What is the best place to buy tubes?

[Henry89789]

What is the best place to buy tubes for an amp?  And how should they be packed for shipping? It seems that a tube is very delicate and easily damaged in shipping.

[amptramp]

There are a number of stores listed in Google.  I don't know where you are but buying tubes in your own country improves the prospects of survival by ensuring they don't have to go through customs for inspection.  I get most tubes at either A-1 Electronics about 10 km away from me or the London Vintage Radio Club of London, Ontario, Canada so they do not go through shipping.  Tube cartons provide a small amount of protection which can be augmented by bubble-wrap or foam packaging materials.  If you order online, make sure they spell out how they package things.

[vigilante397]

Where are you located? In the states Antique Electronic Supply (www.tubesandmore.com) is my favorite for new tubes. Great prices, huge selection, and options like Apex matching, gold pins, etc. Obviously for vintage and NOS tubes eBay usually works for me.

[PRR]

And what are you buying? NOS treasures? Commodity amp tubes? Transmitter tubes? Russian hearing aid tubes?

What is the best place to buy food? Hannaford has good chicken. IGA has a better price. Shaw's now has tasty sandwiches ready-to-go. Scallop testacles only available at QuickyMart. Egg-roll wrappers we have to go the the back door of China DeLite.

[vigilante397]

Russian hearing aid tubes?

Wait, that's a thing???

[Ben Lyman]

Russian hearing aid tubes?

Wait, that's a thing???

Ya, that's a thing. I use it for pouring oil in my engine

[aron]

Well, Henry will never get the answer since he's banned. Oh well.

[Jdansti]

I didn't see his offending post, but I have a feeling as to what might have happened.

Since this post is dead, I'll reveal that I had typed up a post earlier in the day asking PRR where the best place to get moth balls is since he knows where to get scallop testacles, but I decided not to post it at the time.

[GGBB]

Russian hearing aid tubes?

Wait, that's a thing???

They are hard to find, but if you can, NOS American hearing aid tubes sound far better. 

[duck_arse]

I've got some hearing aid transistors, but I think they are australian. and not tubes.

[vigilante397]

Moderately off-topic (but still somewhat on) the guitarist in my current band handed me a box of about 200 tubes yesterday of various types, makes, and ages, and asked me to test them all (he would pay me for my time) and throw out the bad ones.

Among them were quite a few NOS Baldwin USA 12AX7's and a couple Baldwin 6BQ5's. Only one of each tested bad, the rest tested VERY good. so I told him I wouldn't charge him for my time if I could keep a handful of tubes. Haven't tried them in my amp yet (school started yesterday), but I grabbed the best of the Baldwin lot and a couple NOS British made 12AT7's (can't remember the brand)

[bluebunny]

"I tested those tubes. They were all bad. I threw them all out. Honest."  >

Sent from my E2303 using Tapatalk

[thermionix]

Well, Henry will never get the answer since he's banned. Oh well.

Well I got curious and clicked on his user info, I guess his ban-worthy post(s) got deleted, but I read some of his older ones and...wow...just wow.

Nathan, do you know the make(s) of the Baldwin tubes?  How many good 6BQ5s did you end up with?

[aron]

As soon as I see those posts, I ban the user and delete the posts. What I don't understand is how a "somewhat" normal poster starts posting spam like that.

[GGBB]

I get most tubes at either A-1 Electronics

I has no idea he had tubes. NOS? Used? Does he test the used ones? New? What brands?

[vigilante397]

Nathan, do you know the make(s) of the Baldwin tubes?  How many good 6BQ5s did you end up with?

They all say "Baldwin Pianos & Organs." Most are in a yellow print with "Made in U.S.A." stamped on them, but a handful are in blue print and stamped with "Made in Japan."

There were 4 6BQ5's, but only 3 ended up testing good. This meant not enough for a set for the owner's AC30, so he let me keep 2 to throw in my Lightning His exact words were "help yourself," but I tried not to get greedy, so I just kept the pair of 6BQ5's and 4 12AX7's.

[amptramp]

I get most tubes at either A-1 Electronics

I has no idea he had tubes. NOS? Used? Does he test the used ones? New? What brands?

He has a number of trays and boxes of tubes from defunct TV-repair shops, so a lot of the tubes will be television types, but I did manage to get a 6BQ5 in good condition from one of these trays.  Some are NOS, some are used.  Everything from the trays goes for $2.  He also sells new NOS tubes, but he charges what the market will bear for those.  Arm yourself with a tube manual since you will see things there that even I don't remember such as 10-pin miniature tubes like the 17C9 (a dual 6CY5 RF tetrode with a higher filament voltage) and others.  If you stick with popular amplifier tubes, you get hosed on price.  If you get creative, you can do excellent things on a budget.  Do you have  Dynaco-style amp with a pentode input DC-coupled to a triode inverter?  Look up the 6JT8 and see how you can hot-rod it with a 20,000 µmho pentode and a µ=100 triode.  And never underestimate horizontal sweep tubes for audio.  I got a bushel basket of them for $4 at the London Vintage Radio Club and although they usually use screen voltage on the order of 150 volts, they can be directly substituted for other beam power tubes and plate caps make your amp look totally badass.

[digi2t]

Russian hearing aid tubes?

Wait, that's a thing???

Seems so....

[Gentle Jack Jones]

Not sure about the ID of your tubes, but I have a couple of great-sounding Baldwin branded black plate 6bq5's that (at least I was told) are Sylvanias.

Nathan, do you know the make(s) of the Baldwin tubes?  How many good 6BQ5s did you end up with?

They all say "Baldwin Pianos & Organs." Most are in a yellow print with "Made in U.S.A." stamped on them, but a handful are in blue print and stamped with "Made in Japan."

There were 4 6BQ5's, but only 3 ended up testing good. This meant not enough for a set for the owner's AC30, so he let me keep 2 to throw in my Lightning His exact words were "help yourself," but I tried not to get greedy, so I just kept the pair of 6BQ5's and 4 12AX7's.

[vigilante397]

Not sure about the ID of your tubes, but I have a couple of great-sounding Baldwin branded black plate 6bq5's that (at least I was told) are Sylvanias.

Duly noted I still haven't had a chance to try them out, but I have band practice Saturday, so they will be tried very loud