Not new to Friedmans, I've had two BE100's (simple clean and '15) and a BE50 Deluxe... Not in a band after moving to Texas from Kalifornia. Sold all my amps but a Champ before the move. Small Box popped up locally, guy didn't know much about the tube history on it so I figured I might need a set and that was factored into the price.
Got it home a week ago and it sounds GLORIOUS. But it seems like they always sound best right before they blow up!
I was playing along on the gain channel this morning and a few minutes in right in the middle of a riff, I heard the volume drop a bit. Checked to see if I'd bumped the volume knob on the guitar. Just a few db down and maybe a little loss of gain. Played along and it keep playing along okay just at that slightly reduced volume level. When to standby for a few minutes and when I came back all seemed fine. Then after a minute or so it did it again...
Figure it's a tube going and wondering where to start swapping to see if I can isolate the bad one. I've swapped tubes and biased my old BE100's with Dave's help and bias recommendations. It will still turn up loud, which makes me think it's a preamp tube not a power tube? Before COVID I was flying back to Cali once a month for work, I'd have just brought it to the shop and let Dave work his magic... Maybe add the Wildwood mod.
But for now I'm going to have to figure it out or do without... Thoughts?
Got it home a week ago and it sounds GLORIOUS. But it seems like they always sound best right before they blow up!
I was playing along on the gain channel this morning and a few minutes in right in the middle of a riff, I heard the volume drop a bit. Checked to see if I'd bumped the volume knob on the guitar. Just a few db down and maybe a little loss of gain. Played along and it keep playing along okay just at that slightly reduced volume level. When to standby for a few minutes and when I came back all seemed fine. Then after a minute or so it did it again...
Figure it's a tube going and wondering where to start swapping to see if I can isolate the bad one. I've swapped tubes and biased my old BE100's with Dave's help and bias recommendations. It will still turn up loud, which makes me think it's a preamp tube not a power tube? Before COVID I was flying back to Cali once a month for work, I'd have just brought it to the shop and let Dave work his magic... Maybe add the Wildwood mod.
But for now I'm going to have to figure it out or do without... Thoughts?