I haven't weighed in on this discussion yet, ( haven't "properly" read through the entire thread yet either), but here goes anyway. Warning,,, this may be a long winded rant.
Ok, this whole discussion came about as a result of what Mr EHX, Mike Matthews had said about tube production coming to an end, so let's have a bit of a think on his reasoning for doing that. He has been into this whole "energy harvesting" trip of his for several years now & he has sunk a literal
ton of cash into it, with absolutely zero return on his outlay (akin to flushing cash down the crapper for the last several years). Tube production accounts for a decent percentage of Mike's income, so let's just take a look at that business of late. Major touring acts that use tube amps (& there is a damn lot of them) buy tubes in bulk when readying for a tour, & many of them will re-tube all amps before each show. I imagine that a reasonable percentage of these acts would be using tubes manufactured in Mike's facilities.
As we all know, these large touring acts pretty well all stopped touring with the "outbreak" & the industry is yet to fully recover. Reduced instances of "tube amp using" major acts touring means reduced bulk tube purchases. So one of Mike's money "supplies" took a major hit.
The amount of tubes that guys like us buy is a p_ss in the ocean compared to the amount that those major acts "usually" go through when touring. So, it's my opinion that Mike is simply trying to drum up business,,, scare guys like us into "panic buying" so as to fatten his now somewhat "lean" billfold as he waits on the live entertainment industry to get back to normal.
Is there a shortage of some tube types?? Quite possibly. Aside from Shuguang not producing at present, tube manufacturing plants, like most other businesses & plants around the world, would have been operating on skeleton staffs for some period, as well as dealing with raw materials supply issues & such. This would have no doubt affected production levels.
On the other hand, is it at all possible that they're trying the same sort of tricks that have been used by diamond & gemstone suppliers etc for eons,,, "control" the availability so as to "control" the price that people will pay???
Regarding Shuguang, when they ceased production in order to relocate the entire facility, the word was that they'd (hopefully) resume production some time during 2022. I've not heard anything else on this, so imagine that this is still their goal. If anyone has solid evidence of this not being the case, I'd like to know of it.Taking China's current economic climate into account, I can't see that they'd want to abandon tube prodution.
Whatever the immediate future of tube production, I have enough NOS/NIB "old production" valves (mostly Mullard, but also Brimar, Sylvania, RCA, Amperex/Bugle Boy, GE, Valvo, Tesla etc) to last me the rest of my life. Cheers
