Vacuum tubes are making a comeback.

[Bunk McNulty]

I lugged a MusicMan H150 (4 6L6s) head around for years. Solid state pre. One day, probably 2008?, a friend made me play through a Genz Benz 6.0 Shuttle. I bought it on the spot. My back thanked me.

 

[Dynacord]

You havent seen a tube bass amp on stage in 20+ years? You must not get out much. Or only going to a very narrow range of shows. I saw two this week and I know I don’t get out much.

Class D is certainly dominating the market, but even there many manufacturers and designers - some of whom have commented here - are using tube preamp/hybrid designs. I don’t see a big tube manufacturing comeback, but as long as they’re being manufactured somewhere the demand on the amp side will still exist in the market at some level, however niche it may be.

I was going to say...

I've worked as a stage manager (Monterey Jazz Fest) as well as event production and SVTs remain a regular request/standard backline. Aguilar tube heads are a common request as well. And, of course, a wide range of Fender tube guitar amps

 

[Grinderman]

I don't see a comeback.

Unless it was hired in for a festival, I've not seen a tube bass amp on a gig this century. There are still a few SS amps out there, doing good service, but D class is ruling the market.

Alleged comebacks or not, to this day, I find bands that I listen to and see play live that don't use tube amps exclusively are still exceptionally rare and I haven't gone to music festivals in about 10 years.

Ampeg SVTs still dominate live.

 

[Grinderman]

Look at em all.

Count em... 6 SVTs and 8 Sunn Model Ts

 

[MarshallAC50Stack]

I’ll just add to agedhorse’s absolutely spot-on accurate post here that tube manufacturing is one of the most toxic, nasty, environmentally destructive processes in the world.

I think the last American tube plants closed in the late 80s. Certainly no later than the early 1990s.

The environmental issues have become a deal breaker for me and tubes.

 

[Bass4ThePublic]

I do see quite a bit of tube amps here in the ks gigging scene. However, most of them are old sunn’s, ampegs, and fender showmans. The used market with these old super heavy amps makes it so you can actually get quite a nice sound at a giggable volume for not a whole lot of money. Class D still dominates though, I see way more aguilars than svts and sunns.

 

[ardgedee]

Look at em all.

Count em... 6 SVTs and 8 Sunn Model Ts
View attachment 5025953

Is that Sunn O)))'s setup? They're kind of an exception, what with their name and all...

 

[yodedude2]

Jack White found an old vinyl record plant and brought it back online with success.

Maybe someone can do the same with some mothballed tube plant out there?

and a rotary landline telephone plant!

 

[ardgedee]

And mechanical gas pumps where the prices max out at 99.9 cents per gallon!

 

[Nev375]

Cool post, but April fools was over a week ago, man.

 

[mdlewis]

I don’t see this happening. I love the sound and the appearance of tubes. I have two fully tubed amps, and two hybrids. But the last time I was in a music store that carried power tubes I saw matched sets of 6550s going for about $250 a pair. For the price of an SVT retube, one could buy a nice class D amp.

It kinda reminds of classic car enthusiasts. These cars continue to exist, but they’re trotted out to display as means of expression of their owners, or for their place in history, and sometimes very rarely for their original performance, most of which has been surpassed by far more economical and efficient tech that get’s the job done but doesn’t seem to tug at our heartstrings in the same way as the vintage ones do.

 

[bobyoung53]

Even in home/mobile audio, tubed equipment is very rare. They tend to get more attention because of hype and current manufacturers' deliberately making them eye-catching, but I'd estimate there's maybe only one piece of tubed audio equipment built for every hundred thousand solid state items, since personal computers and mobile phones also serve as full-fledged personal audio systems. And, really, these days your average cellphone has much better audio specs than most of the best systems available 60 years ago, what I've seen called the golden age of the tube stereo.

McIntosh is now making a lot of their old classic all tube amps and preamps due to demand after not making them for a few decades because tubes were 'dead'.

Take your pick, not cheap though. Mc1502 and 2152 are 150 Watts/channel, the bottom one is a 350 watt mono amp, you need two. (used at Woodstock) R bottom is a 300 watt mono


McIntosh Mono, Stereo & Multi-Channel Amplifiers for Home Audio & Home Theater

 

[JC BASS 91]

Speaking of tube testers, I found this glorious little item stashed amongst my grandfathers 'junk' after he passed. I snatched it, as I figured I was the only member of the family that had any clue what it was for, let alone would actually use it down the road. It still works!

 

[dbase]

First, Hammond didn’t make their own tubes, neither did ANY amp or musical instrument manufacturer.

Second, you are grossly underestimating the fixed cost of manufacturing vacuum tubes. To set up a new production line for a tube family like the 12A_7 with materials handling, tooling, glass works OC test lab, production machinery, building and permits would run probably around $10M. This has to be amortized over the life of the production. MI demand for these tubes is simply not high enough to justify that kind of investment. This is in addition to the cost of materials, overhead and labor for manufacturing the tubes.

Older style tubes are an even worse business model, the demand is hundreds of times too low to justify manufacturing.

Ok... I'm not an electrical engineer. Now that thats out of the way... Question: I know what a transformer does but why does a tube amp need those heavy transformers to put out 300 watts when a class D can put out 800 watts without a power transformer. Is it the high voltages required for the tubes? Can that be accomplished using class D logic? Please be gentle with me in your response

 

[Grinderman]

I do see quite a bit of tube amps here in the ks gigging scene. However, most of them are old sunn’s, ampegs, and fender showmans. The used market with these old super heavy amps makes it so you can actually get quite a nice sound at a giggable volume for not a whole lot of money. Class D still dominates though, I see way more aguilars than svts and sunns.

Everyone I know of is recording and touring with old heavy tube amps. The only exceptions I see in that regard--old/made 30+ years ago--are newer Ampeg SVT VRs and CLs. From what I've seen there are other solid state bass amps on stages more commonly, GK 800RBs for example.

I've yet to see an Aguilar on a stage. Haven't seen one yet.

//Not taking sides, just telling what I see.

 

[Gianni "Orlandez" Orlati]

I’m sitting here wondering, did any of the respondents read the entire original post?

(Of course, they did, I’m being facetious to make a point….)

I read the OP a few times and I still made a *** thought at the end of nearly every sentence. 1955 car radios? Drug store tube testing (how could you have left out Radio Shack and the local electronics stores)? Musical amplifier makers making their own tubes??? And those makers building gear to “force” tube manufacturing back into existence? What is this, Field Of Dreams?

AM radio??? There’s hardly anyone using terrestrial radio of any kind these days.
And the best one yet….

“One day hopefully soon, There will be Vacuum tube vending machines at music stores, hardware stores, gas stations, liquor stores? “.

Oh, yeah, Sparky’s Wine and Spirits was the first place I thought of when I re-tubed my SVT several years ago!…..

Okay…I officially have no words….well, almost….

“Hey, the 20th century called, they want 1955 back”….

Okay, now I’m done….

Yeah I was also under the impression of listening to a man of the fifties trying to imagine the future seeing it under the technology available during that period .. incredible post !

 

[Gianni "Orlandez" Orlati]

Everyone I know of is recording and touring with old heavy tube amps. The only exceptions I see in that regard--old/made 30+ years ago--are newer Ampeg SVT VRs and CLs. From what I've seen solid state bass amps on stages were more common, GK 800RBs for example.

I've yet to see an Aguilar on a stage. Haven't seen one yet.

//Not taking sides, just telling what I see.

Well, er, just yesterday I gladly watched a video of the John Mayer trio in which the super-solid Pino Palladino seemed to play through an Ampeg SVT (CL?) .. show dated March 9th, 2023

 

[Dynacord]

Everyone I know of is recording and touring with old heavy tube amps. The only exceptions I see in that regard--old/made 30+ years ago--are newer Ampeg SVT VRs and CLs. From what I've seen solid state bass amps on stages were more common, GK 800RBs for example.

I've yet to see an Aguilar on a stage. Haven't seen one yet.

//Not taking sides, just telling what I see.

Part of it may be genre. Aguliars, like Foderas, are super popular in the jazz world. I see them a lot at MJF and they are frequently requested. That said, it was the tube DB 750s that get all the use. We've had a Tonehammer as backline as well and I don't recall it ever being used.

Also true that the GK 800RB has yet to go out of style. They still get used a surprising amount.

 

[J Wilson]

I'd suggest that for Sir Paul, or anyone with deep enough pockets for a living room full of MacIntosh gear, whatever tubes cost is of utterly no concern, and his roadies and the Mac parts department have no shortages at those prices.

And it may be troubling to some that a lot of tubes are Russian production, or constrained because of it due to the various governmental moves during the Ukrainian conflict. I'd once read the Russians stuck to tube electronics in weapons platforms that may face EMP effects as they felt tubes weren't near as succeptible to failue in those events. Who knows?

 

[Grinderman]

Part of it may be genre. Aguliars, like Foderas, are super popular in the jazz world. I see them a lot at MJF and they are frequently requested. That said, it was the tube DB 750s that get all the use. We've had a Tonehammer as backline as well and I don't recall it ever being used.

Also true that the GK 800RB has yet to go out of style. They still get used a surprising amount.

That makes sense. The bassist in the one jazz group I've seen live since COVID happened, a group called Bent Arcana, had a solid-state head--I don't recall what brand, it appeared to be old and not common--on an SVT 8x10 cab.

Correction: GK 800RB