New to tubes have questions


Hello All,
I am going to try a tube amp and I have a few questions I need help on. I have read the manual but I need to be clear
1) is it bad to play the amps without them warming up? will this hurt the amp?
2)does the amp have to be warmed up to check the bias?
3)what is the biggest don't with tube amps?
Please help me understand these questions
Thanks
harnellt

Showing 1 response by tpsonic

To answer these questions.(1)It won't hurt the amps to play w/o warm-up,though 5-10 min to let them idle won't hurt either.Most tubes take 30-40 min to sound their best,with the performance elevating from that point on.
(2)About the same period before biasing.Let it stablize.After about 2-300 hours the tubes should be broken in and not need daily biasing.This will be dependent on the quality of the tubes.Generally speaking NOS perform better than the new generation of tubes,but there are exceptions.
(3)Don't turn the amp on/off quickly-watch for tubes glowing brighter than the others.
Hope this is helpful.Enjoy!