2. amps-preamps
  3. 1187913760

Spare tubes? How many?

Being the anal sort of worrier that I can be, I'm thinking to buy some back up tubes. 4 KT88s, 2 12AX7s and 2 12AT7s in place now. I believe only the power tubes are really prone to fail. Welcome correction if I am wrong in that assumption. Should I buy 1, a pair or a complete Quad set of KT88s. If only one tube fails (assuming no sort of catastrophic fireworks) can you simply replace the single and re-bias? Will that make everything OK? (tubes were purchased from the Tube Store so are matched and have the matching number). Thanks for the input.
GH
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Showing 1 response by dfhaleycko

dfhaleycko
178 posts
 
Of course it's easy to get carried away in this process.

I have one amp which uses a quad of KT88's. So I bought a spare quad. They were a different brand. Tried the spares and liked them MUCH better. Then I bought a new spare set (different brand). Tried them and liked them MUCH better... I think I'm up to 5 quads now hanging around. And of course I've got a set that I truly love in the amp, and lots of sets that will work, but no same-brand replacement as my favorites.

It's a slippery slope if you start getting into tube rolling while buying your spares! And that's without considering all the perils of NOS tubes. Saw a nice set of Genelex Gold Lions going for more than I paid for my amp!

Fair warning!
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