[Badas]

  I'm interested in what glenn said. If there might be problems with this ss cap, when would they show up? Is it the sort of thing that would actually make the amp start blowing up in a year or 2? Or a better question, what will it do to driver/power tubes? Shorten their lives? That is the big question, as there is a finite supply of the good old driver/power tubes. Not all of us have 300 years' worth of tung sols. You would think that if the power is cleaner and more predictable, it would actually lengthen the life of the other tubes.

I think it will lengthen the time of the tubes. Voltage fluctuation from the rectifier can't be good for anything electronic. SS is providing cleaner even power.
 
The only thing that is warned about SS rectifiers and other tubes is a soft start. Where the full power from the rectifier is not added immediately to other tubes. My WA22 has a 22 second soft start which is fine. WU4GB also has a 2 second soft start built in which also helps.

My drive and power tubes have never sounded so stable. I'm not pulling out the Weber Copper Cap anytime soon. Amp seems it's most stable and it sounds its best. So time will eventually tell.
If my amp does eventually blow I've decided I would get it re-built and modified for the tubes I want.

 

[phase0]

 
I think it will lengthen the time of the tubes. Voltage fluctuation from the rectifier can't be good for anything electronic. SS is providing cleaner even power.
 
The only thing that is warned about SS rectifiers and other tubes is a soft start. Where the full power from the rectifier is not added immediately to other tubes. My WA22 has a 22 second soft start which is fine. WU4GB also has a 2 second soft start built in which also helps.

My drive and power tubes have never sounded so stable. I'm not pulling out the Weber Copper Cap anytime soon. Amp seems it's most stable and it sounds its best. So time will eventually tell.
If my amp does eventually blow I've decided I would get it re-built and modified for the tubes I want.

 
Something I was pondering... If I get the best Taks for my WA5, that's about $1800. Now assuming there's some slow undetectable damage that happened over time, and you eventually need to get repair work done, how much would it cost and how much time/inconvenience to be without the amp? In other words if someone took the risk going this route, would you come out ahead in the event of a repair, vs buying the Taks and taking the sanctioned officially approved route? Then there's some evidence that this is likely to be a safe thing to do. May never need to send it in for repair. The damage risk is assuming that it was being run out of spec just enough to cause extended wear and tear.

 

[jerick70]

They might be labeled Tung-Sol however that is a Sylvania made tube (very average). You can tell by the ridges on the plates.

I agree. Those are not Tung-Sol. I don't think Tung-Sol made them with the gray glass.
Those are basically these ones.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-x-6F8g-Sylvania-Tubes-NOS-NIB-Very-Strong-Matched-/282147419125?hash=item41b14bf3f5:g:qwYAAOSwdU1W9VVB

I thought they didn't look right. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

 

[Badas]

   
Something I was pondering... If I get the best Taks for my WA5, that's about $1800. Now assuming there's some slow undetectable damage that happened over time, and you eventually need to get repair work done, how much would it cost and how much time/inconvenience to be without the amp? In other words if someone took the risk going this route, would you come out ahead in the event of a repair, vs buying the Taks and taking the sanctioned officially approved route? Then there's some evidence that this is likely to be a safe thing to do. May never need to send it in for repair. The damage risk is assuming that it was being run out of spec just enough to cause extended wear and tear.

There really isn't the type of electronics in a tube amp that will get damaged slowly. It's mainly just caps and stuff. There are some chips in the amps for signal etc however they won't draw their power from a tube. It will be from the mains power connection. The tube circuits have to be designed to take a wide range of tubes with different power specs. So there will be some tolerances. Obviously you can't just throw in any tube but there is wide range (hence the wide range of tubes on the Woo lists). Usually if a tube is way out of range then you get an explosion. Usually the caps and tube. If a tube is working it is likely to always work until it is worn out.
 
With regards to the SS rectifier. The WU4GB is designed to copy a 5U4G rectifier as close as possible. I doubt the amp would know a difference. It is working in my WA22 (not sure about WA5 or others). As it is Solid State it should operate the same way forever and not need replacing. If my amp blows it is likely to be the other tubes faulting not the SS rectifier.
There is an exception. The SS rectifier could be striping the filiments on the other tubes a little quicker. I doubt it. In that case the tubes will wear out quicker. Unfortunately there is no way of knowing until it happens. That is years away.

That's my lame thoughts on it anyway.

 

[jhljhl]

 
There really isn't the type of electronics in a tube amp that will get damaged slowly. It's mainly just caps and stuff. There are some chips in the amps for signal etc however they won't draw their power from a tube. It will be from the mains power connection. The tube circuits have to be designed to take a wide range of tubes with different power specs. So there will be some tolerances. Obviously you can't just throw in any tube but there is wide range (hence the wide range of tubes on the Woo lists). Usually if a tube is way out of range then you get an explosion. Usually the caps and tube. If a tube is working it is likely to always work until it is worn out.
 
With regards to the SS rectifier. The WU4GB is designed to copy a 5U4G rectifier as close as possible. I doubt the amp would know a difference. It is working in my WA22 (not sure about WA5 or others). As it is Solid State it should operate the same way forever and not need replacing. If my amp blows it is likely to be the other tubes faulting not the SS rectifier.
There is an exception. The SS rectifier could be striping the filiments on the other tubes a little quicker. I doubt it. In that case the tubes will wear out quicker. Unfortunately there is no way of knowing until it happens. That is years away.

That's my lame thoughts on it anyway.

 
They are used as drop in replacement for guitar amps so I'd assume it is more ok than not but having decided yet...

 

[jerick70]

I contacted Weber about the correct copper caps to use with the WA5-LE and they recommended that I use the WZ34.  It is supposed to be a direct drop in for the GZ34/5AR4. This cap drops 17V.  This will give a different sound than the WU4GB I would think.
 
http://www.tedweber.com/wz34 
 
What do you think about this recommendation?

 

[Porteroso]

  I contacted Weber about the correct copper caps to use with the WA5-LE and they recommended that I use the WZ34.  It is supposed to be a direct drop in for the GZ34/5AR4. This cap drops 17V.  This will give a different sound that the WU4GB I would think.
 
http://www.tedweber.com/wz34 
 
What do you think about this recommendation?

I'm waiting for someone else to try it, but I think it will be 5 years before anyone has put enough time into it to really satisfy all of us who are curious of its effects.
 
I am still interested in what Glenn thinks, but I think he would want to know more about the internals before he really gave an opinion. If he was going to do it, I think it could definitely be a completely safe thing.
 
All that to say, I'm in for one of the WZ34 for use in my WA6, so I will be another test monkey for you all.
 
edit: btw, price with shipping came out to be 31.63

 

[joseph69]

  I'm waiting for someone else to try it, but I think it will be 5 years before anyone has put enough time into it to really satisfy all of us who are curious of its effects.
 
I am still interested in what Glenn thinks, but I think he would want to know more about the internals before he really gave an opinion. If he was going to do it, I think it could definitely be a completely safe thing.
WU4GB
All that to say, I'm in for one of the WZ34 for use in my WA6, so I will be another test monkey for you all.
 
edit: btw, price with shipping came out to be 31.63

I'm extremely tempted as well to try one of these SS rectifiers.
I would like to hear your impressions when you've spent a sufficient amount of time with it.
I just may jump in before your impressions, so I need to ask why you went with the WZ34 and not the WU4GB for the WA6? Seems you could go with either, but @Badas is having excellent results with the WU4GB. I'm a little confused on which to get???

 

[Badas]

  I contacted Weber about the correct copper caps to use with the WA5-LE and they recommended that I use the WZ34.  It is supposed to be a direct drop in for the GZ34/5AR4. This cap drops 17V.  This will give a different sound than the WU4GB I would think.
 
http://www.tedweber.com/wz34 
 
What do you think about this recommendation?

Yeah. That is likely to be an even better tube than the WU4GB that I tried. I will likely get a couple of these as well. I wanted to try the larger voltage drop first to make sure everything was okay. Now I'm 99% sure I will try the WZ34's. In theory you will get even better speed. Should be excellent.
WU4GB is producing excellent results. More speed and detail than any other rectifier I have tried. So I might just sit on these for a few months more.
 


Internal picture of a Weber Copper Cap.

 

[2359glenn]

 

  I'm waiting for someone else to try it, but I think it will be 5 years before anyone has put enough time into it to really satisfy all of us who are curious of its effects.
 
I am still interested in what Glenn thinks, but I think he would want to know more about the internals before he really gave an opinion. If he was going to do it, I think it could definitely be a completely safe thing.
WU4GB
All that to say, I'm in for one of the WZ34 for use in my WA6, so I will be another test monkey for you all.
 
edit: btw, price with shipping came out to be 31.63

I'm extremely tempted as well to try one of these SS rectifiers.
I would like to hear your impressions when you've spent a sufficient amount of time with it.
I just may jump in before your impressions, so I need to ask why you went with the WZ34 and not the WU4GB for the WA6? Seems you could go with either, but @Badas is having excellent results with the WU4GB. I'm a little confused on which to get???

With the WA-6 I would go with the WU4GB. If all they use for the voltage drop is a resistor the less current the amp draws
the less the voltage drop. And the WA-6 draws allot less current then a WA-22.
Maybe even use the WR4 with 67 volts drop at 250ma or WY3 at 50 volts drop at 125ma with the WA-6 for safety.

 

[joseph69]

  With the WA-6 I would go with the WU4GB. If all they use for the voltage drop is a resistor the less current the amp draws
the less the voltage drop. And the WA-6 draws allot less current then a WA-22.
Maybe even use the WR4 with 67 volts drop at 250ma or WY3 at 50 volts drop at 125ma with the WA-6 for safety.

Thank you for very informative input…much appreciated!

 

[2359glenn]

People are planing to use these in a WA-5 there is 2 of them that will make the voltage drop 1/2 of the 17 volts.
And to make things worse lets say a 300B = 80 ma if Woo is running them that hot. So that is a total of 160ma and maybe 20ma for the 2 6SN7s.
That is a total of 180ma and 2 WZ34s will have a 17 volt drop at 450ma so it will not even be 1/2 of the 17 volt drop.

 

[Badas]

  People are planing to use these in a WA-5 there is 2 of them that will make the voltage drop 1/2 of the 17 volts.
And to make things worse lets say a 300B = 80 ma if Woo is running them that hot. So that is a total of 160ma and maybe 20ma for the 2 6SN7s.
That is a total of 180ma and 2 WZ34s will have a 17 volt drop at 450ma so it will not even be 1/2 of the 17 volt drop.

Geez. That gets confusing.
I'm just going to stay with WU4GB in my WA22. It sounds great (best rectifier so far) and it runs cool. Those other SS rectifiers almost turned my amp into a volcano. They ran the amp very hot. WZ34 could possibly do the same as it has less voltage drop.
 
I did another 2.5 hour session last night. Used my LCD-3C's which require more volume. Volume at 2/3rds with no issues. Loving the extra detail from SS rectification. No noise, buzz or hum from any of the other tubes. Amp ran at normal temp.

 

[2359glenn]

 

  People are planing to use these in a WA-5 there is 2 of them that will make the voltage drop 1/2 of the 17 volts.
And to make things worse lets say a 300B = 80 ma if Woo is running them that hot. So that is a total of 160ma and maybe 20ma for the 2 6SN7s.
That is a total of 180ma and 2 WZ34s will have a 17 volt drop at 450ma so it will not even be 1/2 of the 17 volt drop.

Geez. That gets confusing.
I'm just going to stay with WU4GB in my WA22. It sounds great (best rectifier so far) and it runs cool. Those other SS rectifiers almost turned my amp into a volcano. They ran the amp very hot. WZ34 could possibly do the same as it has less voltage drop.
 
I did another 2.5 hour session last night. Used my LCD-3C's which require more volume. Volume at 2/3rds with no issues. Loving the extra detail from SS rectification. No noise, buzz or hum from any of the other tubes. Amp ran at normal temp.

If the WU4 sounds good stay with it don't go with a lower voltage drop that can harm your amp.

 

[jerick70]

If the WU4 sounds good stay with it don't go with a lower voltage drop that can harm your amp.

Thanks for the explanation Glenn. I'll get the WU4GB then. I don't want to take a chance with my new amp.