Free Tech Tips

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We are often asked ‘How can you tell if a tube is shorted?’ Great question! If the tube is power white at the top like this one it has lost vacuum & it's time to replace the power tubes with a matched set. This is a bit more of a rarity thought it happens. A majority of the time tubes visually appear to be fine & light up though one could be internally shorted. We hope this helps in some small way & have a great day! – Voodoo Amps

If you have a tube in your amp that looks like this, you have a faulty power tube. Turn the amp off & take it to a tech to be serviced/checked over thoroughly. IE: The reason we are posting this is that we often receive phone calls & emails asking is this is normal for a tube to glow a bright orange/red, we thought we would share this with you & let you know that this is not normal.

You may be asking yourselves, “Why are you taking a picture & not turning the amp off?” In part to show you what this looks like so you can identify this in the future & also this is a Marshall JCM2000 Series & as you can see, the fuse did blow when a tube fails/shorts.

We have run all the necessary tests & a power tube is in fact faulty/shorted. Please note there are other ways a power tube can short where it lights up & visually appears fine, it looks power white at the top of the tube, etc. Thanks for reading this far & feel free to share or send this to your friends so others can see what this kind of failure looks like. Have a great evening!

Fire Inside Amp? - Sadly this occurred to a Marshall JCM800 2203x Reissue resulting in several shorted parts/components such as but not limited to; Output Transformer, (3) 12AX7’s, (4) EL34’s, Control Grid & Screen Resistors, Charred PCB, Charred power tube socket, etc.

Could this have been prevented? Yes. When an EL34 power tube fails, the “HT Fuse” blows to protect the amp from this kind of damage. Continuing to install fuse after fuse only serves to cause further & more costly damage, which is what happened to this amp.

Don’t let this happen to your amp – When the HT Fuse fails on your Marshall JCM800 or Super Lead / Plexi, etc it is telling you there is a direct short in the power supply. Take or ship your amp to a qualified repair tech as it is far cheaper than repairing this kind of costly damage.

Tag a friend & Share this pic in the hopes that it helps others to protect their amp(s) & save money on unnecessary/costly repairs!

Free Tech Tip! - You would be surprised how many times we see this so we wanted to post this here; We do not recommend gluing the knob onto the shaft of any control pot. Often times excess glue causes the control shaft to stock or freeze in place and/or not function properly.

Most replacement knobs tend to run $2- $5 which is more cost effective verses replacing a control pot(s) on a majority of amplifiers and other musical related products (costs can range from $35 - $75 or more). Replacement knobs can be purchased through your local tech (support your local repair shops!) as well as through a variety of online parts retailers.

“Keep your gear healthy & enjoy your time playing!” – Trace Davis, Founder/President

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Get your monies worth & make sure your tubes are properly burned-in! They sound-&-feel better to play on, they last longer and stay matched longer!

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