Testing and Other info....
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We took possession of our first Amplitrex AT1000 on 06/16/08 and we
have been running it thru its paces for the last three weeks. At
this point in time we are simply going to call this machine the last
word in tube testing. It is the most well thought out and precise
tester we have ever used. In short, a thoroughly amazing piece of
gear! In the past we had found the VTV Characterizer very helpful in
allowing us thru experimentation to find certain grades and
characteristics that worked very well with different amps but the
extraordinary accuracy and available data that the AT1000 offers has
taken our in house testing and grading to new levels!
As you can see in the second picture we are actually bumping up the internal audio level with an outboard amp and then literally placing a headphone speaker right on both sides of each tube to check for noise and microphonics. Most will consider this excessive but that's the way we are! In the bottom pic you can see Michael using an old Sencore where we pre-heat each tube before running them thru the AT1000 which really runs them at real world voltages. So major kudos' to Chris Terraneau for brining the AT1000 to market! If you would like to check out his site here is a link: Amplitrex |
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| We order all power tubes factory matched in quads with a 24 hour burn in . We then check the match for plate current draw and transconductance using Maxi-Matchers and rematch when necessary. We grade all of our power tubes right down to the milliamp so that we can supply future orders to customers that will exactly match the originals. We use extremely precise voltage controlled transformers to feed the four Maxi-Matchers we use to insure the integrity of our grading system. We will also be batch testing power tubes using the new Amplitrex AT100. |
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occasionally use our Hickok TV2 for certain tubes and we also have two
of the VTV Preamp tube Characterizers that we can use if you're looking
for a specific grade of tube that you have used in the past that was
spec'ed out on a VTV. Otherwise we will be using our Amplitrex AT1000 for
all preamp tubes as we have found it to be a far superior unit in every
way. We also offer graded, balanced and matched preamp tubes for an additional charge listed in the online store which is very nice for HiFi applications and phase inverters in guitar amps. We also offer hand picked high gain preamp tubes, especially for you players who can never get quite enough gain! The high gain tubes are an increase of between 10 to 15 percent. |
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We very much enjoy talking or corresponding directly with each customer. So we encourage you to call or email us about the tone and sound your looking for. We're always happy to talk tubes!
A special note for players ordering EL84’s for Peavey Classic Series amps, VHT Pitbulls, Mesa, Carvin or any of the fixed bias EL84 amps, please specify your playing style or styles such as Rock, Blues, Jazz etc. Also indicate whether the amp is played at mostly low, moderate or high volume. This will help me choose EL84’s that will either break-up earlier for a Blues style or provide more headroom as preferred by Jazz and Country players.
Phone 503-659-7401 / FAX 503-659-7385
We warranty all tubes for a full six months from the date of purchase for manufacturer defects. In other words if a tube simply stops working and is physically in tact we will replace it. We will not warranty tubes that are broken during the installation process. Even with all the testing we do we see about one in three hundred tubes fail which we feel is exceptional. It will be up to our discretion as to whether or not we want a failed tube to be returned. If we need the tube to be returned the shipping cost is the responsibility of the customer. We will of course pay any shipping on a tube that we send out under warranty.
We will NOT cover failed power tubes if the amp was not biased properly (this applies to adjustable bias amps), or if the tubes were not installed properly, or the sockets were not cleaned properly. If you take your tubes to a tech to have them installed we will not warranty them unless the afore mentioned parameters were meet. We reserve the right to void the warranty at our discretion if a third party installs your tubes. There are a lot of very competent techs out there and we sell tubes to quite a few of them, but unfortunately there are also a lot of techs who are neither competent nor trustworthy so beware.
We cannot accept returns on tubes that have been used. It would be nice if we could offer a "buy - try - return" policy on tubes but this would mean that we would be sending out "used" tubes to other customers and we will not do this. Unused tubes may be accepted if authorized, at our discretion for store credit and subject to a 20% retesting and restocking fee if the tubes and boxes are returned in perfect condition.
We cannot warranty tubes that are broken after arrival. Please read about the proper handling and installation of tubes on our FAQ page.
