Are tube amps fit for purpose?

p90fool

ThePrettyDamned said:

p90fool said:

meltedbuzzbox;178420" said:

p90fool said:

I've had a plugged-in 50w Superlead miss my head by inches, smash through a closed window and bounce twice in a flowerbed two floors below after being launched at me be the irate girlfriend of a mate of mine.

After one EL34 was replaced it worked perfectly, and we gigged it for years after.



Fragile, my arse.





I hope you gave her a good hiding too

To be fair to her we were a terrible band, very loud, and we'd been smoking weed and playing all night (this was 30 years ago). I was horrified, but the amp's owner was crying with laughter on the floor.
Good times (I think)

I WANT TO SWAP LIVES

WILL YOU SWAP LIVES

Yes! I'm 49!

p90fool

And I'm skint! lol

Sessionman

jpfamps said:

 I would assume though that's the case in SS amps; a failing component damaging another related component

Indeed.

Power amp failure in solid state amps often causes considerable colateral damage.

Furthermore, SS amps are invariably more complex (often much more complex) than valve power amps, so repair can be a time consuming (ie expensive) process.

Not really with modern SS power amps.  Mostly they employ 'Darlington' power transistors, where the power die and driver transistor die are contained in the same TO3 package.  There is rarely backward damage with these devices, if so, it's because of an earlier stage fault, which is very rare.  Solid state is my bag! 

I've shipped hundreds of thousands of amps and would agree that valve and SS amps experience the same kind of damage through poor handling.  To say that valve amps are really fragile would be a major injustice.  Although, glass valves to suffer mostly from poor handling... that's about the only difference found with SS amps, of course.

jpfamps

Sessionman said:

jpfamps said:

 I would assume though that's the case in SS amps; a failing component damaging another related component

Indeed.

Power amp failure in solid state amps often causes considerable colateral damage.

Furthermore, SS amps are invariably more complex (often much more complex) than valve power amps, so repair can be a time consuming (ie expensive) process.

Not really with modern SS power amps.  Mostly they employ 'Darlington' power transistors, where the power die and driver transistor die are contained in the same TO3 package.  There is rarely backward damage with these devices, if so, it's because of an earlier stage fault, which is very rare.  Solid state is my bag! 

I repair SS amps too, so have reasonable handle on this.

From my own personaI experience, I often see collateral damage, particularly to the over current detection circuitry. 

I do perhaps see more older SS amps than newer though.

Gassage

I've had one bad experience- when UPS destroyed a Motion Sound SRV212 Cab

Shame, as they've also stopped making them now. great things.