bought 2 used 6v6gt tubes, one is dead. hmmm

[Simon Gee]

Hi, so i purchased 2 RCA grey glass 6V6GT tubes today, and just tried them out. This is the first time Ive played around with the tubes in my still pretty new Swart AST.

So one tube stayed dark, no light, and didnt heat up. I tried playing and got a pretty sweet clean tone, a few noises though.

Could this be damaging to the amp? I mean I'm obviously not going to keep doing that, but is testing it like that a risk?

The guy I got them from has a bunch of other old 6V6 tubes, would it matter if I got one of a different brand? He just has tubes from old projector amps etc, so has no way to test them I think.

what would a TGP member do?

thanks

 

[Blue Strat]

NEVER test power tubes in an amp. Preamp tubes are generally ok to test in an amp.

If a power tube is shorted it can cause other component failures in the amp. Also, if it's cathode biased amp with more than one power tube...if one tube isn't working (like yours) the other tube will conduct twice as much current possibly killing the tube and taking out internal components with it.

 

[Bobby D]

and......the stress of shipping CAN kill old tubes. seen it happen more than once. the good dealers pack them very well. but it can happen.....

 

[Blue Strat]

and......the stress of shipping CAN kill old tubes. seen it happen more than once. the good dealers pack them very well. but it can happen.....

ANYTHING can happen, but it happens less than 1 time in 1000 packages in my experience.

 

[Simon Gee]

ok, thanks. So much to learn. I just picked theses tubes up from a guy locally, so there was no shipping issue.