tubes

So here's a short but complete list of what I'm expecting - again.

Bruce has had the amp for three and a half months, so none of this should be a surprise, right?

We should really be on the homeward straight, yes? Sadly not - Bruce did not reply to this email at all so a month later I was in a less optimistic mood - see part 38.

Bruce confirmed that I should send one of the reverb pans and some gave useful information about likely shipping time.

I still wasn't sure about the power tube explanation, but if Zinky could supply some tested tubes (especially having my amp to test them with), that should be fine?

I never did get the shipping cost, so after a few days I made my own enquiries and let Bruce know - see part 25.

We finally seemed to be getting somewhere after 7 days of exchanging emails.

I pointed out I shouldn't need a new reverb pan and tried to summarise the known costs.

Bruce's reply was still on track, fortunately - see part 24.

Finally some costs for the amp shell...

However there's a little doubt there as to whether there is one available quite as easily as I'd expected, considering that the Superfly was/is still advertised as being in production.

Also, I shouldn't need another reverb pan - I've already got two which work as well as each other!

Finally some thoughts on biasing that rather went over my head. $60 for a new set of power tubes should sort things out though. I hastened to respond - see part 23.

In the preceding year I had lived with the intermittent reverb but understandably was not happy at having to do so. As I outlined in my next email (opposite), I'd bought new pre-amp valves and even gone to the trouble of buying a new reverb pan (not particularly expensive considering it was sent from the USA), but that did not help the original problem.

By April 2008 the situation had changed partly due to the effect of having put in new (and supposedly good-quality) power valves.

I was confused because looking at the valves in the amp, the 12AT7 did not appear to be in the right place. It should be the small valve right next to the red RCA plug in the attached picture I think!, but there was a 12AX7 there. Although I'd got a PDF of the Superfly user guide, for some reason it did not include a simple diagram of the valve placement.

Bruce's reply gave some more information on which tube sent the signal to the reverb, but nothing about the time required to do the upgrade once he'd got the amp.

I went back to the amp, took the back grille off (remember, all this time I'm still using the amp for weekly band rehearsals) and tried to match up his description with the positioning of the valves. See part 11 for my findings.