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Post by Die Bullen on Jan 14, 2021 14:47:37 GMT
A thread for the real tube/ valve nerds- post pix if you have them.
If not, how do you test your tubes?
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Post by johnreardon on Jan 14, 2021 14:59:30 GMT
A thread for the real tube/ valve nerds- post pix if you have them. If not, how do you test your tubes? I have a man who does that.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 14, 2021 17:49:23 GMT
We don't even have an electronics service shop in town anymore. I assume there's somebody doing service if you drive 30 or 40 miles north or south to Nanaimo or Victoria, but I'd need to have a fairly serious issue to want to do that. periodically I see used tube-testers for sale on craigslist and Used, but ironically, most of the,m are old Heathkits that are full of tube circuitry....So, I wonder, how accurate are the testers once their tubes become weak or start to fail? When I owned my car stereo stop, I had a scope, a transistor tester, and a tube tester, but I found very little use for the gear and let it go. These days, if I thought I had a tube issue, I'd either go to Long & McQuade and buy one of the cheap and nasty new tubes they sell, like Groove Tubes, or I'd ordr something decent from The Tube Store. I'm thinking of buying a pair of T.A.D. short bottle 6L6WGC's to match the pair I'm running in my Twin Reverb with the idea that I may list it for sale.
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Post by Sinster on Jan 14, 2021 19:16:23 GMT
I have one, but I read somewhere that a lot of these "tube" testers aren't very good for the tubes.
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Post by Die Bullen on Jan 14, 2021 19:27:12 GMT
I have an old military Triplett 177-B conductance tester that was given to me years ago and a very basic Heathkit that I picked up from someone on Craigslist for like $25. The Triplett is good for determining tube life, whereas the Heathkit is more of a binary works/ doesn't work reading. I have to take some pix of them...
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Post by zontar on Jan 14, 2021 19:31:47 GMT
I have never tested a tube
I was going to one time, but discovered the tube came loose
I put it back in & no issues
But then I don’t gig & also use solid state & hybrid amps
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Post by Sgt Rock on Jan 14, 2021 20:17:40 GMT
I remember seeing those testing machines in stores "back in the day". but as John said, I've got a guy(amp tech) that I take my amps to. electronics always eluded me.
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Post by Die Bullen on Jan 14, 2021 21:31:09 GMT
Here's my Heathkit. Cool unit, very basic but easy to use. I have to find the Triplett- my wife tends to hide things like this...  |
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Post by Die Bullen on Jan 14, 2021 21:33:51 GMT
I remember seeing those testing machines in stores "back in the day". but as John said, I've got a guy(amp tech) that I take my amps to. electronics always eluded me. Yeah, remember those days? There was place near me called green brook electronics and they had one of those machines in their stores until a few years ago. The thing was the size of a pinball machine from what I remember |
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Post by Sgt Rock on Jan 14, 2021 23:44:09 GMT
I remember seeing those testing machines in stores "back in the day". but as John said, I've got a guy(amp tech) that I take my amps to. electronics always eluded me. Yeah, remember those days? There was place near me called green brook electronics and they had one of those machines in their stores until a few years ago. The thing was the size of a pinball machine from what I remember yep, it was about that size and had it's own corner/spot in the store. in Baton Rouge, they were in Pak-A-Sac stores. they were something similar to Circle K stores. people tested all sorts tubes. especially tubes for television sets from the 50s/60s.
edit: if I remember right, you could also buy the tube/valve that you needed. they were stored in a cabinet section underneath the tester.
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Post by Die Bullen on Jan 15, 2021 1:47:34 GMT
Yeah, remember those days? There was place near me called green brook electronics and they had one of those machines in their stores until a few years ago. The thing was the size of a pinball machine from what I remember yep, it was about that size and had it's own corner/spot in the store. in Baton Rouge, they were in Pak-A-Sac stores. they were something similar to Circle K stores. people tested all sorts tubes. especially tubes for television sets from the 50s/60s.
edit: if I remember right, you could also buy the tube/valve that you needed. they were stored in a cabinet section underneath the tester.
 yep, those are the ones with the drawers underneath- not many of them In stores anymore |
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Post by infant on Jan 15, 2021 2:49:36 GMT
I remember seeing tube testers at Radio Shack stores years ago and you could buy Realistic branded tubes. I also recall seeing a tube tester at the corner store near home when I was a teenager. Like someone said, they used to be everywhere in the 50s and 60s due to the use of tubes in radios and TVs. The thing with these tube testers, and this was told to me by my old amp tech, is that they don’t push enough voltage through the tubes to actually test them. He said the best way to check them is fired up in the amp at the proper voltage. The last time I had my amp in for service, I thought I’d need some power tubes but the guy found one weak preamp tube once he got it on the bench.
Ken mentioned The Tube Store above. I’m lucky in that they are located in Hamilton and I have gone in and spoken to them about tubes for my old Fender Blues Deluxe with non- adjustable bias. They were helpful in helping me get a set of tubes that worked well with my amp without having to get a tech to add a bias pot. Great place with good info....a bit pricey though.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 15, 2021 3:07:06 GMT
When I bought my vintage Twin Reverb, I spent a lot of time on the Vintage Amp forum, and the guy in Newfoundland that I'd bought the amp from spent lots of time there too. He helped me through the process of diagnosing some tube issues.....Basically, with a dual channel Fender amp, you can remove everything except the preamp tube from the channel you're testing (either V1 or V2) and the phase inverter tube, and through substitutions, check all the other 12A-- preamp tubes. Some of them may not be optimal, but they'll work well enough to let you test the other preamp channel tube, the reverb send tube, the reverb recovery/second gain stage tube, and the vibrato tube, so you can at least figure out what works and what doesn't. It isn't a fool-proof system because it only works with the 12 series preamp tubes but wouldn't for 5Y3 in a Champ, or 6V6 or 6L6 power tubes, but it's a start. Plaus, in a Fender amp with four power tubes, you can do substitutions removing either the inside pair or outside pair of tubes and using the ones you pulled as subs for a suspect tube that's still in the amp.
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Post by Die Bullen on Jan 15, 2021 12:48:14 GMT
I remember seeing tube testers at Radio Shack stores years ago and you could buy Realistic branded tubes. I also recall seeing a tube tester at the corner store near home when I was a teenager. Like someone said, they used to be everywhere in the 50s and 60s due to the use of tubes in radios and TVs. The thing with these tube testers, and this was told to me by my old amp tech, is that they don’t push enough voltage through the tubes to actually test them. He said the best way to check them is fired up in the amp at the proper voltage. The last time I had my amp in for service, I thought I’d need some power tubes but the guy found one weak preamp tube once he got it on the bench. Ken mentioned The Tube Store above. I’m lucky in that they are located in Hamilton and I have gone in and spoken to them about tubes for my old Fender Blues Deluxe with non- adjustable bias. They were helpful in helping me get a set of tubes that worked well with my amp without having to get a tech to add a bias pot. Great place with good info....a bit pricey though. Tube testers certainly aren't perfect, especially preamp tubes, which might test good and sound terrible (although they might still be good for something else...). And some testers are better than others. I've bought from the Tube Store too- it never really registered with me that they are in Hamilton. They were very helpful- you tell them what you want and your budget and they will have a solution. |
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Post by Die Bullen on Jan 15, 2021 12:48:46 GMT
Yeah, remember those days? There was place near me called green brook electronics and they had one of those machines in their stores until a few years ago. The thing was the size of a pinball machine from what I remember yep, it was about that size and had it's own corner/spot in the store. in Baton Rouge, they were in Pak-A-Sac stores. they were something similar to Circle K stores. people tested all sorts tubes. especially tubes for television sets from the 50s/60s.
edit: if I remember right, you could also buy the tube/valve that you needed. they were stored in a cabinet section underneath the tester.
 Here's one! |
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Post by Sgt Rock on Jan 15, 2021 15:45:21 GMT
yep, it was about that size and had it's own corner/spot in the store. in Baton Rouge, they were in Pak-A-Sac stores. they were something similar to Circle K stores. people tested all sorts tubes. especially tubes for television sets from the 50s/60s.
edit: if I remember right, you could also buy the tube/valve that you needed. they were stored in a cabinet section underneath the tester.
Here's one! yep ! that's it.  |
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Post by Die Bullen on Jan 15, 2021 15:56:19 GMT
Here's one! yep ! that's it. If I had one that was this big I think my wife would kill me |
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Post by Sgt Rock on Jan 15, 2021 16:00:02 GMT
yep ! that's it. If I had one that was this big I think my wife would kill me my house is too small. my wife and daughter have too much junk for anything else to fit in here.  |
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Post by Die Bullen on Jan 15, 2021 16:03:46 GMT
If I had one that was this big I think my wife would kill me my house is too small. my wife and daughter have too much junk for anything else to fit in here. I'm sure you could squeeze another guitar or amp in!  |
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Post by Sgt Rock on Jan 15, 2021 16:14:10 GMT
my house is too small. my wife and daughter have too much junk for anything else to fit in here. I'm sure you could squeeze another guitar or amp in! well, of course ! ha ha ha that's a completely different matter.  |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 15, 2021 20:37:25 GMT
One of the reasons I started running my vintage Twin Reverb with two output tubes is because I had one bad 6L6 tube that began blooming. I was afraid that if I persisted in running it, I'd damage the output transformer. The T.A.D/ short bottle 6L6's have the measurements marked on them, and I've been told that if I send The Tube Store the numbers that they will be able to sell me a tube that's a good match. However, the notations marked on the tube are difficult for me to read, particularly because I don't know what the numbers mean, so it's difficult for me to interpret. I'm wondering if I send them a clear, closeup picture whether they'd be able to figure out what I need. I really need to get a short-bottle T.A.D. tube, not only becaue I want a matched tube for my quad of outputs, but also because a standard 6L6 is too high. I'm afraid the heat will melt the bag that covers my reverb tank. I tried, momentarily a new NOS Sylavania 6L6 that I bought in the 70's and also a new inside pair of Groove Tube white 6L6's that I bought as spares for my Super Twin Reverb in 2004, and they worked fine, but I took them back out because I was concerned about heat dispersion. As you can see, things are pretty tight in there  |
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Post by Die Bullen on Jan 16, 2021 0:21:50 GMT
One of the reasons I started running my vintage Twin Reverb with two output tubes is because I had one bad 6L6 tube that began blooming. I was afraid that if I persisted in running it, I'd damage the output transformer. The T.A.D/ short bottle 6L6's have the measurements marked on them, and I've been told that if I send The Tube Store the numbers that they will be able to sell me a tube that's a good match. However, the notations marked on the tube are difficult for me to read, particularly because I don't know what the numbers mean, so it's difficult for me to interpret. I'm wondering if I send them a clear, closeup picture whether they'd be able to figure out what I need. I really need to get a short-bottle T.A.D. tube, not only becaue I want a matched tube for my quad of outputs, but also because a standard 6L6 is too high. I'm afraid the heat will melt the bag that covers my reverb tank. I tried, momentarily a new NOS Sylavania 6L6 that I bought in the 70's and also a new inside pair of Groove Tube white 6L6's that I bought as spares for my Super Twin Reverb in 2004, and they worked fine, but I took them back out because I was concerned about heat dispersion. As you can see, things are pretty tight in there Was the reverb tank bag always in the amp or something you did when you restored it? |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 16, 2021 0:57:17 GMT
Normally the reverb tank is screwed to the floor of a Twin Reverb combo and has a bag around it. Because I bought just the raw chassis of the Twin, I didn't get those pieces and had to buy them new.
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Post by Die Bullen on Jan 16, 2021 1:04:52 GMT
Normally the reverb tank is screwed to the floor of a Twin Reverb combo and has a bag around it. Because I bought just the raw chassis of the Twin, I didn't get those pieces and had to buy them new.
Ah, I thought they started bagging the reverb tanks later. Now I have to look in my v4 to see if they're is a bag |
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