Help determining what to do

[lhallam]

My Two Rock Onyx had one 6L6 power tube that appeared to be dead and the other was glowing cherry red and had that "electric" smell. The spkr was occaisionally popping like I put a 9v battery on the leads.

The amp sounded "OK", but not up to snuff.

I have another pair of 6L6's I can plug in to see if it's just a bad tube but I sure don't want to fry the amp or another tube.

Should I just send it all the f*n way to California or potentially sacrifice my spare tubes?

[Jon Silberman]

I don't understand why you would ship it to CA, Lance, surely the amp is not so complicated that local master techs like Pete Cage, Paul Mastradone, or Doug Weisbrod could not fix it.

[lhallam]

Cool Jon, thanks.

[Jon Silberman]

You're welcome! P.S. The thought just occurred to me, though, if the amp is still under warranty, definitely check in with the builder before having it worked on locally for anything, one, you don't want to unknowingly void the warranty, two, the builder may be willing to speak by phone with your local tech to help guide him through the diagnosing/repairing, three, if the repairs are free in CA and the problem extensive it could well be cheaper in the long run to bite the bullet on the cross-country shipping charges to have it repaired there for free.

But good luck however you wrap this one up!