EH "quality" strikes again?

BrianH · Post by **BrianH** » Wed Dec 21, 2005 7:13 pm

Just got my quad of EL34-EH and they went poof on me. I had a quad of Winged C's in the amp, put in the EL34EH's, biased it up to 17w of static dissipation, let it burn for a while, and rebiased. Plugged in my guitar and it sounded fine at lower volume... as soon as I turned the volume up, the amp lost all sound and popped the HT fuse. I replaced the fuse and put the Winged C's back in, rebiased, and the amp worked fine for 10 minutes of CRANKED playing.

Flames1950 · Post by **Flames1950** » Wed Dec 21, 2005 7:36 pm

Welcome to the EH users club.

sub · Post by **sub** » Wed Dec 21, 2005 7:40 pm

i'm still by =C=

BrianH · Post by **BrianH** » Wed Dec 21, 2005 7:50 pm

Here's a question... does the amp need slow or fast blow fuses? I've heard adamant answers on each. Most seem to say that slow blow is the way to go. I was using a fast blow... should I try playing the amp again with a 1a slow blow?

novosibir · Post by **novosibir** » Wed Dec 21, 2005 8:36 pm

Yes! SloBlo needed!

Larry G

BrianH · Post by **BrianH** » Wed Dec 21, 2005 8:38 pm

Stuck in a slow blow 1A HT fuse and this time I blew the 4A mains fuse (was fast blow). I had the amp guts-facing-up, and saw a nice blue spark come from somewhere under the chassis.

Is it worth trying BOTH fuses as slow blow, or do you suspect the EH tubes are buggered? Again, amp is still working like a champ with the Winged C's.

novosibir · Post by **novosibir** » Wed Dec 21, 2005 9:34 pm

You can try a SloBlo mains fuse as it also shouldt be, but I think that one of your tubes is fucked up! Your blue spark!

Larry G

Flames1950 · Post by **Flames1950** » Wed Dec 21, 2005 10:27 pm

Yeah, if it lives fine with one set of tubes but not the other, you gotta blame the tubes not the fuses.

5150loveeddie · Post by **5150loveeddie** » Wed Dec 21, 2005 10:46 pm

NOS NOS NOS NOS not so NOS but NOS, NOS tubes rules

rjgtr · Post by **rjgtr** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 4:50 pm

I still think =C= SED (real Svetlanas) are as good as most NOS tubes. The only thing better is real Mullards.

Billy Batz · Post by **Billy Batz** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 5:40 pm

Interesting opinion. Never tried them myself but that opinion warrants a little motivation to give em a try.

novosibir · Post by **novosibir** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 5:58 pm

rjgtr wrote:I still think =C= SED (real Svetlanas) are as good as most NOS tubes. The only thing better is real Mullards.

And RFT's - in the US often stamped as "Siemens" or "AEG" - and they'll last at least 2 times longer than any =C= (or JJ), and at least 5 times longer than any chinese

sub · Post by **sub** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 10:09 pm

rjgtr wrote:I still think =C= SED (real Svetlanas) are as good as most NOS tubes. The only thing better is real Mullards.

It is a very good news for me

thanks

BrianH · Post by **BrianH** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 10:05 am

Seems a lot of plexipalace guys say the EH EL34 are the closest to Mullard sounding of all the new prod tubes.

At lower volumes (that is, until they popped my amp!), I liked the EH tubes much better than the Winged C's. The EH's had this incredible hollowy, breathy mid tone that was heavenly.

BrianH · Post by **BrianH** » Tue Dec 27, 2005 11:33 am

Funny, the SRS store's matching was great but they refuse to believe something could be wrong with the tubes. They're running them with no problems, they say. I've used JJ and two quads of =C='s in my amp with no problems. They thought I've made up my mind that their tubes would be defective and sent me a refund minus a 15% restocking fee. What BS! I'm going to buy from tubedepot to see if a different friggin quad works.

I'd stay away from SRS as you're not likely to get an easy refund, and will first endure many emails back and forth debating.