Maintenance

At 480 volts DC, the B+ supply in a silverface Fender Twin Reverb hits the power tubes in less than one second when a solid-state rectifier is in the circuit. If those tubes are cold, that voltage spike lands on an oxide cathode coating that isn’t ready for it. The result isn’t immediate failure. It’s…

Most players assume biasing is a dark art requiring an electronics degree. It isn’t. But there’s a persistent myth in the other direction too: that you can drop in a fresh set of matched 6V6s or 6L6s and just play. In a fixed-bias Fender, that approach will run your new tubes too hot, too cold,…