Tube holder for Peavey Classic 30? Hmm, I wonder if there is suc a beast??

[Jared Purdy]

Well, there you have it. I wonder if there is such a contraption, to hold those blessed little tubes in place so that they don't get the bejezzus knocked out of them. Anyone out there??????

[JoeM]

Something like this?

TOM'S TUBE TAMER For Peavey Delta Blues/Classic 30 - eBay (item 260545463256 end time Feb-05-10 14:01:51 PST)

[Jared Purdy]

err, umm, is that for a pre gaurd c30, or any vintage?? and, how does it work differently that the current peavey tube cage that has a piece of fairly thick and dense foam to hold the tube nipples??

[Jared Purdy]

I doubt that will fit with the tube cage. That was designed pre tube cage C30s

[Mars Amp Repair]

Yeah,
If you look closely enough, it looks like an piece of aluminum tubing, possibly condiut with grommets glued into holes drilled the tube.
I think you could make something close to that fairly easily. g

[Jared Purdy]

If you have the newer version of the C30, that will not fit. The newer one comes with a piece of dense foam attached to the cage directly beneath the tips of the tubes
The foam could actually be a little thicker, another 1/4 inch, and those tubes would be firm (er).

[olddawg]

If you have the newer version of the C30, that will not fit. The newer one comes with a piece of dense foam attached to the cage directly beneath the tips of the tubes
The foam could actually be a little thicker, another 1/4 inch, and those tubes would be firm (er).

Couldn't you then just remove the foam, add/glue/screw a piece of something 1/4 in. thick to the top pf the cage, then re-attach the the foam to it. If the foam breaks into pieces ordre a new piece from Peavey.

[Jared Purdy]

Yes, I and I had thought of doing that. Need to find the right density and assuming there is a bit oh heat resistance to it as well. Its kind of orange in colour.

[olddawg]

Yes, I and I had thought of doing that. Need to find the right density and assuming there is a bit oh heat resistance to it as well. Its kind of orange in colour.

How about a 1" wide piece of 1/4" aluminum stock. Epoxy it to the cage and attach the foam over that. Aluminum is a heat sink.

[CharlieP]

You could use some of that maple syrpul to glue it on!

[Enzo]

Wait. The whole point of the newer grille is that it takes the place of these other things. That dense foam is the same stuff used in the 5150 preamp tube hatch. If the tube tips press into it, it should stop them rattling. maybe remount the grille or reform it (bend it) to apply a bit more pressure to the tubes.

Tom's Tamer has been in the market a long time. I used to make a tube retainer for the C30 myself. In fact, I sent one to Roger at Peavey when I created it.

ANything to stick on the tubes will interfere with the new style rear grilles. The amps did not originally have any rear grille. then they added a straight one. Now they have the one with the foam.

Here is what I made. It fits where no grille is used or where the old straight grille is used.

The plate is 2x6" 1/8 aluminum. The three posts are 3" tall, with 4-40 threaded studs to match the xisting threaded chassis holes. The double strip of foam is the same dense foam PV uses. I bought it from them. No one makes a reasonable 3" post, so they are 1.5" posts doubled up.

Hard to see in the photo, but I pinched 3/8" clearance holes in the outer foam strip. That reduces any potential stress to the pointy glass tip.

The 4-40 hex posts can be had in single piece lots from Jameco. I bought them in bags of 100 from Allied.

[Jared Purdy]

I took the grill off my amp the other day to see if I couldn't learn a bit more about microphonic tubes as the tech at my store said that if I lightly tapped the tube that had gone microphonic, I''d likely hear a rattle. He also said that if I strummed the guitar to the point that the tube(s) rattled, and if I held the tips of the tubes (providing they weren't too hot) the rattling would likely stop, or be greatly reduced. So, I tried both. Sure enough, the pencil trick worked. I then tried holding the tips of them after strumming the bass strings, and sure enough, that really worked. It got me thinking that if the foam was just a little thicker (say 1/4"), it would put a little more pressure on them, therby holding them in place a little better. The piece of foam that Peavey puts in when they are assebling the amp is new, but it quickly compressess at the contact point (which is evidence by the indentations in the foam, dents that don't bounce back). Those indentations go almost right through the foam, not making much of a cusion for those tubes when things really get going.

I'm not sure if a thicker piece would have much of an effect, but I think I'll try it. I suspect that a great deal of the vibration that those tubes are encountering comes right through the circuit board (where the sockets are screwed to), and right down through the entire tube. If the socket was mounted to something more secure, and away from the relatively flimsy circuit board, say the chassis, that would offer a more solid foundation, and possibly reduce some of the vibrations.

I am only specualting herre, obviously. And, I have no idea what the good folks over at Peavey have tried, nor do I know if they read any of this stuff, or if any of it gets reported back to them. I read on a post recently that there are poor, medium, good and excellent circuit boards. I don't know where the C30 circuit board fits in, but with some of the comments that I have seen (particulalry around the sockets being mounted directly to the PCB board), I don't think that would put it inthe "execellent" category.

The person who initially wrote that comment, was talking about the poor build of the circuit boards on the Fender BDRI (and similar Fender amps) and wondered how much more it would cost to make smething that only lasts 5 years, last longedr, like 10 or 20 (he was specifically speaking about the Fender BDRI, which according to him and others starts to show all kinds of problems at the 5 year mark, or sooner, a reason why they don't offer extended warranties, according to him at least). Tally Ho!

[Steve Conner]

Well, remember that these days, everything is designed to self-destruct the day after the warranty runs out. If it lasts forever, they can't sell you another one!

I design industrial electronics in my day job (thankfully not audio!) and we're forever worrying about cost/quality tradeoffs. The essence of cost/quality tradeoffs is this:

If you make a beautiful, perfect product, it'll cost so much that nobody can afford it, and you'll go bust.

If you make complete junk, nobody will want to buy it, and you'll go bust.

There's a sweet spot in the middle of the cost/quality continuum where the earnings from the product are maximized. It's good enough that plenty of people buy it, and yet cheap enough to make that you can sell it at a decent price and still make a decent profit on each one. And you stay in business. Fender and Peavey have been in business for a while, so they probably know where the sweet spot is by now. I'd say they're smack in the middle of it, with Mesa at the top and Behringer at the bottom.

Personally, in my homebuilt guitar amps, I shock-mount all of the tubes on rubber bobbins, but I couldn't afford to do that if I were building them for a living. Heck, I couldn't afford to build guitar amps for a living, period.

[Jared Purdy]

I would imagine that would be a difficult and possibly expensive mod on the C30, no?

[Steve Conner]

I don't see any reason why you couldn't shockmount the tube socket board, maybe extending the jumper wires to it a little.

Just don't bill yourself by the hour for the labour or you'll get a shock!

Have you specifically had trouble with tubes going bad in your C30, or are you just trying to "fix something that ain't broke"?