Here's an old radioman's tip for identifying tubes if the lettering on the tube is faded nearly to the point of invisibility: rub it through your hair, then breathe on it to fog the glass; hold it up to bright sunlight, rotating it, and as the moisture evaporates the lettering usually becomes visible. Unfortunately, this won't work for Brad 😁!
The harsh reality of it is that, the suppliers have TONS of Valves in stock. They have had them sitting on the shelf for a LONG TIME. THEY, have raised the prices because, they CAN. Is it right? You decide.
@@BradsGuitarGarage I hear that. It's hard to say. It just disgusts me when people start raising prices because they can, only because people expect it.
There are loads of valves available. There are stocks for years and the factory that supplies TAD in China is still there. I've not seen huge prices rises either tbh
I'm not sure of that. I believe a lot of people panicked and bought up a lot of tubes. It's good to have a solid state amp for times like these. And I believe Marshall makes some good ones.
Looks like the new version of my old SVC-30. I've owned two, sold one to a mate. Good amp, sounds like a Voxy-Fendery hybrid. The stock speaker in my combo is ok (I think it's Strauss' take on the Celestion 70/80, the "V-Lux" speaker). I've had it serviced once (valves, reverb, effects loop), might get it looked at again to completely fix up the dodgy wiring, diodes, and other gremlins. You say it's a Classic 30 clone - I thought my SVC-30 was a straight-up clone of the Laney VC-30. Both amps have similar specs, I think? What speaker(s) were you running this amp through in this video?
I have a Strauss SRT-15, it started to have issues after a couple of weeks. Valve socket solder joints and crappy reverb tank. It's called the Scheisse nowadays.
@@BradsGuitarGarage Yeah Brad, did some basic troubleshooting and reflowed the solder joints and fitted an 8EB2C1B Accutronics tank. I also treated it to a Jensen P10Q. Still Scheisse though mate, just a so so amp.
Hey Brad, got a question. I was looking at an SVT-30 and noticed the plate and screen are significantly higher (~428v vs ~330v) than a classic 30. Just wondering why you would push valve that hard? Would it be to reduce the current so you could get away with smaller transformers and wire?
If by SVT, you mean SVH, I'd say those voltages are are a symptom of a poorly wound power transformer. From memory, we were getting around 360V on B+ with approx 240v mains with bias sitting at approximately 50%. Still significantly above the datasheet spec of an EL84, but with current limiting to the screen grid offered with the 1.5k screen grid resistors per tube, they tend to survive a lot longer than they would with the factory circuit. In short, nobody should be pushing an EL84 that hard, but manufacturers seem to insist on that to the detriment of the customer with el84 equipped amps. The best solution is to get a better amp (such as an AC30) and get a reputable tech to "road harden" the amp, which includes but is not limited to increasing the screen grid resistance to 1.5k per tube (significant work is required on the SVH-30 as well as the Classic 30 to make this happen, as they follow the classic 30 circuit where 2 out of 4 valves get screen grid resistors of insufficient value and the other 2 get none at all for inexplicable reasons). Reducing the bias level (on both the fixed bias SVH-30 and AC30's, as well as the cathode biased AC30's in it's various iterations) as well as various other upgrades and improvements. The length of this reply might be a hint as to why I only have time to reply to certain messages. And why a lot of seemingly simple questions on this channel have extremely long winded replies if they are to remain technically accurate and unambiguous.
Thanks for the reply mate! It is an SVT, not sure if it’s the next iteration of the SVH or a variant? Info is pretty limited on the Strauss amps. I’ll check out the power transformer again but it appeared to be operating within spec. Thanks for the ideas for modding these things, this one has bad solder joints on the fx loop jacks causing intermittent signal loss. Keep up the good work, learning a lot from your videos
@@BradsGuitarGarage amp still works well but if tubes being harder to get may need spare but nealy $100 a piece, luckily I only have two tubes in amp, thnx
