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Do you need to rebias tube amps?
05/31/2001

"I just bought my first tube amp and I've been reading up on the process of changing tubes. Everyone says that rebiasing an amp is important for the tubes and the sound, but is rebiasing possible/necessary on all tube amps? There's no bias voltage adjustment that is readily visible on the my amp, so does this mean rebiasing requires opening the amp and is probably a better job left to the techs?"

Certainly changing to a different type of tube requires rebiasing. Replacing old tubes with the same brand and type may not require it, but it's still a good idea. In fact periodic tube rebiasing can help lengthen the life of your tubes and help your amp maintain a more consistent sound. All tubes have a bias voltage on them, and in order for the amp/tubes to be properly calibrated there has to be some way to adjust this voltage. The adjustment is generally found somewhere on the innards of the amp so if you aren't the techy type this is probably best left to a good technician. (WARNING: There are extremely dangerous voltages available on the inside of many tube amps. Don't poke around in there unless you know what you are doing.) Some players will tweak tube bias to attain a sound closer to their ideal, even though the settings they use may not be recommended or ideal for the amp and/or tubes. This is part of the art of being a good amp technician.





Other Techtips from May 2001:
May 31 - Do you need to rebias tube amps?
May 30 - Zooming Easy In DP3
May 29 - Making .MOD files
May 25 - Patch bays and the differences between normal and half-normal operation.
May 24 - Transfers from 20 bit to 16 bit through a mixer. What happens to the extra bits?
May 23 - Live mixing - digital mixer or not?
May 22 - Data compression in Roland VS series recorders.
May 21 - Piano sound differences between home and pro keyboards.
May 18 - Hearing loss: a first hand account.
May 17 - Optimizing the performance of your VG-8.
May 16 - More on upside down waveforms.
May 14 - Analog versus digital levels; getting a hot enough signal to your MasterLink.
May 11 - How to utilize line inputs of a mixer for stage sources through a snake.
May 09 - RAM differences and Kurzweil samplers.
May 08 - Upside down waveforms in a DAW.
May 07 - Mac OS X: to use or not to use?
May 04 - What's the up with FireWire Gear?
May 02 - Benefits (or not) of high sampling rates.
May 01 - MIDI Guitars - What's the deal, anyway?


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