Works on mandolin too.
Hehee, that’s how I’ll explain my lazy tuning on 12 string and mandolin, now.
I got a Moog Matriarch and am trying to assemble something like a space rock band for my next endeavor. I don’t have anything guitar related to report other than I have a perverted hankering for a 4/6 double neck. Most of them are ridiculously expensive, but Eastwood makes one that you can pick up for totally reasonable prices.
I know it’s impractical as hell. I still have these…urges.
It’s going to get harder to keep Tube Amps operating.
The best and most reliable tubes are Sovtek (sof-tech). They’re OEM in many new tube amps. Yes, they’re Russian and prices for current stock immediately sky rocketed.
JJ tubes are made in Slovakia. It borders Poland and Ukraine.
Tbere are other brands. I’ve heard some are rebranded Sovtek tubes.
The US quit manufacturing tubes 3 decades ago. There manufacture requires nasty chemicals and heavy metals. A plant wouldn’t be allowed in the US today.
Sovtek makes other components. Electrolytic
Capacitors for example. Finding reliable substitutes will take time.
Lots of things require heavy metals and weird chemicals and are manufactured in a lot of places, including the US. Tubes were ultimately cheapest to manufacture in Russia and Slovakia. If the price for tubes goes up, they’ll get manufactured someplace more convenient in fairly short order.
I hope prices stabilize. I remember in the 1990’s tubes were hard to find. New, Old stock RCA’s and Mullard were prized.
Tube gear got popular again and East Europe started making amplifier tubes.They’re pretty good but not as reliable as old stock Mullard or RCA.
I finally own a real Strat!
After deciding against an Am Pro II Dark Night one that I was lusting after (mostly due to having to sell my Les Paul to cover it, plus the rise in price on them from $1299-1399 to $1699-1799 that happened not too long ago), I bought a Midnight Blue 2000 MIM Strat that had been refurbished…setup, frets dressed, new pickguard, new Tex Mex pickups, new switch, pots and wiring…man. $750 on Reverb.
I just put it together and put some tension in the strings and am letting it settle for awhile before tuning it up and giving it a go. Yay? Nay?
Very nice, love the color a lot, I’m partial to blue. I’ve got a MIM Lake Placid that I really dig. Mine is a maple fretboard; I’ve never liked the growl I get from a rosewood strat, it’s not pleasing to me.
Western Electric makes tubes in Rossville, Georgia. Currently only one type, aimed at the hi-fi market, but they’ve wasted no time putting up a survey page asking people what other tubes they should make.
This is a good opportunity to produce tubes for Fender amps. They’re branded Fender, but made by contract. I think Sovtek but it’s hard to confirm.
Thanks! Was needing to have an alternative to JJ, and that seems to fit the bill if they expand their line.
Let’s be clear about one thing though. Those 300b tubes they make, they’re $700 a piece. They are not a bargain manufacturer.
For the best deal though, consider buying their stereo pair of monoblock amplifiers. The tubes are included for free at the bargain price of $125,000 for two 80w amps.
Hehehe, but they provided me an option to say whether I emphasized quality or price!
Really, though. Anyone wanting to expand their tube making business must be somewhat interested in volume. Plus, there’s pretty much no 300B that I’d consider cheap (JJs are $200 today, $125 or so awhile back). If their quality is anywhere near the NOS tubes of yesterday, that’s kind of a bargain.
I mean, I’ve been happy to buy cheap Russian/Chinese tubes for some time because it’s not expensive to swap them out for another set if you don’t like them or they die early deaths because they were made after lunch on a Friday. When I’ve splurged and purchased a NOS or high-dollar tube, I haven’t been disappointed even if I knew that I could have saved money.
I picked both quality and price. I guess in terms of the iron triangle, that means I have to give up speed. I need to make my current tubes last. I think I have some extra 12AX7s in a box somewhere, but that means I have to go in the attic.
I was honest, I picked all three. But if it takes a long time for my tubes to be delivered, I’m still all set (see below).
I was seeing it mentioned on 60 Cycle Hum’s YT channel that we could enter an age where the tubes are more valuable than the amp that holds them. I don’t think that’s actually true (after all, less tube amps means less tube demand). But if it becomes true, my habit for inexpensive amps has had me fluctuating in and out of that state for a long time, and kind of have an embarrassment of riches.
I’m more likely to give something away than sell it, and I don’t give away too much stuff. I still have the first and second tube amps I bought ages ago, and quite a few that I simply haven’t given up. A lot of their tubes have been worth more than the amps almost since the day I bought them. My Silvertone 1484 got more valuable in the intervening decades. Before this kerfuffle started, it had actually eclipsed the value of the Silvertone branded RCA black plate 6L6s that I got it with. Today, maybe not.
And again, because preamp tubes were cheap, and we could get them. I’d just go “ehh, that could sound better” to one of my amps and buy a set on an impulse and mix+match for awhile. I’ve got a shelf of mostly preamp tubes, and there’s some power tubes that overflow to the next shelf. I’m probably set until the market reaches some sort of balance, even if I don’t have the particular set I’d prefer on hand.
A good Amp Tech can set the bias on the output tubes. Lower the bias and it extends the output tubes life. There’s no difference in how the amp plays.
Voltages used to be around 110v in the 1960’s. 120v is the new standard. It makes a significant difference in a old vintage tube amp.
A popular mod is to change from fixed bias to variable. The amp tech installs shunt resistors and a rheostat. Bias is adjusted by checking the voltage across the shunt. Quick ohms law calculation and the amperage is calculated.
Fixed bias requires changing a resistor. It’s easier to turn a rheostat.
I would argue that there’s a floor to the bias where you get poor sound if you turn it down any lower. My heavily modded Blues Jr. sounded super weak if I backed off the stock bias more than what the mod created recommended.
https://www.planetofsoundonline.com/pages/how-to-tube-amp-biasing
Without getting into too much detail, changing the bias controls the amount of current that flows through the vacuum tubes of your amplifier, with each having an optimum setting. If the bias is set too low (often referred to as running cold) the amp can sound thinner and less dynamic, and generally won’t be performing at its best. If set too high (often referred to as running hot) it can sound harsher, less accurate, and can greatly reduce the lifespan of the tube.
That’s correct. There’s a sweet spot for bias that gives good performance and longer tube life.
A experienced amp tech knows the values for different brands of amps.
Hi guys. Looking for some advice on lubricating the tuners on an old Yamaha F150. (See second picture down for what they look like.)
This guitar is pretty much beat to hell, needs a neck reset (yeah, right), but I find it useful for playing slide. However, a pair of pliers is required to get it in tune.
I’m seeing some conflicting advice on the net… what would you use to lube up the tuners?
I cleaned and lubed tuners on a really old guitar. Followed Dan Erlewine directions. He wrote the early repair and setup books in the 1980’s and had a column in guitar magazine.
The lube in old tuners hardens after a few decades. It has to be flushed out with lighter fluid (naptha) and reoiled with Tri-Flow.
I might have asked this before, but I am finally getting to the point where I am practicing every day , after years of just wanting to play, never sticking with it for more than a month or two. I have a brother in NYC (I am in Virginia) who is pretty good, and I would love to play with him in real time. This obviously doesn’t work on a Zoom call. How can it work? What equipmemt would be needed? We both have good internet, 150 mbps, but not super duper speeds.