Remember TV Tube Testing?

[ContinentalOp]

I don't think anyone under the age of about 50 would even know what a vacuum tube is.

Probably more than you'd think. As blackdeuce said, a lot of guitarists use tube amps. I use tube amps. Tube pre-amps are often used by recording engineers/producers to give digital recordings a little more warmth to their sound. I'm not an audiophile, but I recall reading somewhere that they often use tube gear for the same reasons.

 

[arjay]

My old fishing and hunting buddy opened a TV/stereo repair shop right out of college.Interesting place to hang out at the very end of that era.

 

[old tanker]

It is a lot easier to fix an old tube radio from the Thirties than something solid state that is more than about 10 years old. I still like playing with that old gear. The Johnson Viking dates to 1949 and is on the air almost every day.

 

[wingriderz]

Yes rember those early years for sure

 

[Tom S.]

Dad was smart enough to teach me (and I was a willing student) so he could send me up to the drug store on my bike to test tubes. It helped create the basis for my interest in electricity and electronics. Tube testers are in some demand, as eBay will show you. Hams and people who work on old radios still use them. Although amplifiers have become available without tubes, many hams still use the older tube style and they are even available for sale new. While my main rig is transistorized, my old 10 meter radio still has tubes as does some of my test equipment like my signal generator.

 

[Rustyt1953]

RCA, the last American vacuum tube manufacturer, closed in the 80's due to being over regulated by the EPA. It became too costly to make a good product at a profit. The plant was located on Lester rd 2 1/2 miles from my home and a lot of locals had started and raised families thanks to RCA.

Even though solid state amps were cheaper, low maintenance and reliable, tube amps were beginning a comeback. Tubes were now coming out of Russia and China (we don't need no stinkin' EPA). Quality was quite good actually.

Tube heads are now in two camps: British and American.

The American 6L6, 6V6 and 6550 output tubes would hold their "glassy, shimmery" tone at volume. The Britsh EL34, EL84 and KT88 output tubes would "voltage sag" quicker to distort at lower volumes.

Pre-amp tubes, ecc83, 7025, 12ax7a, 12at7 etc. are tailored to "break up" differently depending how hard you drive the pick ups. Some a lot, others not at all.

It's like reloading: swap out certain tube values, the rectifier and re-bias it and you can make it do what you want.

Hint: if your amp has 4 output tubes pull the two on each end out and reduce it to half power and, for smaller venues, it will distort quicker.

Sorry to be so long winded but it is part of what I did and I don't get to talk shop much as guitar forums are much more adversarial than any gun forum.

 

[vytoland]

things were alot more user friendly then.....

 

[shouldazagged]

I used the testers many times. We got our first TV when I was fifteen--1952.

My late brother, who taught electronics for many years, had a splendid array of beautifully restored, fully operational radios from the 1930's, '40's and '50's that he had meticulously brought back to like new with period-appropriate components. He would search the internet for weeks or months to find the correct tube, resistor, capacitor or tuner. His living room was a radio museum.

He was planning to restore a huge, hulking set from a WWII PBY Catalina when he became too ill to do the work anymore.

 

[blackdeuce]

RCA, the last American vacuum tube manufacturer, closed in the 80's due to being over regulated by the EPA. It became too costly to make a good product at a profit. The plant was located on Lester rd 2 1/2 miles from my home and a lot of locals had started and raised families thanks to RCA.

Even though solid state amps were cheaper, low maintenance and reliable, tube amps were beginning a comeback. Tubes were now coming out of Russia and China (we don't need no stinkin' EPA). Quality was quite good actually.

Tube heads are now in two camps: British and American.

The American 6L6, 6V6 and 6550 output tubes would hold their "glassy, shimmery" tone at volume. The Britsh EL34, EL84 and KT88 output tubes would "voltage sag" quicker to distort at lower volumes.

Pre-amp tubes, ecc83, 7025, 12ax7a, 12at7 etc. are tailored to "break up" differently depending how hard you drive the pick ups. Some a lot, others not at all.

It's like reloading: swap out certain tube values, the rectifier and re-bias it and you can make it do what you want.

Hint: if your amp has 4 output tubes pull the two on each end out and reduce it to half power and, for smaller venues, it will distort quicker.

Sorry to be so long winded but it is part of what I did and I don't get to talk shop much as guitar forums are much more adversarial than any gun forum.

I hear 'ya. I'm not an expert, but I have swapped tubes in several of our amps to get better sound. Some of the new amps ship with cheap Chinese tubes which aren't terrible, but not great.

I learned how to bias a Marshall TSL100 head (JCM2000). I was moving the 4x12 cab that the head was sitting on and a cable got caught and pulled the head off knocking it to the floor! We had purchased new tubes for it, but never installed them. The amp wasn't damaged, but the impact did something to one of the tubes causing it to red plate! This tube had already been suspect, so I think the impact just finished it off.

Anyway, I watched some videos and figured out how to set the bias. I replaced all of the tubes. Now, it works great, but I was crappin bricks. LOL.

 

[DWalt]

I have often read and heard that tube amplifiers provide more "sound warmth" than solid state. Yet I have no idea what "sound warmth" is. Or why tubes are better in generating it. I guess it must be something good.

 

[BigBoy99]

My father did radio and TV repair and my job was to test all of the tubes. I'd take my bike to the local hardware stork and test them all. MY father has long since passed away but I have kept all of the vacuum tubes and still have them. They are all good. Would there be any interest in them? There are several hundred of them and most are different.

 

[ContinentalOp]

I have often read and heard that tube amplifiers provide more "sound warmth" than solid state. Yet I have no idea what "sound warmth" is. Or why tubes are better in generating it. I guess it must be something good.

It can be tough to explain. Basically, tube amps generate harmonics that solid state amps don't. Those harmonics give a richer sound, while solid state amps can produce a sound that can be described as "sterile." Tube amps tend to sound more "alive," if that makes sense.

I haven't really done any comparisons in the last several years, but I stopped being active in music right about when the new solid state modeling amps started coming out. It's quite possible they've closed the gap by now.

 

[nicky4968]

Not anything like an electronics expert, but the solid state often sounds too "clean".

 

[Rustyt1953]

It can be tough to explain. Basically, tube amps generate harmonics that solid state amps don't. Those harmonics give a richer sound, while solid state amps can produce a sound that can be described as "sterile." Tube amps tend to sound more "alive," if that makes sense.

I haven't really done any comparisons in the last several years, but I stopped being active in music right about when the new solid state modeling amps started coming out. It's quite possible they've closed the gap by now.

It's amazing how fast the technology has snowballed. Starting with class A, class A/B (push-pull) power amps/output sections, they are pushing past class S and class T amps.

I have done work using a tube driven pre-amp/modeler/effects processor stomp box no bigger than a small pizza box running directly into the board and neither I nor anybody else can pinpoint what I used.

There sure is some amazing technology out there and it's only getting better.

 

[DWalt]

I would assume that given today's SOTA in digital processing, it would be possible to make solid state amplifiers produce exactly the same sound quality characteristics as tube amplifiers, if that is what's desired. But my hearing frequency is so limited I couldn't tell the difference anyway.

 

[rwsmith]

It's distortion, but....

It can be tough to explain. Basically, tube amps generate harmonics that solid state amps don't. Those harmonics give a richer sound, while solid state amps can produce a sound that can be described as "sterile." Tube amps tend to sound more "alive," if that makes sense.

I haven't really done any comparisons in the last several years, but I stopped being active in music right about when the new solid state modeling amps started coming out. It's quite possible they've closed the gap by now.

It's distortion, but it's pleasant distortion.

 

[rwsmith]

That's like when CDs came out.....

People said they were 'perfect' because they were digital, but what it was was the interpretation of a smooth analog wave into a digital 'sawtooth' wave and it was a 'hard' sound. Now with over sampling, they are greatly improved. Don't ever buy electronic 'hype'.

Surprisingly, it was found that the Soviets were using tubes in their newest war planes into the '70s. First, they were REALLY tough tubes that could take extreme shifts in temperature. Also, in case of an electromagnetic burst, as with a nuclear blast, the tubes won't be affected while the solid state equipment gets fried.

I love this old stuff and thanks for sharing your stories. All of those components were mounted on a steel 'chassis' weighed TONS.

Of course the end of this was the transistor, invented in the late 50's. Was it the Motorola 'Quasar' TVs had all of their 'works in a drawer'?

One thing about tube equipment. If you dropped it, it was very unlikely to survive permanent damage.

HEAT. All of that stuff didn't work right until it was hot.

I remember the first 'tubeless' guitar amps and I could immediately tell the difference in the sound. The Fender 'Super Reverb' was an impressive amp for its day, but had that clear, but hard, sound. At first, it sounded like progress, but in a few years people would miss the old sound.

 

[Bozz10mm]

Ah yes, those days of waiting for the TV or radio to warm up, are over.

 

[soFlaNative]

Yup!

My living room is decorated with many working antiques and my basic rule (to myself & my wife) is they MUST be in 100% working condition
SORRY the pic is rotated 90º (it's not on my photo album) and can't figure out why it happens sometimes on this Forum when posting pics. How do I correct this btw??

Gotta love the irony... how you manage old vs. new

 

[snowman]

Ah yes, those days of waiting for the TV or radio to warm up, are over.

I'm curious how long ago that was. I have a Sony Trinitron, mfg. circa 1998. The audio comes on instantly, but I don't get a picture for around 10 seconds. Is this still a tube TV?

Andy