does anybody have a clue?

[sunnee]

alright.

1. about three months ago, my beloved orange tc ad30 combo was serviced under warranty because one day the light did not go on, and no sound. the repairguy said he repaired a possible cold solder joint, and put in new tubes and it worked fine. i had the amp for about one year (from brand new), so i guess the tubes needed changing anyway....i put in my own tubes

2. the amp worked great, i was happy.

3. approximately three months later, the high tension fuse blew, so i replaced it.

4. about a week later, i noticed a flash when i fired the amp up, with "stand-by" on. no affect on the sound or performance. but that "flash" stuck in my head...

5. i decided to investigate what was flashing, and found that the rectifier tube was flashing upon start up. the tube was glowing almost a neon blue, and slightly flashing. bad tube? i replaced it with a Ruby rectifier tube (the one the orange guys had so graciously given me). no flash. it's good? i played through the amp in about five minutes, but there seemed to be something wrong. the volume wasn't where it was before, and seemed to be dying. i turned off the amp, thinking it had to be serviced again...damn!!

6. out of curiousity, after rehearsal, i fired it up again, with the old rectifier tube (a JJ), and everything was back to normal!

i have the speaker jack hooked to the 16 ohm output, i have two celestion vintage 30's (8 ohms each).....what's going on?

[bclaire]

Well, I'd bring it in to be checked out if I was you... make sure that this tech is really good... Is this your Orange dealer?

Something doesn't sound right there...

Billy

[sunnee]

i thought of something last night....is there a burn in period for the rect tube?

also, is this glowing blue rect tube normal?

[Andy H.]

The rectifier tube shouldn't need any special 'burn in' period, no. The blue glow, while not totally normal, isn't a problem to worry about either. It usualy indicates a slightly less 'hard' vacuum, but rest assured it's not in itself an indication of trouble. If the vacuum was gone it would just burn right up and blow like a lightbulb.
That 'sparking' definitely isn't good though. Could be trouble elsewhere causing it, or you could be having no luck at all with rectifier tubes. They aren't normally much trouble though, so I'd agree with Billy - take the patient to the doctor.

Andy.

[sunnee]

thank you, and yes, i am taking the patient back to the doc. orange usa has been very helpful. my amp may have been a little troublesome, but the company has been great so far.