red plating alert

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thefatcyclist
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Joined: Tue Nov 17, 2009 12:07 am

red plating alert

Post by thefatcyclist »

on and idling_01.JPG
on and idling_01.JPG (26.59 KiB) Viewed 1849 times
standby_01.JPG
standby_01.JPG (26.46 KiB) Viewed 1849 times
I take it this is not good.
Just to remind, Biacrown DR103, outer tubes pulled to reduce power. Original EL34 ot there abouts.

pic one stand by
pic two on and idling

hum from amp and it appears near the plating tube,

What damage have I done or will do if not immediate amp doctor
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OldSchoolDave
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Location: HP, NC USA
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Re: red plating alert

Post by OldSchoolDave »

thefatcyclist wrote:
What damage have I done or will do if not immediate amp doctor
Could burn out the tubes, depending on how long they've been exposed to those conditions and how stout they are.

Get it resolved ASAP.

Dave
...Hey! I played that song when it was new...

http://www.OldSchoolDave.com
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mhuss
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Joined: Thu Nov 15, 2007 5:40 am

Re: red plating alert

Post by mhuss »

Try one of the two pulled tubes in place of the RP one and see if it helps.

Sadly, Hiwatts were built for the Mullards they came with, and modern EL34s are not always up to the task. You may need to have the bias mod (http://hiwatt.org/Schematics/BiasCkts2.gif) done to get it to where modern tubes will run comfortably.

The problem is that the manufacturing tolerances aren't what they were back in the day, and some modern tubes need a bias voltage more negative than that required by xf2 Mullards.

--mark
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