what about using a Fluorescent light ballast to power a tube amp.. now i know we all here humm in a faulty ballast, but in one that i running properly i have never had a problem with it. and well you can get them pretty cheap at ace hardware and such..  perhaps with a little more filtering in the power supply.

any thoughts..

Might work but I think you might get tired of having to replace them. They fail quite often just powering two flourescent tubes.
Jered

You do mean as a supply filter?  It will act as an inductor - I'll have to pull out some specs of balasts to check it further.  If it does work it's a great idea.

(Just to be clear *powering* a tube amp, ie. replacing the power transformer, with a series connected Fluoro balast is likely to kill somebody.)

the ones i am looking at have a 300v ratting. at very low amperage.  just an idea but according to the datasheets i am seeing its very viable stil up in the air though.

A fluorescent ballast is a composite magnetic device that's part transformer, part series inductor. It's designed to do three things:
(a) make a high voltage to break over the gas in the bulbs
(b) limit the current through the bulbs with a high series inductance because the bulbs are actually negative resistance devices under breakover conditions
(c) heat filaments in the bulbs to lower the breakover voltage down to where the high voltage can break them over. Without this, it would take even higher voltages, which is what push-to-start ballasts need.

Making it do all that stuff makes it a poorer transformer as just a transformer. It can't even do a good job as an inductor-input filter because the series inductance is inherently AC only, so you get no steady DC aid from the inductor.

Maybe usable as a super cheap tinkering device, but it's not likely to be more cost effective than a purpose designed tube power transformer or a pair of back-to-back low voltage transformers.

But tinker - maybe it can be used somehow.