I've played thousands of gigs since the 1970s & done thousands of recording sessions- most of my amps have had tube rectifiers - maybe I've been lucky but I've never had one fail.
My biggest tube problems have been power tubes - that said they haven't been too big of a problem.
I have tried SS rectifiers in my Vox ac 30 & my Fender Deluxe but I didn't really care for it.
The only amps that I like with SS rectifiers are Marshalls.
I've only used one on my JTM50. I did replace it with diodes at one point and found the HT voltage didn't change at all. So it looks like my TAD GZ34 has very similar voltage drop to 1N4007 Diodes. So I wonder if I'm getting the sag from my rectifier that everyone is talking about.
I've changed it back now by the way to the GZ34, but I am going to install diodes in series so I can feel better about going to gigs/practice without a backup amp.
Littlewyan wrote:So it looks like my TAD GZ34 has very similar voltage drop to 1N4007 Diodes.
Most excellent to know, that means they're sticking closely to original GZ34 specs. I have all sorts of NOS 5AR4/GZ34s, the ones that show almost no difference from diodes are the bona fide Brit GZ34s. They still play and sound softer than SS.
One desert island amp would be SS. otherwise I LIKE BOTH.
I heard the Mullard GZ34s were built a bit differently so there was little voltage drop. I think my TAD GZ34 rectifier still sags a lot as the HT drops by roughly 80V whilst playing. I didn't measure the sag when I installed diodes so can't compare.
I've got a small stash of tube rectifiers. Until I use them up, I can't see a reason not to use them as circumstances allow it. I admit to scrapping the tube rectifier in the current build I've got going on because I needed the 5V winding to run the reverb. This comes under the heading of priorities and compromises.
If I come out on the side of ss rectification, then I've got to admit I'm holding onto stuff that's junk (see recent thread on this topic) and that would be a slippery slope.
I'd vote, but I need to vote twice because there's no straddle option. I also think the turtles should be left alone and not substituted for roast beef on a hard roll. [Yuk! I can't unread that joke and I can't imagine who might be the appropriate person to tell it to. I wanna do both!]
Since rectifier tubes act like non linear resistors (Martin), would an inductor after an ss rectifier cause the rectification to be more non linear??? Just asking questions here.
I like them both, depends on the circuit. But I prefer the rectumfriers.
