Would you add silicon to protect pricey tubes?

Would you like some silicon with your tube amp?

  • Yes

    Votes: 8 80.0%

  • No

    Votes: 2 20.0%
  • Total voters
    10
jubal81

jubal81

Well-known member
With tubes getting pricier and the NOS stuff depleted, I'm thinking more about ways to add silicon bits to tube amps to help them last longer.
Seems like you could add about $10 or less in silicon parts and make a big difference: I'm thinking things like a B+ voltage regulator, servo bias the output tubes individually, failure protection, etc. Not only would the last longer, you wouldn't even need matched sets.

Bugera is doing some stuff like that on their budget Infinium amps and it would seem like a no-brainer to me for other companies to do some of those things.
 
The individual bias is a good idea. I had an Orange amp that featured individual trimmers on the inside. It certainly does mitigate the need for matched sets, as you said.

Good tubes last a long time, but helping them last even longer seems like a good idea to me!
 
I'm not sure what you are suggesting. Silicon bits? I use silicon damping rings (glorified rubber bands!) on the 6V6s in an amp I have because they're perfectly fine tubes except they rattle. I don't really understand how but putting a pair of thick silicon rings on each tube has stopped the rattles. Weird.

Bit I don't understand what it is that you are suggesting.
 
HamishR said:
I'm not sure what you are suggesting. Silicon bits? I use silicon damping rings (glorified rubber bands!) on the 6V6s in an amp I have because they're perfectly fine tubes except they rattle. I don't really understand how but putting a pair of thick silicon rings on each tube has stopped the rattles. Weird.

Bit I don't understand what it is that you are suggesting.
Click to expand...
Adding solid state circuits using diodes, mosfets, opamps or even microcontrollers to run tube amps at steady voltages and automatically bias the output tubes. The idea being you can get more consistent performance and have your tubes last a lot longer.
 
Found another article with more tube protection schemes. This one is for the heaters - a constant current source to reduce stress on the heaters with an accompanying scheme to keep the B+ off until the tubes are heated up. It's only a handful of transistors and a few other bits.
 
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