V3 x 2 = y... y?

[Steven Lister]

540+- cranked hours on an JJ EL84 in my stock VJr. V3. That's just over 6 months for me.

Last night about 30 minutes into the set and it started going wonky. Panic time? Naahh.

 

Powered up my newly purchased V3 head and played on:-"

Felt like some big-time performer having a back-up valve amp at my disposal -- for the first time in my life.

So y? y = you..., if you want to play like a big time guitarist on a small time budget.

 

Hit every BLUE NOTE baaaby..., I'm still playing on:-"

[TWANG]

neat story!

 

TWANG

[m-theory]

Keep hammering away, and you should be able to hear when that tube is headed south, before it checks out, and avoid having to reach for the backup altogether, because you'll have swapped it before leaving the house! Now that you know that it's about 6 months, based upon your playing style and useage, you can listen for oddities at about 6 months, and you'll start to hear them.

 

I don't gig without a backup amp, pedals, cords, strings, batteries, etc. You never know when a gremlin is going to show its ugly head, and try to ruin a night. The Vlv jr. makes a nice little backup amp for me. Now that it's El34 modded, it sounds remarkably like a baby version of my main stage amp, and it mics up beautifully. Mega impressive. I thought it was good with a bigger OT, marshallized, with the el84, but the bigger tube just takes it to an entirely new level. I should've done it long ago.

 

Btw, 6 months is generally what I see out of new production tubes. I've never taken the time to actually log each individual hour of use (though that's an interesting idea...an hourmeter would be handy, huh?), but I know how often I play, and it works out to about 6 months, on average.