fender twin valves question (1 Viewer)

[mark]

I've had this mid to late 70s twin on premenant loan for ages (the owner is living abroad) and it's been sitting in a cold but dry garage for a while. It's only had light use over the last 10/15 years, but I'm thinking I'd like to start using it. So I have some questions:

How much can to expect to pay for 4 6L6s?
Where should i be looking? alternatives to Watford valves?
Can anybody recemend good tube brands, and explain what the differences between brands are?
Can I install them myself?
Indeed, if it's only had light use, is there a chance the valves are ok?
Are fender amp parts (it needs fuse covers etc eh omo?) hard to come by?

I'm looking at g-stereo, sparse, unicron, moose, paolo et al here. Thanks.

 

[Goodbye]

Are fender amp parts (it needs fuse covers etc eh omo?) hard to come by?

Damn straight! Fuckin' thing nearly killed me!

http://cgi.ebay.ie/FUSE-HOLDER-ASSE...aultDomain_2?hash=item2ea7634135#ht_658wt_941

Just think, 4 bats could save someone's life

 

[Unicron]

unicron

Barking up the wrong tree here anyway. I could probably tell you where to plug your lead in.

Actually I really should learn more about my amp.

 

[Space]

Give the tubes you have a shot. The ones in our twin for been there a long long time and still going fine. Caps may be a bigger problem.

 

[the departed]

yo, ebay for the caps I'd say. unless there's some slim chance the current twin reverbs use the same type.

I'd say the fillament in the tubes would have degraded by now but they should still drive the amp. 4 fender or groove tube 6L6s should be around 80 quid.
it's well worth the money as a freshly juiced fender twin is a beauty to behold.

just be aware that you'd have to rebias the tubes once you get em.

do you know exactly which model you have? 70'-76'? 100w? 77'+ and 150w?

 

[mark]

its between '73 and '77 as far as i know. it hought it was 80, but it's 100 watt.

 

[the departed]

its between '73 and '77 as far as i know. it hought it was 80, but it's 100 watt.

ah sweet. you got one of the nicer ones. ive had used both 100 watt and the later 150 watts and the 100 is a much nicer, cleaner, rounder tone.

 

[sparse]

These guys do most Fender replacement parts, new versions of old parts etc

http://www.tubeampdoctor.com/

There's something about putting a lamp in the same plug board before you turn on a valve amp that hasn't been used for a while. Not sure what it is but it's meant to warn you if the thing is going to blow up....or something.

 

[PaoloJM]

I buy most of my gear from www.tube-town.net. They also sell Fender parts.
JJ 6L6GCs are good all rounders, SovTek 5881 are great if you want some extra bite. The Tung Sol re issues are nice too, nice warm sound.
I wouldn't bother with Groove Tubes as they just match other peoples valves and charge you for it, Tube Town test and match all of the ones they sell anyway.

Sparse, I think you're refering to a current limiter. This is a good idea but it's not just a lamp in the same plug board. You'd need to rewire the board so that the lamp plug is in series with the amp plug. This is great for warming up older caps for a couple of hours before hitting them with full power.

If you know how to bias then you can do this yourself, if not then (especially given the age of the amp) it would best to go to a technician. Fender used many different bias circuit types and if I'm not mistaken '77 should put it as SilverFace CBS era which is normally bias balance type and can be tricky for someone who's used to the "normal" method.

Moose already mentioned the major issue here.
As it's been lying iddle in not exactly perfect conditions I think you may have problems with filter caps especially. The amp may appear to work but you'll may well get noise and splutters which you might think is a problem with the valves.

Again, not to labour the point, there would be a lot to be said for this bringing this amp in for a tech to give the once over and a nice slow soft start on a current limiter for a few hours.
That's a nice amp and it would horrible to see something happen to it.

 

[mark]

thanks gents.