Do You Gig with a Back-Up Head? - I had H.T. Fuse Blow! Tube-Change Frequency?

[FennRx]

Buy an orange micro terror or a new SLO mini.

 

[LPMarshall hack]

Never had to use my back up yet. Fingers crossed. My backup is a EH .44 Magnum amp pedal with an SD-1 in front of it. It’s a killer sounding rig all on its own too.

Tubes? Like strings, I never change them until they break.

 

[Georgiatec]

I have played on our church worship team for decades and never had an amp failure. We use a Vox AC30 through a Suhr Reactive Load IR and it has been great.

So we have an outdoor service in our town park. Decided to use my 1987XL Plexi through my Suhr and the other guitarist was using a Helix. We went through rehearsal and my tone was sounding terrific. Used the Plexi with a little crunch from the amp and was pushing it with a BB Pre-Amp for any lead work. Sounded great in the in-ears as well.

So between rehearsal and the service, I powered down, first by going on Stand-By for a few minutes. Powered up the by leaving it on Stand-By for a few minutes, just like I should. We start the first song........NOTHING!

It was clear the amp wasn't giving any signal to the Suhr. I shut the amp off, and not knowing if the issue was the amp or the Suhr, I put a cable between the front end of the pedalboard and the loop, and went from pedal board to the direct box. Was ready for song #2. Needless to say, my tone was awful. Thin, no presence, no sustain.

When I got home, the H.T. fuse was blown on the Plexi. I replaced and powered up, and it was fine. I know the H.T. fuse generally means that there is a problem with the power tubes, so I am going to replace them and determine if that was the issue.

I don't play the Plexi much, since I have Master Volume heads at home, but it has been 5 years since the power tubes were replaced.

So my questions are:

1) When you play out or gig, do you have a back-up head available and ready for use if there is a problem?

2) If not, what other alternatives exist for back-up?

3) How often do you change tubes on an amp that may get less than 40 hours of use per year?

Thanks in advance for your input!

If I'm using a cab, I always take a spare head that I'm happy I can swap and get decent tone. Most times I'll take the VM 2266 combo with the SV20H and either use the combo's speakers if I use the SV20 swapping to the VM if thers's an issue with the SV20, or vice versa.

 

[neikeel]

I take a spare smallbox 50w and keep it on top of my 18w combo in small gigs or behind the JTM45 half stack at bigger gigs. Never had to use it...........yet!
I've had more issues with foot pedals even though I use power supply for most and spare batteries for those that do not but I have had pedal power supply fail, Boss DD3 fail in the past so also keep spare patch leads.
I used to take a spare guitar but again I've never broken a string so do not usually take spare guitar (cable - yes) as I would not want one stolen.

 

[Jethro Rocker]

I take a spare smallbox 50w and keep it on top of my 18w combo in small gigs or behind the JTM45 half stack at bigger gigs. Never had to use it...........yet!
I've had more issues with foot pedals even though I use power supply for most and spare batteries for those that do not but I have had pedal power supply fail, Boss DD3 fail in the past so also keep spare patch leads.
I used to take a spare guitar but again I've never broken a string so do not usually take spare guitar (cable - yes) as I would not want one stolen.

I go from floating FR to stop tail for drop D or detuning. So 2 gtrs at minimum. I watch my stuff, no fear of theft. I also have beoken the odd string. Maybe the strap lock gets loose, output jack, etc...
I take spare everything!!

 

[mickeydg5]

You would have done better carrying extra/spare fuses. Fuses can pop sometimes because of excessive use.
Replacing power tubes for nothing is not smart.
It is good to check for failings. It this case it may have just been a failing fuse.

And I agree that it is good to have some sort of backup for any situation.

 

[Rozman62]

I bring a Orange Terror Stamp to every gig. Ive had to use it once already however there was nothing wrong with my Friedman. Stupid me didn't catch one plug backed out enough on my tuner causing all high end to be cut. Crap stage lighting coupled with 60 year old eyes. I caught the problem breaking down. Got home an replicated the issue next day. Felt like a happy idiot. Automatically thought it was tube related. In over 300 gigs with tube amps I've had 2 events with a backup in place.

 

[Sir Don]

I always bring a back up amp.

 

[spacerocker]

So my questions are:

1) When you play out or gig, do you have a back-up head available and ready for use if there is a problem?

2) If not, what other alternatives exist for back-up?

3) How often do you change tubes on an amp that may get less than 40 hours of use per year?

Thanks in advance for your input!

1) - I don't have room for a spare amp....My "last resort" is a Behringer V-Tone pedal (Sans Amp clone) into the PA. I have tried this once and it doesn't sound too bad (much better than cancelling the gig), but in 30 years of gigging (and probably 300+ gigs) I have never had tubes fail at a gig!

2) See 1)!

3) My 1980 2203 (that I bought in 1984) was still on original tubes (and sounding great!) when I stopped using it 13 Years ago...My JVM410H (which has done 200 gigs) is also still on the original tubes...


Power tubes can last for UP TO 10,000 hours (pre-amp tubes considerably longer!) - so 40 hours per year means you should be OK for about 250 years (how long do you plan living?)

Having said that, tubes can fail randomly at any time, but there is a thing in electronics called the "bathtub" curve. This means that devices are most likely to fail in early life, or near the end of life, so by replacing valves in early life, you may actually be reducing reliability!

 

[johan.b]

Last time i bought tubes, I bought a matched quad for my 50 watt. I Keep the spare pair in the back with a few fuses and a 12ax7.
If needed, I can pull the tubes and use the spares without need to open up and rebias(matched quad, remember)... they've been in there, bubble wrapped and taped to inside of the cabinet for years...
... that said, my live playing days has been on hiatus for some time...
J

 

[spacerocker]

If needed, I can pull the tubes and use the spares without need to open up and rebias(matched quad, remember)... they've been in there, bubble wrapped and taped to inside of the cabinet for y

That's similar to what I do (matched quad hidden away behind one of the trim panels inside my car!) Being a matched quad doesn't mean you don't need to bias, however....all it means is that all 4 have similar level of gain. When you plug them in, they could all be under-biased, or equally could be red-plating!

I would use my spares without hesitation to get me through a gig, but would re-bias as soon as I got home!

 

[spacerocker]

Last time i bought tubes, I bought a matched quad for my 50 watt.

Out of interest - why do you need 4 valves for a 50W amp?

 

[johan.b]

@spacerocker
spare pair (1 quad=2 pairs)with same characteristics/bias point... just plug and play, should they fail during show

 

[spacerocker]

@spacerocker
spare pair (1 quad=2 pairs)with same characteristics/bias point... just plug and play, should they fail during show

Ah OK - so two sets of spares....Got you! But should still re-bias as soon as possible after the gig...

 

[dro]

I'd be looking at the 40 hour per year thing.
How long has it been since it's bee powered up?
If caps were fully drained of power. They should be powered up slowly.
Once you hit the standby switch and flood full power into empty (older) caps, this could cause some issues.
I'm not saying that's your problem, just saying it's a possibility.

 

[johan.b]

Ah OK - so two sets of spares....Got you! But should still re-bias as soon as possible after the gig...

No. I just split one quad into two pairs.
1 pair in the amp, biased for this set.
1 pair for spare With the same initial characteristics as the set in the amp.

 

[spacerocker]

No. I just split one quad into two pairs.
1 pair in the amp, biased for this set.
1 pair for spare With the same initial characteristics as the set in the amp.

Ah - gotcha! Now I see your logic!

 

[Calebz]

I used to keep a joyo meteor in my bag just in case..

Showed up for a show one day and the touring headliner really did use all the stage, leaving the 2 openers with little to no space.

I said screw it and used the tiny joyo with the house marshall 4x12.

I've been using that amp live ever since. It was stupid easy to dial in and sounded freaking great in the live mix. Now I have a couple of them (in case 1 fails), for a total of a whopping 2.4 kilos of amps to load in/out of every crappy bar in town.

 

[RichardDM]

Yep even know my main rig is a ADA MP1 with 2 rack fx a Alesis Quadroverb & Yamaha FX900 and a Marshall 9200 dual mono block rack power amp into a 1982B 4x12 I have a 3210 Lead 100 mosfet sitting on the head ready to go already pre wired so into my rack so I can use it as a Pre if the ADA goes down or if I’m looking for a certain tone that it does better. If the Quadroverb or the FX900 goes down I can get by with the other. If both channels of the 9200 go still have the 3210 100 watt power section to keep me going just need to unplug the plug my signal from my FX into the 3210s fx return and my cab into the 3210. If my foot controller goes down I can get by with change channels and presets manually on presets. If my GCX loop switcher goes down can rewire to have my ADA output straight into the FX and the poweramp. Since I run 2 Furman one for just my FX & one for just my Preamps/poweramps I could get by with just 1 if the other goes down. My rack tuner goes I have a clip on that will work.

No matter if at home or on a gig I always have something or some way to continue if something goes down. Along with extra cables, strings, guitar and fuses. Only thing that will stop me from playing is if I go down or the venue I’m playing losses power & I can’t power my rig.

 

[flyinguitars]

Hey Darryl!
That stinks!!
I usually bring a something small as a spare, but my main set up has a few heads incorporated, so if I'm having issues with my main amp, I switch over to one of the spares. Plus we always have the friedman BEod as a plan C if all else fails.