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Arizona Cowpie goes to Tube School
arizona cowpie pinched the following loaf:
try to ignore the advice of this Lord Valve joker, he has an agenda. Indeed I do. It is my publicly stated intention to separate the members of this NG (and the many other NGs and web forums that I post to) from as much of their filthy lucre as humanly possible. In fact, it's my job. In order to be successful in such an endeavor, it is necessary for me to supply excellent products at competitive prices, coupled with exemplary customer service and rapid delivery. So far, I seem to be doing rather well at it. My house is paid for. Et tu? He sells crappy chinese Hmmmmm...you mean, like the Valve Arts KT-66? Or would that be the Shuguang 5AR4...or the Shuguang 6L6GC-M? Do you have any specific numbers for us? Can you define "crappy"? Got any test results/field failure rates? and other crap tubes (i.e. Fender, Nope. Why would I want to pay extra for Fender's logo on the glass when I can buy the same stuff from the people who actually manufacture it for a metric ****load less moolah? Mesa, Nope. See above. Groove tubes, Nope, but I'm looking at their "GE" "re-issue" 6L6s, which will probably be decent in a year or two when the assemblers learn how to insert the guts into the botles without screwing up the micas. Lead dress in the bottom of the bottle needs to improve, too. They sound good in a Twin Reverb, though. And I've got my eyeball on that re-issue "Mullard" 12AX7 also. If it's good, I'll sell it, and I don't give a dead rodent's posterior if Aspen Pittman *did* make the damn thing. Sovtek, You betcha! That Electro-Harmonix KT-88 is *easily* the best currently-produced KT-88 in the world. Looks great, sounds great, and doesn't croak in the Marshall Major...an amp *known* for killing anything but the Gold Lion KT-88s it originally shipped with. But then, *you'll* never have this tube, since you have a problem with your mouth. Heard from Mike lately? Philips ECG, Nope. But I have some JAN product on certain numbers, and anything that says ECG on the glass is just fine with me if it performs in a guitar/bass rig the way I want it to. Ruby Sure do. The STR6550 is an excellent example of its type. You can abuse the crap out of 'em and they don't croak. The new(er) STR6L6GCM is also a fine tube, especially in the rattle department. etc.) and likes to bad-mouth NOS tubes Nope. Some of them are worth having, some simply aren't. The vaunted Mullard GZ-34 is a good tube for audiophool use...works fine, lasts a long time; put it in a combo guitar amp, hanging upside down, and it's RATTLE CITY...the filament vibrates inside the cathode sleeve, making an infuriating jingling noise. I'd say 99% of 'em do this. Can't use 'em in the studio, and they'll bother the hell out of you if you're woodshedding laid-back stuff in your bedroom. (*You* know all about playing in your bedroom, right? Biggest venue you ever worked...) The Philips butterfly-plate fatbottle 5AR4, on the other hand, rarely suffers from the inverted rattle syndrome - and can be had for one third to one half the price of a Mullard, with comparable lifetime. But *you* knew *that* - right, cowpie? Sure ya did. There are many other examples of NOS tubes which perform admirably in audiophool gear and fail miserably in guitar amplifiers...try putting a diamond-bottom smooth-plate Telefunken 12AX7 into a high-gain cascaded-stage preamp like those found in Mesa-Boogie amplifiers; if you like listening to teakettles whistle, you'll *love* the Telefunken in that situation. And if I had a nickle for every poor ******* who spent $250 for a set of Mullard 12AX7s to put in his Bogner Shiva or Ecstacy only to find out that those amps sound like **** with anything besides Beijing-production 12AX7s in them, which they were designed around in the first place...hmmm, come to think of it, I *do* have a nickle for most of those. Several nickles, in fact. I could go on, but intelligent folks (not speaking to you here, cowpie) have gotten the idea by now. because he is all about what has the highest profit margin, Absofugginlutely goddamn right I am. That's what business is all about, junior. Making MONEY. Payin' the bills. Store rent. Utilities. Wife, kiddies, car, hounds, health insurance, etc. You betcha! Of course, my profit margin is regulated by two things... the price other dealers sell the same items for, and (this is the important one) my skill in obtaining those items at lower prices than the other dealers pay. Which is considerable. rather than what sounds the best. Ahh, son...here's where you fall on your arizona cowbutt. You see, I have three (and only three) criteria when choosing what to sell. And here, as a part of your continuing education and presented free of charge, are all of them: 1) Is it reliable? Will it take having the **** shaken out of it for hundreds of miles in a poorly-sprung band truck or an *abominably* bad-riding equipment trailer and still rock and roll when the switch is flicked? If not, it's *outta* here. If a tube goes down in an audiophool amp, it means very little. The amp's owner switches to headphones for a few days while he finds another tube...big deal. For a gigging musician, tube failure is a *serious* proposition - his paycheck (and by extension, a whole night's take for the establishment which has hired him) rides on reliable performance. If it isn't reliable, I don't give a rat's ass how good it sounds - I don't sell it. Which brings me to: 2) Does it sound good? Specifically, does it sound good in guitar/bass amplifiers? Here's where my taste (and I was a gigging musician for many years, and am preparing to do it again) coupled with the feedback I get from hundreds of my customers comes into play. What amps do people like to put which tubes into? Does tube A sound better in amplifier XYZ than tube B? If it does, there's a pretty good chance that tube B sounds better in amplifier ABC than tube A does, so I'll carry both of them. If tube C seems to sound like crap in everything but one specific amplifier, I'll carry tube C - but *only* if that's a popular amplifier that lots of people own. There's a lot more to be said on criterion #2, and much of it is subjective. I started playing music for money in 1962 at the age of 14, so I have 42 years of ears to put to the task of tube selection. It shows. (More on that later.) 3) Can I make money on it? No sense in screwing with it if there isn't a decent profit margin... I ain't no philanthropist, and the kids don't stop eating because I've got my nose in the air playing the NOS Toob Snob Cork Sniffing Audiophool ******oid. Do you think that NOS tubes on ebay would generate the big bucks from so many bidders if they didn't sound good? My goodness, cowpie...I can't believe you wrote that. Ebay pricing on tubes is driven by snob-appeal, audiophool ******ism, and one-upmanship. Auctions *always* favor sellers, rarely buyers. Especially when the pool of buyers is so large and the items are so scarce. I have used EL84's and 7189's in some of the most revered Vox and other classic amps for years and they last a LONG time, even gigging. Now, now, cowpie...you can't call working your rec room a "gig." Let's be reasonable about this, ok? NOS tubes sometimes can last 5 or 10 times as long as new production tubes, This is frigging NONSENSE. Get a grip. Service life is impacted by *many* different factors - load impedance, applied voltage, current load, *vibration* (big one in guitar and especially bass amplifiers) and the like. Some NOS are good for guitar amps, and some STINK ON ICE. ask anyone who has had the same Mullard GZ34 in his Dynaco amp for 30 years of continuous service. Right-side up, minimal vibration, rarely (if ever) operated beyond ratings, not routinely transported to different locations, not subjected to temperature extremes or weather. A hothouse flower in that application. Not conclusive. If you're going to operate it upside-down, the Sovtek kicks its ass. Live with it. the only companies making good new production are the "winged C" labeled Svetlanas Those aren't Svetlanas, they're SEDs. (Heard from Mike's lawyers lately? Just checkin'...) And let's talk about those for a moment...got a rather serious rattle problem in the EL34s of late; the KT-88s are known to have bias-drift issues, and the 12AX7 is *beyond* pitiful...it's a turd under glass. Nice 6L6s, though...I only lose around 8% of 'em during burn-in and QC. I'm kind of ambivalent on the 6550-Cs...the Sovtek 6550WE is a better choice for the Ampeg SVT. I have a set of those in Tod Smallie's 1973 LV-rebuilt/tweaked SVT that is entering its third year of service...and those boys (the Derek Trucks Band) gig ~250 dates a year. and some of the JJ/Teslas Decent EL34, fair 6L6 (I don't care for it, but I have a few customers who do, and it's reasonably reliable, nothing to write home about...) and the rather mundane-sounding ECC83-S, although that one's quite useful in the overbright and fizzy-sounding DSL/TSL-series Marshalls due to its high-end rolloff characteristics. and some Ei gold, I see...so, that gold plating on the pins does something magical for you, eh, cowpie? Or is it the fancy box? The "Elite Gold" series Eis are the *exact* same tubes as the non-gold-plated ones, with gold-plated pins and a "tighter" factory selection process. It's my experience (which is considerable, since I have screened *many* thousands of Ei 12AX7s) that the "Elite Gold" series 12AX7s will have a reject rate of around 75%, as opposed to around 85% for the garden variety unplated ones. Even so, the ones that pass screening will still be more microphonic than nearly anything else you can find, and will not function in high-gain guitar amps. In short, this tube (with the exception of the miniscule quantity which can pass my QC) is a piece of **** for guitar amp use. The ones that pass sound *fabulous* in Vox AC30/AC15 front ends, but anyone who carries them has a lifetime supply of phase inverters and tremelo oscillators by the time he's finished screening the third batch. Trust me on this one. as far as my ears can determine. No comment. great NOS brands are Mullard, Telefunken, Valvo, Philips Miniwatt, RCA, old Sylvania and Tung-Sol to name most of them. I have some of all of those in my inventory, as well as stuff from Brimar, Visseaux, Raytheon, Cetron, etc. (Looks like you forgot a few, cowpie. Careful.) You would be amazed at the sound and longetivity of any of those brands in an EL84 -- remember, if an NOS tube costs 4 times the price, but lasts 4 times as long, then it is great sound for the same long term cost and the crap tube. Some last, some don't. Some sound good, some don't. Some are worth the money, some aren't. And here's the main weanie in this roast, cowpie...there is a finite and rapidly-shrinking supply that demands ever-increasing amounts of money from the purchasers, and is subject to ever-DECREASING quality standards as the supply dwindles. Most of what's out there now is what I refer to as "the best of the rest." I've seen people pay maximum money for tubes I wouldn't even keep in my pulls bins...pure dumpster bait, and most of it is on ebay. The *only* time I invest in NOS is when I can buy them in sealed case-packs, guranteed *not* to have been picked over by fourteen previous dealers before some poor ebay schmuck dumps the better part of his paycheck for a leftover bottled turd. Like, for instance, the 500 pieces of absolutely pristine NOS Mullard CV-4024/12AT7WA in unopened Brit military packs I have on hand right now. Lord Valve can explain how to bias an amp with competency, but asking him what tubes to buy is like asking a Ford saleman which brand of car to buy. I am absolutely non brand loyal. I don't give a **** which country they came from, which factory they were made in, what language the box is printed in, or even what they look like. If they meet my 3 criteria (above) then I carry 'em. My current inventory is over 20,000 pieces, including many rare NOS types. *None* of them came from ebay, I might add...I'm connected *way* better than *that*. Try to find objective information sources and disregard the hucksters that are pumping what they sell. Let's be careful about making libelous statements, cowpie...didn't you read that letter from Mike's lawyers? I excel at picking specific tube sets for specific guitar amplifiers. Don't take my word for it, though...listen for yourself. Just turn your radio on, Sparky - there'll be one along in a minute. See my sig for details. Better luck next time, asshole. Lord Valve Tone Chaperone VISIT MY WEBSITE: http://www.nebsnow.com/LordValve I specialize in top quality HAND SELECTED NOS and current-production vacuum tubes for guitar and bass amps. Good prices, fast service. QSC amps, RNC compressors, lots of other good stuff! Partial Client List: * Derek Trucks/Allman Brothers Band * * Meatloaf * Catherine Wheel * Yo La Tengo * Let's Go Bowling * * John Hall * Tyrin Benoit * Eugene Fodor * Dale Bruning * * Komet Amplification * Dr. Z * Maven Peal * Blockhead Amps * * Jim Kelley * Balls Amplification * Roccaforte Amplifiers * * Gerhart Amplification * The Right Half of AGA * Lots More * NBS Electronics, 230 South Broadway, Denver, CO 80209-1510 Phone orders/tech support after 1:30 PM Denver time at 303-778-1156 - Our 23rd Year - VISA - MASTERCARD - PAYPAL "It ain't braggin', if ya can do it." - Dizzy Dean |
#2
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Hi RATs!
Electric guitar players drag their amps from bar to bar until, and IF, they get lucky and then their roadies drag them from concert to concert. Or the tour management co. arranges for a local (e.g. North America) sound system, whatever .... They play way loud, either way Been the American scene for half a century. I have passed my Fender Super Twin Reverb (blackface) on to another generation. And the Gretsch. My tubes sit in piles until I carefully take them out and build an amp circuit for them. For listening to recordings. None are for sale, until I am dead, OK? If I want to move my amp, I will have to take it apart, move the parts, and build it again. Probably a little better. I have moved it, once. I used to have the big north bedroom, now, I have the small south bedroom - better acoustics and way more sunshine, Superman! Anyway, I am also diagonally across the four corners from LV, but, in no way hostile. We live on different planets in different ages. This NG is about tubes. Some people think that includes eBay. What a bunch of ****heads. We don't care about commerce, just music. Please start your own eBay whiners NG. We just don't give a ****, OK? Character assassins are beyond hope or reason. Alcohol and other substances may pose as a muse, but, the **** you sling ain't poetry, friends Tubes rule! Happy Ears! Al Alan J. Marcy Phoenix, AZ PWC/mystic/Earhead |
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