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wrong tubes in wrong socket


frankphess

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Please do not berate me too much. I know I screwed up. I'd just like to know how much.

I recently purchased an old tube amp which which I received last night. It came with no schematics and 5 tubes in a box. There are (2) 6BQ5's, (1)12AU7, (1)12AUX & (1)5Y3.I put the tubes in the sockets but had the 6BQ5's where the 12's should have been and vica-versa. I turned it on for 2 seconds just to make sure the power worked. After that 2 seconds I smelled slight burning. I did not have speakers connected at the time. I now have the tubes in their correct place but have not connected speakers nor turned it on since.

My question is, what type of damage could have been done? To the amp? To the tubes? And would it be safe to try it again with the tubes in their proper place. Is there any chance of damage to speakers after this incident??

I feel really stupid, and any comments would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

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I won't berate you at all this stuff happens. Worse case senario you just over heated some resistors with the tube mix up. I suggest you simply try it again. If you happen to have some cheap speakers around its a good idea to have them attached to the amp so you can hear if the amp is having a problems before smoke comes out! They will usually hum or buzz if something is wrong before melt down. I bet if it worked before you made the goof it will still work.

Craig

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Yeah, what he said. Tube amps can be relatively forgiving of such things. An exception was my MC-275. Someone broke the alignment pin on one of the 6550s, then stuck it in backwards. When I plugged it in, I could hear stuff exploding and flying around inside the amp. I brushed the amp racing for the plug and discovered the chassis was now "hot" and in full "Zap" mode. Fortunately, no permanent damage was done - at least not until I caught up with the guy who'd borrowed the tubes...

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Gees, I wouldn't let my Mother borrow my tubes. You know that it is entirely possible to read the tube nomenclature and write it down on the amp or draw a picture of where they are located. Every manufacturer in the world had a small diagram on the unit somewhere to show tube location.

JJK

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Well I put the tubes in their correct locations, connected some speakers and fired it up last night. I listened for 3 hours and it seems to be working fine in spite of the mix up of tubes. Luckily, it was only 2 seconds that I had the tubes in the wrong locations. Thanks again for the input & advice.

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