How old are your tubes???

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jonl

jonl

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I have a VH4 from 2007 and a Herbert from 2005, both of them have original power tubes in them still. The preamps on the Herbert were replaced before I purchased it.

I have only had the 2 amps for a short time and I did notice in the VH4 manual that its good to replace the power tubes every year.
Since both of these amps are well over the 1 year mark for replacing the power tubes, I was wondering if the amps are not running at their full potential.

Has anybody here gone that long on original tubes and then replace them to find out that the tone sounded a lot better after replacement?

Also I would like to ad the VH4 sounds like there isn't much low end after using the Herbert for a week, but I think that maybe the 2x12 Brunetti (vintage 30's) cab causing this. I just wanted to make sure it wasn't the tubes causing this.
 
Also just took a peek and it looks like there are "Tube Amp Doctors" EL34's in it.
Does Peter use or did he use these?
 
I just had some Ruby EL34BHT last only a few hours before one failed. Preamp tubes typically last a long time, for me. If a VH4 sounds like it's lacking low end, I'd look to replace the tubes.
 
I changed mine maybe 3 years ago. The sound was definately better, because the tubes were not new before.
But every year is not necessary if you're not giggin that often (if you ask me) and as a student a full retube (herbert = 6 powertubes) is a lot of money ;-)

As cardinal said, they can last for years or only for a few hours...
I had some bad preamp tubes in between and usually they should overlife the powertubes.
 
I have bad karma with power amp tubes. They seem to last only about 20 hours in my VH4. I hate these new tubes! Boo...hiss...Shouldn't be anything wrong in the amp itself since Papa checked it out himself.
 
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