tone and noise levels, so I am using the tester and my ears, and my ears tell me the tester is telling the truth.

I guess a good example here is the effects loop of my RM4. I have never liked the sound of the loops in the RM4 to the point that I considered them basically unusable due to tone suck, so Instead I have been using the loop of a Fryette Powerstation.
After I was done testing all my modules I decided to test the RM4.
The test showed one of the loop tubes to be worn, and after changing it the RM4 loops now sound great and I have no problem using them.
I have had my RM4 in the shop to be checked out in the last year and the tech found no issue with it, so I am guessing they are not looking at tube wear but only if it functions or not.
 
Top