What would happen when you under Bias your tubes?


Hi, I am a tech noob and I always wanted to ask if it is safe to under biasing tubes and especially the power tubes? Will that affect performance or will that do damage to the amp? I am asking because my power amp which is the Lamm ML 2.1 has manual bias and when I left the bias unchecked for awhile. It somethings jumps much too high then originally set and those 6c33c doesn't last! I mainly set the bias to 70%. Is that OK? Thanks.
luna

Showing 1 response by pch300

Luna, the bias is supposed to be set so that the tube is being used in the middle of its operating range, in a region that is the most nearly linear for input-output tracking. Bias it too low or too high and it becomes increasing non-linear at either end of the operating range, respectively.

The actual value of bias depends on the type of tube. If you can refer to a tube manual, that may tell you the recommended bias. Or you can ask someone here who has a tube manual, listing the tubes you wish to have looked-up.