Is there a length of time tubes are good for or do they simply just all of a sudden "go"? Does the sound degrade after a certain period of time?

Im playing a Marshall VS-100R (Valvestate) head and jcm900a cab and this head has either one or two (cant remember) 12AX7 preamp tubes which are original... probably 8-9 years now. The amp has 10's of thousands of hours on it if that makes a difference also.

Last thing i wanted to know is if there are better brands of tubes or are they all the same. The closest music store from here is 4 hours away so its quite the drive to pick up new equipment

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There is allways a better more expensive option to everything.

I recomend Groove tubes

there is no specific time for tubes. if a tube is broken you will hear it and prolly realize it when your head is heating up to fast/making strange noises while switching on or off etc etc etc.




against everyone else saying. no its not! at least not in 10 years. problems with sound and punch of amps have only in very very few cases something to do with a tube getting "old". in most cases its a deffect of one tube causing the other tubes not to works well. the only diffrence you will hear is if the tubes works or its broken. you wont hear the diffrence between an old tube and a new tube in most cases





your amp has one tube which makes it not very expensive to change it. i know lots of people complaining about their amps punch and sound. some of them playing an engl savage ( like me) are changing their tubes every 2 years
which costs hell lotta money (400 bucks for all). but the conclusion is that there is no! diffrence. i tested it under supervision of an amp expert. you always have to remember that our sense of hearing is our weakest.



there are tons of brands which sound all different and match differently in their combinnation with each other.

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Go sovtek 12au7's for V1,and 12ax7's in v2.I swear by them.