Unless the tubes in your amplifier die an untimely death due to shorting out of components within the tube itself or some other unfortunate mishap, your power tubes will wear at an almost immeasurable rate each time you use your amplifier. After many uses your power tubes gradually become worn and loose much of their good tone characteristics. The problem is, these worn out bad sounding power tubes still continue to work and may continue to do so for quite some time, possibly years. That's a lot of bad tone! However, there is an easy way to avoid this bad tone situation, and that is to change your power tubes before your amplifier starts to sound bad. As a general rule you should change your power tubes according to how often you use your amplifier, and also according to how hard you push your amplifier. For example, if you play loud and frequently your power tubes will wear out faster than if you play quieter and less frequently. Here are some general guide lines that will help you keep your tube amp running strong. Replace your power tubes every 12 months if you play just a couple times a week, every 6 months if you play 3 or 4 times a week and every 3 months if you play more than 4 times a week at full volume!

These recommendations are general guidelines and may vary depending on the quality of power tubes in your amplifier and assuming that your amplifier has been biased correctly. To get the best possible performance from your tube amplifier you should have it biased and checked out by a qualified tube amp technician with each tube change if possible. Follow these basic rules of thumb and enjoy a more dynamic and better sounding amplifier.