Touching your tube is bad. Right?

[Mr. Foxen]

Originally Posted by spacebassed

He didn't say he couldn't tell the difference, he said that once the labels are gone they are basically worthless. They're a lot easier to identify with the labels still on them. Even if you had a bunch of Mullards a less knowledgeable person who has no idea how it identify different types of tubes would be far less likely to want them than if they were labeled as such.

I'm saying you can't tell the difference. They become worthless to people only interested in labels, not in actual function. Most British valves were made by the same places on the same tooling, to the same QC levels.

[Big Brother]

Originally Posted by Wagz

The glass used for tubes is really quite thick, has to hold a vacuum after all. They're a LOT thicker than a lightbulb. So, unless you've had oil from your fingers cause the glass envelope of a tube to crack, you're fine touching your tubes. If tubes were that delicate they never would've sold tube socks to dampen microphonic vibrations - after all that's a piece of highly insulative rubber right on the outside of the tube. And think about all the other applications for tubes, both now and back in the day, do you the soviet military was issuing rubber gloves to radio and radar techs?
The heaters will stop pushing electrons long before you can introduce any mechanical issues with oil, a tube sock, or anything else.

Best answer and analogy.

People use their fingers to screw in light bulbs that run much hotter and are made with much thinner glass. If a hand oil-inspired temperature differential was going to crack vacuum tube glass in theory, it would happen in light bulbs too.

I remember having fun as a kid washing cheap drinking glasses in hot water and watching them crack instantly when put into cold rinse water. But it's not quite the same thing.

[kurosawa]

Originally Posted by SolarMan

I had a bit of a debate with a guitar buddy.

I told him that after you change or touch a tube, you should wipe it clean with isopropyl alcohol.

He fiddles with his tubes constantly, and he says he has never had a problem. Changing them in and out and buying "vintage" tubes that sound the same to me.

The advice I was given in 1978 has stuck with me: "If you get oil from your skin on the tube, it can create a 'hot spot' that can affect performance or even destroy the tube"

Is this true?

Yeah, I think that was in a booklet with a white cover and a color pic of a tube amp on it that I have around here somewhere. I figured the chances of dropping the tube and having the guts go out of alignment or the envelope break were much greater than the potential of damaging it with a fingerprint, so I ignored the advice.

[seamonkey]

Orange tube tester, and the guy uses a duster
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4tuY...ature=youtu.be

It's not this board. It's pervasive throughout the world.

[SolarMan]

So my guitar buddy wins the argument.

I'm not too happy about this because he won the last argument too.

I told him my SX strat copy had a quarter-sawn neck and he laughed his ass off - Then I posted photos here on TB so you guys could tell me that I was correct and prove him wrong. That didn't work out too well either.

[Link to that short but very informative thread - "can you tell from just looKing if a neck is quartersawn?"

Can you tell just from looing if a maple neck is quartersawn?

My pictures are on post #22.

It is a great read - the best synopsys I've ever seen on what is and what isn't quartersawn - and the answer is NO! You Can't tell just by looking.]

So, since "things come in threes" - He's going to win the next one too!



(sorry for hijacking my thread - but I think this [tube touching] myth is BUSTED!)

Thanks again TB!

[jordak]

leave your isopropyl alcohol at home. Just handle the tube with a paper towel. If You accidentally touch it by hand just wipe it off with a clean paper towel.

[two fingers]

Originally Posted by dincz

I maintained low and high power tube equipment for decades and touching them was never considered to be (nor ever turned out to be) a problem.

"Touching your tube is bad" sounds more like Victorian morality.

As far as I'm concerned, I can touch mine all I want as long as I don't touch yours.

[AltGrendel]

Originally Posted by fdeck

The rule applies to halogen light bulbs. They operate at a much higher temperature than tubes.

This.

[SolarMan]

Still...I wonder ~

How many of you cleaned off your tubes with isopropyl, or will handle your tubes differently in the future after reading this?

"Just in case"

[BassmanPaul]

i'll carry on doing as i've always done for more than fifty years. The only time I am concerned about touching a tube is when it is hot.

[i_got_a_mohawk]

Not going to change the way I've handled tubes either, +1 with only being concerned about touching it when it's hot.

[dincz]

Originally Posted by two fingers

As far as I'm concerned, I can touch mine all I want as long as I don't touch yours.

Yeah, I have exclusive rights

[makohund]

Originally Posted by dincz

Yeah, I have exclusive rights

One can get by that way, but I find the rewards greater when extending those rights in a shared partnership.

[Leonarfd]

Have used tube amps for headphones for many years and ive touched and swapped them according to what type of headphone I have been keen at. Never have I had problems by touching them and not cleaning, but while they are warm you do not want to touch. Bat that is because of your fingers not the glass.

But ofc they wil die out after a while but it has nothing to do with the touching, just its lifetime.

[two fingers]

Originally Posted by makohund

One can get by that way, but I find the rewards greater when extending those rights in a shared partnership.

Agreed. I stand corrected.

[Passinwind]

Originally Posted by BassmanPaul

I'll carry on doing as I've always done for more than fifty years. The only time I am concerned about touching a tube is when it is hot.

+ 1 a zillion.

[TheFantod]

I don't know about when they're off, but DEFINITELY don't touch them when they are on.....

I started playing bass in 1987 in my HS Jazz Band. We had an old Fender Tube Head. I was bored one morning and looking at the back of the tubes, and how they were glowing. I thought to myself, "I wonder if these things get hot?" I reached out my hand and found out.......

Lesson learned, the hard way!

[B-string]

Touching your tube in public could get you arrested!

There was a brand or two (Ruby Blue?) that tried crystal glass (lead in the glass mix) that this would make a difference to, like halogen light bulbs. 99.9% of the tubes you will run into won't care if you get "personal" with them.

[worxforme]

Originally Posted by B-string

99.9% of the tubes you will run into won't care if you get "personal" with them.

^That's right.

It's halogen bulbs that you don't want to touch, tubes you can touch all you want, just be careful when they are hot the tube will be ok but your fingers, not so much.