A Whole Suitcase Full Of Vintage Tubes

[Joe Hart]

And lastly, I picked this up:











There's got to be close to 200 tubes in there! So, what should I build with tubes.....? Does anyone need any?
-Joe Hart

[iccaros]

Looks like TV repairman bag. Can you list the tubes as the boxes may be wrong

[Nocaster Cat]

A quick look at the picture doesn't show anything really guitar related other than a couple of 6SN7's and 12AU7's. What I've done in the past with finds like these is catalog the entire lot and then shop it to vintage TV/Radio tube dealers online for the best offer on the lot.

[Joe Hart]

Bummer. So what might they be worth for the whole bunch? Ballpark. A dollar each? Two bucks? Thanks for the info!
-Joe Hart

[Nocaster Cat]

Bummer. So what might they be worth for the whole bunch? Ballpark. A dollar each? Two bucks? Thanks for the info!
-Joe Hart

When you get to oddball tubes like that, pricing is up to the buyer which is why I suggested shopping your list around. The last batch I had of TV/Radio tubes I sold took about two months two move and I think I cleared about $200 for the lot.

[iccaros]

While there are a lot of TV looking tubes, that does not mean you can not use them if you want to play, there are many of DIY people who play with these, for example I have build fun amps with a 6AF11 which is a two tridoes and a pentode. Easy to make a champ like amp with one tube, microphonic though so you have to secure the socket well.

[amptramp]

Good score!

Looks like a good tube caddy from the 70's.  There is a lot of useable stuff in there.  I picked up a 6HA5, which is in one of the pictures, for use as a preamp tube.  It has a µ of 72 at -1 volt grid bias and a 135 volt plate supply pulling 11.5 mA on the plate you get 14,500 µmhos of transconductance.  If you want to run it at full power, use a 1000 ohm cathode resistor to get a µ of 80 and a transconductance of 20,000 µmhos.  You will be pulling 19 mA in this scenario.  You can get almost the gain of a 12AX7 with less thermal noise and lower plate resistors for a healthy drop in output impedance.

Get yourself a good contemporary tube manual such as the RCA tube manual or use the one here:

http://tdsl.duncanamps.com/

The RCA manual has design equations in it so you can design with any device you can find parameters for.

[RandomGlitch]

Nice cases!

[JRB]

I'd say build a tube amp.

Maybe this is useful to you it also talks about using oddball tubes so far i reached chapter 8 and it has been a interesting read.
http://www.guitarstudio.tv/documents/Designing-V-T-Amplifiers.pdf

I also heard that merlin's books about amp design are highly recommended but I haven't got the money to buy them yet so I can't vouch for them. But judging from the chapters he has posted on his website it seems to be a good read.

[tubelectron]

Well, I agree with iccaros : While there are a lot of TV looking tubes, that does not mean you can not use them.

In fact, many can be diverted from their primary function successfully !

1 - try to identify each of them by searching the datasheet on the web.
2 - built a small HV filtered PSU (with a variac to change HV value would be the best).
3 - find a LV DC variable supply for the heaters.
4 - of course you need one or two correct DMMs to see what you're doing.

You will be able, with patience :

1 - to test the tube you want to use according to the datasheet, simply to check it.
2 - to test or invent any preamp, distortion, overdrive, small amp you have in mind !

Enjoy !

A+!

[DougH]

I have a stash of oddball tubes and have a found a lot of them pretty useful for guitar amps. I've discovered a few I consider "secret weapons", I like them so much. It depends on how deep you want to get into learning about tubes and amp design- but a stash like that can be a lot of fun to play with.

[armdnrdy]

This guitar effect building stuff is getting pretty boring!!!

Hey! I know...Let's make a TV!!!   I'll start reverse engineering mine.

You know what? Somebody stole the tubes out of my TV!!!

Maybe that's why all I get are re-runs of the Love Boat and Fantasy Island!!

[amptramp]

While there are a lot of TV looking tubes, that does not mean you can not use them if you want to play, there are many of DIY people who play with these, for example I have build fun amps with a 6AF11 which is a two tridoes and a pentode. Easy to make a champ like amp with one tube, microphonic though so you have to secure the socket well.

The 6HA5 that I am planning to use as a preamp tube was originally a television RF amplifier.

[PRR]

Sell the lot as-is on eBay and hope some suckers over-bid.

The types are in fair supply and LOW demand. You don't know if they are new or used. The traditional price for such types is 33 cents a tube, duds replaced free.

If you prepared a comprehensive spreadsheet with each tube, tube condition, box marks and condition, you might get a bid averaging $1/tube from one of the tube-mongers. Counting value of your time to test and document, that's pee-poor pay.

Yes, many of those tubes "could" be used in a guitar amp. Tubes is tubes. _I_ could take about any TV tube and come up with several ways to use it for Audio. Many TV tubes really are good audio tubes. Others can be used creatively. But which ones? Even after many decades of such work, I'd mostly go-with the Usual Suspects: 12AX7, 6V6/6L6/EL84. Guitar amps need to be higher-strung than a TV set. And ways (and tubes) to do that are well covered in conventional guitar-amp designs; anything else is experimental.

I assure you there are some dead tubes in there. Which ones? Possibly the few you pick to start a design around. You have few if any duplicates. If a tube you design-around is dead, or dies during experimentation, you are gonna have to buy one.

Tubes are NOT the major cost of a tube power amplifier. Power supply, OT, and chassis/knobs are 3 to 5 times the price. (I had $400 invested in my last hot-Champ, tubes were $80 including a spare big-bottle.)

[Joe Hart]

Well, I'm a gigging musician with two young kids (and I'm the stay-at-home parent), so I don't have tons of time to experiment with tubes. And with the post by PRR, I think my best bet would be to sell the lot, then buy the "correct" tubes to build something. So, does anyone want to make an offer on the whole lot? I can ship them with or without the suitcase (that's pretty heavy). I'd be up for trades, too!!! PCB's, cool transistors, tropical fish caps, wah inductors, wah pots -- make an offer.
-Joe Hart

[Joe Hart]

If a tube has a black smudge on the inside of the glass (like a burnt out incandescent bulb), does that mean it's blown?
-Joe Hart

[Humboldts Finest]

Not always. IIRC, the dark spot is a step of manufacturing. Forget the purpose though.

[artifus]

means it got very hot once, not necessarily a burn out, as with bulbs. wont have helped its life expectancy though.

[amptramp]

If a tube has a black smudge on the inside of the glass (like a burnt out incandescent bulb), does that mean it's blown?
-Joe Hart

If it started as a silver colour, it is the getter, and evaporated film of barium to continue removing any atoms of gas that enter the tube.  If significant amounts of gas enter the tube, it will turn from silver to brown than as more comes in, it will turn white.  There are some tubes that deliberately have a grey coating on the inside as a means of radiative heat transfer from the plate to the glass envelope.

[iccaros]

To add I would suspect a tube of being bad if it did not have the "burnt" smudge, as when oxygen enters the tube from a brake this smug will revert to its base chemical and seam to disappear.