Boosting power tubes ok??

[GibsonGM]

Is there any consensus on what placing a mosfet boost into your effects loop will do to your power tubes?  I've 'discovered' (like 100 others, I'm sure!) that running preamp out/poweramp in to my mosfet booster yields some pretty TASTY results!   Seems like cranking the input to them by 10x will shorten the tube life, but is that all I should be worrying about, ya think?
Thanks. 

[dmk]

i think your probably actually boosting into the phase inverter.
bump though for someone who might be able to give a more thorough (aka educated) answer

[soulsonic]

Ja, mosfetbooster in effect loop is going to be driving the phase-inverter harder. It can't hurt the tube or the amp. The worst that could happen is everything will be loud and distorted. You might blow a speaker more easily....

[jonathan perez]

so does that mean that you cant get power tube distortion as long as there is a phase inverter in place?

[soulsonic]

What? No, if an amp is turned up loud enough, it's power tubes will distort, regardless of the sort of amp it is. The phase-inverter circuit doesn't limit how much juice you're sending to the power tubes. In many cases, it's phase splitting AND boosting, so driving the phase inverter harder will definitely drive the whole output harder.

[jonathan perez]

oh ok, thanx for clearing that up for me. 

[GibsonGM]

Thanks, guys, just needed a logic check.  My amp, Hot Rod Deluxe, definitely reinjects the signal to the PI at that point.   I'm not cranking it, more like on 50%,  just using it to gain some compression, a little more punch for leads.   Finally found a use for that feature (effects loop)!! lol

[soulsonic]

I might have to try that... the FX loop on my main amp is in a different spot - between the input/overdrive preamp stage and the tone control stage - so I'm wondering what differences it could make.... fun for an experiment.