I think tubes could become a new currency, anyone have change for an EL34

[Dutchman]

1 hour ago, pesocaster said:

If anyone has seen this yet....... Looks like we will be buying American Tubes in the future:

 

https://www.westernelectric.com/blog/expand

I think that is just incredibly awesome.!!!!!

[Dave Scepter]

Disregard... got my answer 

[LucSulla]

2 hours ago, pesocaster said:

If anyone has seen this yet....... Looks like we will be buying American Tubes in the future:

 

https://www.westernelectric.com/blog/expand

I won't be buying anything from them unless whatever guitar tubes they offer are a helluvalot cheaper than $1499 for a matched pair or whatever it is. At that point, the printer is starting to cost less than the ink cartridge. 

[Biz Prof]

7 hours ago, LucSulla said:

I won't be buying anything from them unless whatever guitar tubes they offer are a helluvalot cheaper than $1499 for a matched pair or whatever it is. At that point, the printer is starting to cost less than the ink cartridge. 

Exactly.  Apparently, the NOS 300Bs craved by HiFi enthusiasts are rarer than hen's teeth.  If Western Electric wants to make a go of this for, say, EL34/6CA7, 6L6, EL84, and perhaps 6V6, they'll need to offer matched pairs at significantly lower prices than existing matched pairs of vintage USA, UK, German, Holland, Soviet-bloc tubes fetch on the open market.  Without any empirical evidence, I would speculate that the guitar amp owner population is likely much larger than the HiFi market.  But both are niches.

[Disturber]

Got a pair of TAD redbase EL34:s and a pair of vintage 6V6's that they call "vintage 69" (black glass, metal base, dont know what they really are). And four 12ax7's. Now I have a tube stash that will last a lifetime. Feels good. 🙂

Got a set of Psvane EL 34's. They look like they are Shugang EL34B's. Probably a few years old. They are shorter than the newer Tad redbase EL345's, that apparently are manufactured in Psvanes new plant.

 

Anyone know what an old Miniwatt 5U4G might be worth? Only a few hours on it. I don't have use for it. Might sell it.

[JGale]

$199 on one site I visited.

JAN Phillips $30.

Brent Jesse has various JAN 5U4G types for $30- $170.

 

[Hbom]

I haven't been too concerned about all this tube talk since the war started. I tubed up all my amps a year and a half ago and bought extras for all too.

But all this fear talk and price gauging has got me thinking.

My box of average, regular, nothing special tubes,

might be Rare NOS in a couple of weeks! 😎

[Dave Scepter]

I often wonder how many people prematurely replace the tubes in their amps?.. cuz I literally have 40+ year old amps still rockin original tubes 🤔

[Disturber]

1 hour ago, Dave Scepter said:

I often wonder how many people prematurely replace the tubes in their amps?.. cuz I literally have 40+ year old amps still rockin original tubes 🤔

I have all the stock preamptubes in my 1982 Deluxe Reverb. And the original 6C10 in my Super Champ (I have a few spares for when it gives up). I have the original preamptubes in my Marshall 4210 combo, spare for V1 on channel one which I replaced with an RFT because it has meaner mids. Kept the original 12ax7 in a box, it looks just fine. I replace the tubes when they go bad.

[dhuber]

On 3/26/2022 at 3:13 PM, Dave Scepter said:

I often wonder how many people prematurely replace the tubes in their amps?.. cuz I literally have 40+ year old amps still rockin original tubes 🤔

In the past, Me.  If an amp started popping or making weird noise I'd replace the tubes.  That's back when I was paying $10 for pre amp tubes and $20 for power tubes.  The Pete Thorn YouTube link a few pages back addresses this same issue.

1.  Pre amp tubes rarely fail.  He also states he has 30 year old amps with the original pre amp tubes.

2.  Don't use tube amps for practice.  If you do use a tube amp for practice don't have it cranked into an attenuator.  Save the tube amps for live performance and recording.

I personally still have my Panama Conqueror fairly cranked into an attenuator for practice but it's only one 12AX7 and one 6V6.  I don't care if I'm pre maturely ruining a single power tube.

I don't fault anyone for selling vacuum tubes at a severely inflated prices.  I'm all for free market.  While I do feel I have enough spare vacuum tubes to last me a life time, I wish I would have had insight to buy any where from a 100 to 1000 12AX7's five years ago.  The return would have been better than any gold investment I've made.

Once 12AX7's are back in production.  I'm curious as to what the new price will be for the run of the mill JJ, Sovtek, and Electro-Harminix 12AX7's.

 

[Disturber]

12 hours ago, dhuber said:

 

2.  Don't use tube amps for practice.  If you do use a tube amp for practice don't have it cranked into an attenuator.  Save the tube amps for live performance and recording.

 

 

I use three tube amp combos at home. Why not? Like you say, preamp tubes lasts a hell of a long time. Even if power tubes are expensive, I don't really care if I have to change them out every 5 to 10 years. I ran my Deluxe Reverb II almost daily at moderate volume levels for 8 years until one 6v6 went bad. Even if a pair should run as much as 150$ that is still only 18-19 dollars a year for the period they lasted. I can afford it. Tube amps are fun. I say: use them!

[Disturber]

Attention All EHX Tube Customers

The export restriction on Russian tubes has been resolved for now. We are accepting new orders, processing backorders, and hoping to resume shipping in April. Priority will be given to the oldest orders.

Considering various economic pressures, we must raise our wholesale prices. This price increase will apply to all back- and new orders. Also, there will likely be a further price increase for tubes shipped from our NYC headquarters once the government implements heightened tariffs against Russian goods, akin to the 35% rate Canada is now imposing. Other territories, including EU, UK, and Japan, are expected to follow suit.

For all non-US customers facing such heightened tariffs and with combined Russian tube orders of $3K or more: Consider having our Russian warehouse directly ship such combined orders to the nearest international airport in your country. That will avoid our having to pass along the cost of the heightened US import tariff. Otherwise, you will, in effect, incur a double tariff on shipments imported first to NYC and then to a country with heightened tariffs.

You can cancel any backorder, but we do not recommend this; there is a tremendous shortage of tubes.

[Steve Haynie]

I liked your post for your passing along information, but the information does not sound good.