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Lord Valve
 
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Default 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


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TubeGarden
 
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Default

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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