Tube lifetimes.

[nightflameauto]

So, had an interesting experience this weekend. Most of my amp history, if I had tube amps, I tended to tube swap often enough I never really wore them out. I was recording one of my massive orchestration songs this weekend, and something started sounding off. So, just to make sure my ears weren't fried from the volume, I went back to the first take, then checked a few takes up to the latest. You can hear it steadily creeping in, this fizzy, fuzzy, over-distorted clang on the top end, as the low end started fuzzing out and losing definition.

I thought it sounded like the boosts were being starved of voltage, so I swapped my power supply batteries. Nope. Still shitty.

Once I did the whole swap every cable, swap every pedal, take everything out and straight guitar->cable->amp and still heard it, it dawned on me. I've been running flat-out for hours a week for several months. I'd bet what little money I have that it's tubes. If I had to guess, I'd say power, but ordered a whole set just to swap 'em all and be done with it. Luckily, it's only a DSL20, so it's not like I had to buy a massive pile of tubes.

What type of tube life do you expect from power tubes running high volume? I've honestly never had a tube amp that I've used this much with the same set of tubes in it. I spent quite a lot of time trying to sort out WTF before it hit me what it could be. I should honestly do a quick set of comparison clips I can keep around just so I have a "if it sounds like this, replace tubes dumbass" clip sitting there to compare to in the future. I've already got the recordings.

And now the amp sits quiet while I wait for tubes. Can't source KT77s locally.

[I'MAPUNKROCKERDAMNIT]

They say that power tubes have up to 2000 hours of life and preamp tubes up to 10.000 hours... depending on bias and how loud you play.
My Sunn Solarus is biased a bit higher, to make it nice and squishy so, I don't expect the tubes to last as long as my other amps that are spec biased.
That being said, I've only replaced the tubes in the Solarus once in 8 years.
My other amps still have their original tubes because, they don't get as much use.

Hope your KT77's arrive quickly!!!

[Guitarbilly]

Yeah it depends on the amp, how hot it's biased and how loud you play. And ultimately it also depends on the individual tube. I'd say 1-3 years per set is a general guideline, but I've had tubes that lasted me literally decades and tubes that died in months.

They're a bit like humans. Some live to be 100 and some die young

[RaceU4her]

i have what i call "tube amp anxiety", ive had enough of them blow up on me now, and for me its always something other than tubes, that im just waiting every time i turn them on for that inevitable volume swells followed by the POP! crackle and then long dissent into silence.

[nightflameauto]

I've been trying to calculate out a rough estimate of hours for these tubes, but I sometimes go weeks without turning it on, and sometimes it gets played three to five hours a day, just depends on the rest of the world. But it is the amp, since I got it, that goes out if I jam with somebody, and being 20 watts it's almost always fully cranked when jamming. Which works for a Marshall. But it's had enough hours I don't get too worried about a set of tubes fading away like that. I have my doubts it's been 2k hours, as they say it should be, but it's probably close enough.

I used to avoid tube amps like the plague due to worries about tube death. Now? I want toan and I'm gonna get it.

[2tallmusic]

On heavily used amps I would probably check periodically the bias settings.

I have a worn out pair of 6L6 tubes that is meanwhile impossible to bias properly as their values drifted completely apart. You may be able to lower the risk of blowing tubes by keeping an eye on their values.

On the other hand side I recently blew a more or less new JJ 6V6 and a Mesa labeled Chinese 6550 after less than 20h of use. So my current conclusion is, there is not primarily a direct link between aging and blowing tubes. It’s more a question of the circuit or the tube itself having an (quality) issue.

[I'MAPUNKROCKERDAMNIT]

I used to avoid tube amps like the plague due to worries about tube death. Now? I want toan and I'm gonna get it.

Man, I know exactly what you mean!
One of the reasons I've gigged with a solid state, Randall RG80 for 30+ years is because, I never wanted to deal with tubes.
...and then, the Randall Diavlo RD45 went on sale for a price I couldn't refuse. It sounds a bit better and the feel on the guitar neck is super nice.
I've gigged with the Diavlo three times and I doubt I'm going back to solid state.... which is why I'm interested in the Friedman IR-D for a backup.... because, I'm still worried about tubes crapping out in the middle of a song.

[nightflameauto]

On heavily used amps I would probably check periodically the bias settings.

On the little DSL at least, it's cathode/self bias, so unless something goes horribly wrong it's not too big of a worry.

I have a worn out pair of 6L6 tubes that is meanwhile impossible to bias properly as their values drifted completely apart. You may be able to lower the risk of blowing tubes by keeping an eye on their values.

On the other hand side I recently blew a more or less new JJ 6V6 and a Mesa labeled Chinese 6550 after less than 20h of use. So my current conclusion is, there is not primarily a direct link between aging and blowing tubes. It’s more a question of the circuit or the tube itself having an (quality) issue.

I think tubes have a lot of "personality." You hear of them lasting forever in some applications, but guitar amps seem to pull the oddballs out of the lineup. All sorts of weirdness can happen.

I used to avoid tube amps like the plague due to worries about tube death. Now? I want toan and I'm gonna get it.

Man, I know exactly what you mean!
One of the reasons I've gigged with a solid state, Randall RG80 for 30+ years is because, I never wanted to deal with tubes.
...and then, the Randall Diavlo RD45 went on sale for a price I couldn't refuse. It sounds a bit better and the feel on the guitar neck is super nice.
I've gigged with the Diavlo three times and I doubt I'm going back to solid state.... which is why I'm interested in the Friedman IR-D for a backup.... because, I'm still worried about tubes crapping out in the middle of a song.

I did gig a VL1002 (ampeg) for a bit. And I was always paranoid that thing was gonna blow. I carried a crate solid state combo as my backup. Oh, man, those were the days.

[I'MAPUNKROCKERDAMNIT]

Oh, man, those were the days.

[2tallmusic]

On the little DSL at least, it's cathode/self bias, so unless something goes horribly wrong it's not too big of a worry.

That's right - with cathode bias you could perhaps take an increasing idle noise level as an additional indicator of the tubes aging/drifting apart