Carol-Ann Amps Dead?

[DanTravis62]

Mike uses some old NOS Russian EL84's with a different code (6P14P I think) and I highly recommend when it comes time to replace, get those tubes direct from DrZ. They are way tougher than the garbage EL84's you can buy now. He also uses some odd ball preamp tubes in some amps. In fact he asked me to modify the effects loop design in the CAZ to use a 12DW7, which is a 12AU7 triode and 12AX7 triode in the same bottle. The first proto he had fitted a Metro loop and I thought it sounded anemic in that amp , so I sent it back with a 12AU7 loop and then he asked if I could use the 12DW7. My traditional effects loop used both triodes of a 12AU7, but it actually worked out real nice having the extra gain on the return stage in that design.

I think both of ours were bought used from guitar center. Luckily, mine sounds amazing. So i know it wasn't fooled with

Hear that chris, when you need to replace tubes in your maz buy em direct from Z!

 

[NeubyWanKaneuby]

I'm assuming that was a used purchase. Mike uses custom boxes and a machine that forms packing from foam that completely encases the amp. I used to have to deal with so many idiotic packing situations where someone bought an amp used from reverb and somehow it ended up my problem. The same with horrendous retubes or mods in used amps. People think they are getting bargains used, but often they are getting someone elses experiment or something that has unaddressed issues and the number of footswitches that go missing is insane. They were electronic foot controllers and quite expensive to replace so it wasn't just a case of grabbing a footswitch from GC.
Another common one is an amp owned by a 'tube roller'. Fucking killed me did that ,most asinine thing you could do when I'd had already selected each tube for each position and pre-amp tubes do actually last quite a long time. I've seen 10 year old regularly gigged amps where the preamp tubes were still great. Even the very best tube sockets are only designed for a fairly limited number of insertions before the pins will start getting loose. I've repaired amps where tubes fell out of the sockets when you turned it upside down. Sure you can tighten them but it weakens the pins and eventually the sockets need replacing.

The worst I ever saw was one of my amps shipped back to me for repair after being in a an actual train wreck. It was an insurance write off because it had a really twisted chassis and a totally destroyed cab. I still have that old chassis, obviously tubes had broke, but after replacing them, it amazingly still worked. Mangled mess, but still functional.

Yep, I bought it used from GC. It was the first time they didn't pack something well, and it came halfway across the country, so I can't even imagine how many times UPS sent it flying across a truck and/or loading dock. I will get another one eventually. I was just soured by GC's stupidity, so I'm just in a holding pattern for now.