Oh man! I better buy a bunch of tubes before it's too late!

A friend of mine has a nice studio just chock-full of big hard-rock and metal amps. He's probably got twenty different rigs in there, and thinking about what it'll cost him to retube them over the next 10 years is staggering. He's got an FX2 in the rack, and I'm tempted to wave my FX3 under his nose to see if he wants to test it to see how they sound now. There's been a lot of improvement between then and now.
 
I sold my last "Brand Name" amp last week and now all I have is my homebrews. If there was some way I could sell them I would. I had already put future builds on hold because the price of transformers has gone through the roof too.
I did buy tubes for a couple of those last Thursday and noticed most places are out of stock now. JJ may be the only source for a while.
 
I got a bunch of tubes, including N.O.S. ones, from constantly changing them it all the many tube amps I've owned, and now I'm down to one tube amp. How long should I hang on to them?
 
Tonedeaf said:
I got a bunch of tubes, including N.O.S. ones, from constantly changing them it all the many tube amps I've owned, and now I'm down to one tube amp. How long should I hang on to them?
Click to expand...
Nos tubes will always go up in value especially US and European made types. It would just be a matter of being able to test them. People might be willing to pay through the nose for them right now. And later.
 
I hope you are right about old tube amps becoming more valuable. I thought I would spend my old age soldering up lots of projects I had imagined -- and recently invested in. Then I discovered how good, enjoyable, and easily mutable, Fractal modeling is to work with. Call it buyers remorse, about almost everything else that isn't a FAS product. Very weird feelings that I have right now.
 
Postretro said:
I hope you are right about old tube amps becoming more valuable. I thought I would spend my old age soldering up lots of projects I had imagined -- and recently invested in. Then I discovered how good, enjoyable, and easily mutable, Fractal modeling is to work with. Call it buyers remorse, about almost everything else that isn't a FAS product. Very weird feelings that I have right now.
Click to expand...

How about both??
:)
 
@la noise , if I were younger and had more time, and more energy, especially for swinging 100w (even 50w (even 20w)) amp heads around, I would be happy doing both. Now, it really feels like Fractal Audio is the best use of my time and my disappearing mobility -- and money. I also play more, which is a big thing. The only, very mildly, frustrating thing are the specific mods that I can't do in the Fractal Universe -- 6sn7/12au7 driver tubes, conjunctive filters instead of parasitic PI caps, B+ dropping resistors, or even a preference for different caps. I might go back and re-build an amp for that reason. But, I kind of doubt even that. Right now, I'm studying amp block parameters with the same enthusiasm that I previously used to study amp schematics and boutique gut shots. I am actually surprised by how much more I have learned about amp modifications since getting the FM3. It is definitely great to be able to hear something before you build it. Not to mention, Fractal's constant improvements in sound and capability. FAS truly feels like a godsend to me in my old age. I so wish it had existed when I was younger.
 
shredmechanic said:
Currently $50 for a pair of JJ 6V6's and they seem backordered.
Click to expand...

Yeah, and be careful if you order some from a site that will let you got through the order process without telling you if they are in stock or not. Some will take your order and then send an email saying they are backordered. I'm sure you could delete your order, but it's just a PITA to me.
 
I’ve got a couple of shelves full of tubes, mostly NOS, picked up here and there over the years. As I don’t usually gig my tube amps anymore, so it’s probably a lifetime supply. Out of habit, I still add my fave tubes from SED, Siemens, RCA etc whenever I run into them at a reasonable cost. One day, my kids will open a museum… but these amps sound awesome now.
 
I still enjoy a real tube amp through a real cab. A year or so ago, I realized that I'd heard nothing about the Shuguang plant coming back online after the fire and imagined that they decided it wasn't cost effective to bother. That leaves JJ and EH for guitar tubes, as far as I knew (I think that is the fate of all these factories- if they can be patched up and kept working, its worth running them but if they need something major, its over. )

As I've watched prices go higher and higher, I decided to grab a few for my forever stash over the last year. I picked up a few 5881wxt a few weeks ago when the Ukraine situation started to go hot, thinking those are very durable tubes that I might be really glad to own at some point down the road.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom