The EL34s I got from Radio Shack in the late 70s (maybe early 80s) were rebranded Telefunken.
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I have only one « Realistic Lifetime Warranty » tube, a 12AT7 or 12AU7, and it is of good quality and strong. Maybe Japanese but it doesn’t bother me.
Interesting anecdote about those tubes: in another forum I frequent, hifi tube oriented, there was a story of one folk asking for a new tube at Radio Shack. He was claiming his warranty and they gave him a Sovtek one. It was, I think, around first years of 2000’s (not sure about it but it was definitely after 2000)…
Good to see manufacturing coming back to North America. I believe it's important to maintain a level of self-sufficiency.
Hoping they won’t charge a premium like for their 300B’s offering… In their blog, they say it won’t be so pricey but let’s see…
So the question beside price is how long would it take to get product to market. I would think they could focus initially on 12ax7, at7, au7, 6V6GT, 6L6GC, 6550’s. I think that would cover a vast majority of US type amps? 6550 only because of the huge amount of SVT’s out there as well as others that use them (Marshall JCM800 comes to mind, although mine has EL34’s)
Price is obviously a huge concern because of inflation, rising material costs, supply chain issues. But, if I had the money, I’d totally invest in it. Tubes with the quality of an RCA that is fresh with a warranty? Matched quad and sextets readily available? It would be a dream come true if costs can be reasonable...as in understandably more than a Sovtek or TungSol RI, but not outrageous like a sextet of matched GE 6550’s.
Price is obviously a huge concern because of inflation, rising material costs, supply chain issues. But, if I had the money, I’d totally invest in it. Tubes with the quality of an RCA that is fresh with a warranty? Matched quad and sextets readily available? It would be a dream come true if costs can be reasonable...as in understandably more than a Sovtek or TungSol RI, but not outrageous like a sextet of matched GE 6550’s.
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Just everyone spread the word to have as many TB members fill out the form on Western Electric’s site the more replies they get the more likely
they are to consider production.
they are to consider production.
At the risk of getting too political for TB... You sure about that?
To start with, US manufacturing is at or near to record high levels. You wouldn't know that based on the breathless rhetoric of politicians and media alike, but that's just a fact. What's happening is that US manufacturing is highly automated, thus we have few US working in manufacturing, and we ignore how much stuff the US actually makes.
Even with disruptions, international trade is cheaper and more efficient than trying to do everything domestically. That's why we trade... and why Americans have ignored advertisements and pleas to "Buy USA!" since the 1970s.
How much extra are you willing to pay in the name of "self-sufficiency?" Those US-made tubes (assuming they ever get made -- promises are a lot easier to make than to keep) could cost 3, 4, 5 or more times than ones made abroad. Result? The vast majority of people buy the cheaper stuff.
Anyway.... The US is big, but many nations simply can't be self-sufficient. Belize has a population of around 410,000 people; should it have its own factories to make cars, computer chips, and socks? Do you expect the same of Tulsa, Oklahoma, which is around the same size?
The US exports around $2.5 trillion in a typical year; that's a lot of jobs. Are you OK with US exports getting cut, say, in half? That is, of course, entailed by the idea that "nations should be more self-sufficient." Right?
The answer isn't to pretend the US can somehow be less connected to the world. That ship has sailed. The better response is to do what we can to make supply chains more robust, and nations more stable.
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Yes, I'm sure they will make tubes at a loss, because... people check a box on an online form... that costs nothing to fill out?
Some level of national self-sufficiency in essential goods might not be a bad thing, but what are EL34s and 12AX7s used for outside guitar, bass and hi-fi amps? I know Jefferson Starship discussed the building of cities on rock and roll, but are nations built on in, and can rock and roll only be produced with tubes? I mean, we're not talking about an insufficiency of op amps for clipping circuits here.
I've had some NE5532s on order for close to a year now. I don't buy the story that supply problems are the result of covid. I'm sure if these chips were being made in the U.S. I would have received them a long time ago.
Sorry if this comes off like I’m ranting at you because I’m not, but why do people who don’t use tube amps think that the only purpose tubes serve is distortion? Nothing could be further from the truth. I am totally in love with the clean sound of tube amps, And you don’t get that sound with transistors or MOSFETs or op amps. They make good helpers, but they are no substitute for tubes whether you run clean or dirty.
I think the answer is in the question—they don’t own tube amps so they don’t know what all they do. Tube amps are generally more expensive than non-tube amps which I suspect translates into fewer people who can afford them, or who can afford them but would rather pay less money for more power. I’m just guessing but my sense is that the loudnesses of an amp is the primary concern for most young bassists who are looking to play with a band. That was my experience when I started, I couldn’t afford an SVT so it wasn’t an option for me and I didn’t know what I was missing.
I was trying to make a joke that people think tubes are for distortion but all-to-often (or often enough?) on records the rock guitar sounds are created largely from a pedal using some semi-mythical op amps not in production for 40 years
I’m down to just my 50w PF50t now. For the same basic reason, except it’s my heart. I could probably do one of the new V4b heads, But I think that’s a hard limit these days.
I have been tempted by the PF20t. It will do for home practice and might be amendable to running into a dummy load and then into something to act purely as a power amp for bigger requirements. It's tempting to see if it could work as a small personal monitor, then most stuff direct from it (I have a speaker-level DI box) to FOH. However, in reality I will probably end up sticking with what I have.
