FedEx dropped my JTM60; tubes damaged. Would appreciate any advice before attempting to turn power on.
Posted Oct 17, 2021, 8:31 PM UTC
14461
You gotta get your money back first, and ASAP. If you take to a tech it can be argued that damage could’ve been done post-delivery
29
Thanks
5
Unless your tubes are hot, there is no need to have something between your fingers and the tube. You can hold them with your bare hands.
7
The concern is getting the oil from your hands on glass that's being heated. Same precautions I use for handling halogen or other high wattage light bulbs.
-8
Tubes do not get anywhere near hot enough for this to even begin to happen. Look it up. Completely unnecessary for vacuum tubes.
19
Bullshit, everyone knows you suck the tone out of them when you touch them wjth bare fingers.
15
Will I be able to sing if I lick a bunch of them? I have some in the garage.
4
Hahaha I am going to remember this one.
2
Exactly!
So much misunderstanding out there even on guitar forums, lol.
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There is a lot of bad information out there for sure.
When covid first happened my Dr Z Maz 8 started making weird noises and then stopped working. I couldn't send it anywhere, but I reached out to DR Z and their amp repair tech walked me through everything in order to trouble shoot that amp. I had that thing opened up, testing voltages on tube pins, pulling tubes in and out while the amp was on.. Sometimes while on a phone call, or after getting an email with the next thing I needed to try. Eventually he helped me find a bad resistor on the first tube before the power tube, had me snip it off and I was back in business. I am not one to question someone who builds and repairs hand-wired amps on the daily, but I sure as heck listened and learned a lot about my amp and amps in general. And on this one, I can say without a single doubt.. unless its hot, just use your bare hands.
7
I thought the rule was power tubes get hot like that but preamp tubes don't get hot enough?
2
RF transmitter power tubes may get in that ballpark, but audio tubes are basically incandescent lightbulbs
4
If any tube on your amp could get hot enough for that to be an issue, the tube is already gone. In fact the tube will probably die long before the glass can get that hot.
3
Who shipped it with the tubes installed? I’d file a claim or go after the seller. And I wouldn’t fire it up - needs a tech.
5†
Literally every tube amp I've ever bought was shipped with tubes installed. Hell I just bought two brand new tube poweramps a couple weeks ago. Came with tubes installed as usual. No issues whatsoever. If the tubes broke it wasn't packaged correctly.
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You're 100% right. I used to work in a guitar/audio shop years ago, and we did most of our business through Ebay, so almost everything got shipped. We never took the tubes out of anything, whether it was just a $150 Pignose or a $30,000 McIntosh home audio amplifier. We always just made sure to pack everything properly by put some sort of soft padding/bracing around the tubes to stop any power or speaker cables from bouncing around, wrapping the entire amp in plastic wrap, adding Styrofoam corners to secure it in place, filling the boxes with high quality packing peanuts, and just by doing that, we never really encountered many problems.
Occasionally things will break due to excessive mishandling from UPS, but everything we shipped was insured through them, they never gave us a hard time about paying out, and we never gave customers a hard time about refunds. If you just pack things properly, there are almost never problems.
4
With the right packing its perfectly fine to ship with the tubes installed. If you buy a brand new amp thats how it arrives.
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That's not unusual for heads. My Rocker 15 Terror came the same way.
8
No way. Any tube amp should have all tubes removed, wrapped, and packed correctly. I don’t care if it’s shipped in a road case tubes come out.
-7
Every combo amp I've ordered online has come with the tubes installed and they were undamaged but maybe I got lucky. And that includes a tiny Champ clone as well as a bigger 90 pound 4 channel combo with 11~ tubes.
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Not disagreeing but mine was shipped with them installed and from what I know it's a common practice.
7
Crazy. Well, FWIW I’ve never bought a new amp. I think it’s bonkers anyone would ship any kind of glass unprotected. I can understand some type of well considered factory packaging that would hold them in place, protect them, etc.
0
I worked doing backline for years. The company I was at had at least 200 tube amps and we never once pulled tubes before they went on a truck. I have never seen any touring band’s tech do that either.
1
I was specifically referencing shipping and I’ve already been proved plenty wrong. Hopefully you treated them with more care then FedEx, UPS, etc.
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I messaged the seller about it, hasn't got back to me yet.
Will call FedEx about it too.
Thanks.
1
The shipper on record can open a claim with FedEx. Keep all packaging and take pictures of everything right now. FedEx may send someone to inspect this for proper packaging. If it was packaged properly then it's on FedEx but if it wasn't then they can deny the claim. That's why it's so important that amps and instruments are packed to their shipping standards. If it wasn't packaged properly then the fault will be put on the shipper for not following guidelines. Then you're dealing with the shipper or the website you bought it from. Good luck dude :)
3
FedEx…….. any time I’ve ever had an issue with shipping it was always FedEx . They’ve damaged guitars ive shipped to buyers and items I’ve purchased personally. Maybe just my luck with them , but I feel your pain on this man . Hope everything works out for ya
5
I've had the same experience. With UPS, we shipped thousands of things and only ever had maybe 5-10 claims. With FedEx, we shipped probably less than 30-40 things, and had probably 15+ claims. It was absurd. No other carrier had the same problems.
5
The UK would like to introduce you to Yodel
0
Nah fam. Your experience is correct, because it's everyone's experience. Reddit is filled with videos of FedEx drivers abusing deliveries and practically going out of their way to damage things. The problem is that most FedEx Ground drivers are contractors; there's no motivation for them to do a good job.
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I actually had the opposite thing happen when I was a shipping clerk. The fedex truck was nice and orderly but the ups truck always had stuff being broken and the truck was a mess everytime i had to meet them for pickup
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Right . I’m sure results may vary .
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No yeah I think this was all on the local drivers we had
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are you silly contact fedex to replace... unless your a monkey.. dont use it its not rocket science thinking here
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art thee fartuous contact fedex to replace. unless thy a monkey. dont useth t its not rocket science bethinking hither
^(I am a bot and I swapp'd some of thy words with Shakespeare words.)
Commands: !ShakespeareInsult, !fordo, !optout
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[removed]
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I'd say FedEx owes you a replacement. Contact their customer service. DO NOT power it on - there is risk of shock, fire and death. If there is visible damage, then the possibility of unseen damage also exists.
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Hi friends.
Do I need to retube the amp or have it inspected by a tech, before attempting to turn it on?
The tube showing has the guide in the middle broken off, the other el34 has a very small piece of glass rolling around in it. It's it dangerous to the amp to attempt to use them?
I'm in a remote location, no local shop does this sort of work.
2
It should be ok if you just replace the tubes, as long as the sockets aren't damaged- the internal circuitry is a lot tougher than you would think. Don't power it up with the dropped tubes in it though.
1
Should be fine, but I don't expect it to work though, I'd be shocked if there wasn't a gas leak. Honestly.
The missing pin might actually be fine, and even intentional. EL34's use 7 pins, the 8th is a dud that other tubes with the same socket use (like KT77's)
1
I have repaired guitars amps where the locating pin was broken and the tube was inserted in the wrong orientation. It can be an extensive and expensive repair!!! Those tubes go straight in the trash in my world.
2
I once inserted a rectifier tube incorrectly with a broken key. Quick way to a fried power transformer, or worse
2
I have to imagine what "I once inserted a rectifier tube incorrectly with a broken key" must sound like being read by someone who has no idea about tube amps or how they work lol.
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Yea I thought that as well, decided folks hanging out in here would probably get it
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I did. But it still gave me a chuckle. I could be more mature at 37 I suppose.
1
FedEx not the best.
That sucks 😔
2
That's FedEx for you, I always put it on the seller when it comes to damage. If it's not packaged like it's meant to be dropped, it's not packaged right.
As far as our tube, I honestly cannot read the pin numbers, and that matters A LOT here. Pins 1 and 6 literally do nothing and are not part of the tubes design, it's a 6 pin tube. They are literally just there to match tubes that use the same sockets, and some of those tubes use all 8 pins.
If the right pins are there, just throw it in an see what happens. Worst case scenario is the tube broke because and the gas leaked, which means it just won't work. No feedback, no damage to the amp, just a broken power tube. People here are going to tell you get new tubes just to 'be safe'. That's absolute bs, damaged tubes don't breaks amps, damaged amps break tubes.
2
Get it replaced.
1
If you can be careful about putting it on the correct way, you can use this to use that tube and have a “new” keyway
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Look inside before plugging in. Had to be a decent impact to break the tube base. Extremely crappy packing job as well
1
FedEx is the worst. Everytime I NEED something shipped and they're the preferred shipper by customer or vendor it's always messed up.
Then on top of that they are extremely unhelpful and try to push the responsibility to straighten out THEIR mistake on you and/or the shipper.
That being said, go directly to the seller and try to get this remedied through them first.
1
Update:
Still no response from the seller.
FedEx online service isn't applicable for this shipment, and their automated phone claims say I haven't gotten my package yet.
I got impatient and decided to open up the hood. Didn't find any obvious loose solder points; thank God this thing is built sturdier than my valvestate, and everything is quite well secured to the chassis in a way that doesn't stress the connections to the board.
Sure glad I didn't turn it on though. Found a screw sitting up against one of the tube leads.
We'll see if I get anywhere with the seller or FedEx. I think it will probably be okay with just a retube, would be nice if I could get someone to cover them though.
1
You will need a new set of tubes...
While, in a pinch, the tube you are showing could be carefully inserted for proper alignment and used it still needs to be replaced.
The other tube, with a piece of broken glass rolling around inside it. No, don't plug that in and try... a pin bent, broke the glass in it's base and has lost vacuum. Don't even try.
This is why amps shouldn't be shipped with tubes installed.
Yeah, I can't believe that an amp shop would ship half way across the world with not so much as newspaper covering the tubes.