2. amps-preamps
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Tube biasing for ARC and fender equipmen

Hi,

FENDER QUESTION:

In my fender hot-rod delux amp, I recently swapped the stock sovtek 5881 6l6 tubes for some svetlana 6l6gc's. I checked the bias, and it was at 80mv instead of the 60mv it should have been at. I next put the old tubes in, and noticed they were at the prescribed 60mv. I put back the new tubes, and lowered the bias so they too were at 60mv. I guess i learned to turn the bias DOWN before putting new tubes in. Should these tubes be run at 60mv as the old tubes were ?

ARC QUESTION:

1) Is it safe to put a set of Svetlana kt88's in my vt100m2 amp? It currently uses Svetlana 6550C's with bias point of 130mv. According to everything I have read, it is a safe swap.
2) Also, should I set the bias point the same with these tubes, and is there anything else I should do to the amp ?
john_l

Showing 1 response by waveparti

waveparti
20 posts
 
John,
I've been running kt88's in your ex-VT100, and it hasn't blown up yet. Leonard at ARC said that it was a safe swap, and that the bias voltage remains the same.
However, Kevin Deal did have to exchange my first set of 88's for a "hotter" set. I couldn't turn the bias voltage high enough with the first set.
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