Friedman BE100 1 week old has problem.

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I've always bought older used tubes, power or pre. Winged C, Siemens, Rft for EL34....Amperex, rft, tungsram, mullard and Chinese 8th 9th gen for pres. Even used they last forever. I won't buy new...just not reliable. I've only had one 34 go bad, and that's after a few years of gigging. NOS are too expensive.... But used tubes that test strong can be a bargain. I know winged C can be expensive now but in a Marshall I find that RFTs or Siemens can sound just as good.
 
We are making the switch to Tad el34bstr tubes because of ongoing problems with the JJ tubes lately. The jj tubes sound great to me but I can't have failures out there. We burn the amps in overnight also to prevent this,but it still pops up. Don't worry if you have the JJ tubes and everything is fine no need to change.
 
Sorry you had some troubles, but you have the seller and the builder making sure you are taken care of asap, cant ask for more than that! Big thumbs up to both! :thumbsup:
 
RACKSYSTEMS":2lzwffkf said:
We are making the switch to Tad el34bstr tubes because of ongoing problems with the JJ tubes lately. The jj tubes sound great to me but I can't have failures out there. We burn the amps in overnight also to prevent this,but it still pops up. Don't worry if you have the JJ tubes and everything is fine no need to change.
Dave, your the best :rock:
 
I tried the tad EL34's in my BE100 still prefer the mids of the JJ's but the JJ's will get you sooner or later.
 
gibson08,, your avatar makes me wanna blow my other tube.......lol!
 
I've been using the JJe34L for a long time with no problems. I sure hope something hasn't changed with them as I haven't tried another tube (ie. readily available and not expensive) I like better sonically in a Marshall type circuit. Tried the Ruby BSTR? EL34 in my Metro 69 but preferred the JJ's or Winged C's. I wish I had bought some Siemen's from Boogie before they got expensive.
 
I just bought a mint used BE-100, 2-Channel. I also have an older single channel BE's.

Got the used 2 channel today, plugged in (very low volume) was turning up treble and all of a sudden - loud pop. The amp fuse is blown and one tube is blow apart (see photos)

The seller pointed me to this thread

The number "44" is on top of the tubes in marker.

I sent Dave an email.

Edit - doing something wrong because site is telling me I already hit photo limit and I only posted a total of 2 photos (another thread earlier today)
 
gibson08":3a6qcrvd said:
Sorry you had some troubles, but you have the seller and the builder making sure you are taken care of asap, cant ask for more than that! Big thumbs up to both! :thumbsup:

Yep, that is great service. Even though this isn't me or my amp I can't say how much I appreciate this kind of thing. So many times getting screwed over I'm glad to see there are good people who stand behind their product.

Cheers to Friedman and to Sweetwater.
 
Folks - I just want to clarify something within my post: My issue appears to be a broken tube via shipping. So, this is really not the same issue of a random tube failure.

I emailed Dave and he stated he will send me a single tube should he have a 44 on hand. That was / is a very nice gesture as he certainly does not need to do so. When he gets back to me, I will offer to pay for it as it's not his responsibility.

I mostly contacted him so I could make sure I am doing this correctly. With the help of a friend, I've biased my Marshall 9100 in the past when replacing tubes. So, I actually have the bias tool socket but in this case it sounds like it is not needed.
 
Dave Rocks":lbbg4t18 said:
Folks - I just want to clarify something within my post: My issue appears to be a broken tube via shipping. So, this is really not the same issue of a random tube failure.

I emailed Dave and he stated he will send me a single tube should he have a 44 on hand. That was / is a very nice gesture as he certainly does not need to do so. When he gets back to me, I will offer to pay for it as it's not his responsibility.

I mostly contacted him so I could make sure I am doing this correctly. With the help of a friend, I've biased my Marshall 9100 in the past when replacing tubes. So, I actually have the bias tool socket but in this case it sounds like it is not needed.
If you have one it's worth the trouble of checking the bias.
 
Did I read this correctly? A guy has a bad tube and he replaces an entire amp?
I sure hope not.
 
Tubes will always be prone to failures. Screen grid resistors can go and cause runaway bias. Just a bad tube(filament damage)is another reason. There are some other causes but these are the biggest. If one tube plates, the one next to it in the pair will often plate as well. Once a tube plates it is trash. If you hear that unmistakable hum from a tube plating, immediately shut down the amp.
 
Badronald":3ffsc9xq said:
Did I read this correctly? A guy has a bad tube and he replaces an entire amp?
I sure hope not.

You did not read correctly. Had 2 bad power tubes on the same side.
 
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