PSA : Western Electric tubes

eSGEe said:
MORE MORE MORE
tampa.craigslist.org

Amp Tubes! - musical instruments - by owner - sale

17-12ax7-ECC83 2-Marked Marshall and 1Marked Fender, some are marked Ruby. The rest are 6l6Gc, Matched pair of Ruby Tubes, Vintage Quad of AMC Stamped 6l6GC, not sure of their origin. 1-Raytheon...
tampa.craigslist.org
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I have no faith in old used tubes sold on craigslist or ebay.

We bought 10 used "tested" tubes, and only 2 of them were usable in a guitar amplifier.

The rest (8 out of 10) had all types of snap crackle pop noises, or were microphonic.
In other words, old used tubes pulled out of a junk pile.

Was it worth spending the money? No.

Does "testing" a tube tell you enough about it? No.
The consumer tube testers miss at least 60% of the potential defects.

The testers don't detect the noise or the microphonic problems.
A tube which is crap --- can test good.
 
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SG John said:
Most people will not pay U.S. labor rates, even as deep into poverty levels as they are. Even paying an employee $20.00 an hour which is obscenely low (try living on that in the northeast), it's still twenty times more than someone is being paid in China. If people would pay U.S. labor rates, and supported their neighbors and other local businesses, then you would maybe see businesses like Amazon and Walmart start to hurt. They won't, plain and simple. Why, because they're paid common U.S. labor rates. Unless you're in high tech (or other managerial roles), you're not making it. Even then, you're living someplace un-godly expensive to live. Anything you spend on something other than basic living expenses is a luxury. (As a side note, I was shocked and unhappy to find out I make almost twice as much as some of my friends who I thought had good jobs. The "good" paying blue collar, private sector, manufacturing jobs are not really there. Even Union scale is not that high these days. Wages have been stagnant for thirty years, and not caught up with anything as far as most people are concerned.)

The first words out of most people's mouths are, "Look it up on Amazon" or Let's go to Walmart." Also lately, it's harder to find U.S. made products. You need to go someplace like Grainger to get something stupid like U.S. made zip ties. You won't find them at Home Depot, Lowe's, Ace, or True Value. They're not much more, and half the bag doesn't break when using them like the Chinese ones do. So, actually... you're saving money buying the more expensive U.S. made product. Just like tubes. They last ten times longer, and you don't need to replace them as often.
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Personally, I don't mind paying a reasonable premium for North American made products, for all of the reasons you mentioned.

The crappy stuff coming out of China makes me sick. All it's doing is expanding our landfills over here because it ends up in the garbage, usually sooner rather than later.
 
Old Punker said:
Personally, I don't mind paying a reasonable premium for North American made products, for all of the reasons you mentioned.

The crappy stuff coming out of China makes me sick. All it's doing is expanding our landfills over here because it ends up in the garbage, usually sooner rather than later.
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There were some good tubes coming from China, Groove Tubes sold them in retail stores.
Ruby also sold those; a lot of players gave favorable reviews.
Therefore it probably wasn't all junk, maybe junk with some good stuff mixed in, here and there.

We used to like this Sino preamp tube. It had wildly almost out of control gain.
It was like crazy overpowered, you could hear the difference immediately.
We bought a box of 100 for $1 each.
A little noisy but blistering distortion.
We go through the box of 100, testing each 1 in the amp. There was like 2 out of 100 that had that special something.
There was like 1 out of 100 that was a "telephone tube." It sounded like the audio in a telephone.
 
No shortage on tubes if you will pay the new price it's real but not real fun.

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syscokid said:
A recent an optimistic update on this thread’s topic:
www.wired.com

One Man’s Quest to Revive the Great American Vacuum Tube

The prized retro audio components are mostly manufactured in Russia and China. Now, a small Georgia company is rebooting US production.
www.wired.com www.wired.com

Spoiler alert: USA-made 12AX7s might be available by this summer!
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I saw that! Seems like they're trying to make good on the promise. I know it's not easy to start up an entire assembly line with something you currently DONT build, but I'd gladly support an old US made company attempting this. Prices might be higher but I guarantee you'd get a better end product
 
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