Tube amps help

[musickid]

JUST GOT MY FIRST TUBE AMP EARMAX PRO 2. one of the tubes is slightly off 90 degrees straight up. ie a tiny bit leaning or slightly crooked. is this normal with tubes in these amps? i have no idea. can you just push it back to straight position or does it not really matter? thanks to all

[sphinxsix]

Don't worry. It doesn't matter unless the electric contact of the tube's 'legs' is poor. You may try to move it sideways slightly just to check out if this is its natural position. Sit back and enjoy your new amp!

[Keith_W]

Yes, just push it back until it is sitting straight. Make sure that your amp has been turned off for a few hours though. Some tube amps have ginormous capacitors that store hundreds of volts. Most tube amps have a bleed circuit to discharge the capacitor when it is turned off, but some don't (like mine!). Better to be safe than sorry.

[tedwoods]

You can remove the tube using gentle motion and then use a tube pin straightener like this:

 

https://www.kcanostubes.com/content/tube-pin-straightener-dual-7-and-9-pin

 

or similar, to straighten the pins and then re-install the tube in its base.

 

It's always better to use this method as small signal tubes can be fragile, so there's always some risk of cracking the glass envelope, if you perform this action while the tube is still sitting on its base.

 

I speak from experience...

[anji12305]

Handle tubes when they're room temperature, with the power off.

 

I use a cotton hand towel. I heard that touching tubes, directly, may lead to premature failure but have never tested this. Still, it seems like a simple precaution. Tubes can be hot enough to burn the unwary...

 

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

[bluesman]

Don't worry. It doesn't matter unless the electric contact of the tube's 'legs' is poor. You may try to move it sideways slightly just to check out if this is its natural position. Sit back and enjoy your new amp!

Agreed - I'd leave it alone unless it's more than a few degrees off vertical. The socket could be canted a bit and the tube properly axial to it, although that looks like a good piece and I suspect assembly quality is high. You can pull the tube out to see if the socket is parallel to the chassis base. But unless the tube is far from fully inserted, there's no problem if it's a hair off from being vertical, regardless of the cause.

 

A pin straightener is to straighten one or more pins that are bent. It's no better than simply straightening the tube in a socket if the tube was pushed off axis and all the pins are equally bent at their entrance to the glass envelope. Just be gentle if you choose to do that - I leave mine alone.

[bluesman]

I use a cotton hand towel. I heard that touching tubes, directly, may lead to premature failure but have never tested this.

Skin oils will result in etching of the glass on high temperature envelopes like halogen lighting, and this can cause breakage. But as far as I know, there's no reason not to touch an ordinary vacuum tube (unless it's hot...).

 

And FWIW, neither I nor anyone I know discharges power supply caps to change tubes. Just don't touch the tube socket or stick your fingers (or a conductive object) through the opening in the chassis.