Damn.. The toilet paper hoarders are now hoarding tubes..

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napalmdeath

napalmdeath

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The Tubestore and Eurotubes have both shut down online orders due to being overwhelmed!

And, every tube I've clicked on Tube Depot's site says "not available for sale"

Everybody is overwhelmed because the toilet paper mentality people are freaking out and hoarding.

Or, builders loaded up. Either way, panic obviously has tube distributors overwhelmed.
 
In 35 years of owning many different tube amps, I have had 2 actual tube failures. One of which was one of the original 6L6s in my 35 year old Peavey Butcher. I'm not particularly worried about suddenly needing replacement tubes, especially since I have 12 amps. I guess if I owned only one amp, it might be prudent to keep a spare set.

Yeah, not worried.
 
ZEEGLER said:
In 35 years of owning many different tube amps, I have had 2 actual tube failures. One of which was one of the original 6L6s in my 35 year old Peavey Butcher. I'm not particularly worried about suddenly needing replacement tubes, especially since I have 12 amps. I guess if I owned only one amp, it might be prudent to keep a spare set.

Yeah, not worried.
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That's kind of amazing unless you just never play consistently on any single amp that much. I've had tubes fail prematurely, tubes expire, and tubes get blown by amp failures (I'm looking at you, Peavey). Even so, all my amps have relatively fresh power tubes and none of the amps are dodgy so I'm not concerned either...for NOW...
 
I’ve had quite a few tube failures over the years. Many power tubes, a lot of preamp tubes going microphonic, I just had preamp tubes go completely bad in my Laney, and I’ve got popping preamp tubes in my Marshall right now that will need attention.

When you boost amps and play amps hard, or carry them often, tubes take a beating.
 
Once I started figuring out which EL34s sounded best I started collecting them 10 years ago; always looking for slightly used first so they were much cheaper. Slowly built up a stash. I gigged 2x per month for years and have only experienced a few power tube and pre tube failures; and all failures were from newer production tubes. A few JJs( last one took out a SGR in my 800), couple Sovtek 88s and some EH pre. Funny though, not one failure from any of my used vintage tubes. Lol
 
Maybe this tube freak-out will extend to people dumping all their tube amps thinking they'll never be able to find tubes again. Might be able to pick up some good deals then while we wait for the tube hording to subside. Or at least maybe put the ridiculous asking prices we've seen on amps back in check.
 
For me it has usually been preamp tubes gone to crap before power tubes but I have fried a bunch of tubes due to amp mods and tinkering or a fuse issue in my Randall RM100 which caused every tube to run away and go cherry. So really it was me or a fuse/resistor and not the power tubes that were to blame for this. The mullard reissues that i mentioned in another thread were the ones that crapped out on me through regular use. So I don't think I'd need to buy 20 sets of tubes now to cover me seeing as I have probably bought only 12 -16 power tubes in the last 10 years. I don't gig though and that's only a few hours each week between 4 diff amps.
 
Bardagh said:
That's kind of amazing unless you just never play consistently on any single amp that much. I've had tubes fail prematurely, tubes expire, and tubes get blown by amp failures (I'm looking at you, Peavey). Even so, all my amps have relatively fresh power tubes and none of the amps are dodgy so I'm not concerned either...for NOW...
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I guess maybe I've just been really lucky. :cool:

Actually I re-counted and it has been 3 failures. My first was my JCM 900 4500 that I wish I still had. I had a Mullard RI EL34 do a full on melt down and take out several fuses. Replaced with another set of Mullards. (great tubes by the way)

My main amp is a Rivera Knucklehead II. It had JJ E34Ls, and I started getting some unusual noises, and then one of the tubes started redplating. I also replaced those with a quad of Mullards.

Finally was my Butcher (my second one). I actually bought it around ten years ago and was amazed to see that it still had the original tubes which was surprising because the thing looked pretty road worn when I got it. I played it for about a year before it started making some strange noises and one of the tubes took a shit. I replaced those original 6L6s with a set of Tung Sols.

The 900 was my only amp for a number of years, so it saw excessive use at pretty good volumes. The Rivera became my main amp after that and probably gets played about an hour a day on average for the last ten years, and aside from the odd occasion it's been the amp I use when playing out. If I am remembering correctly, I replaced the tubes about 6 years ago.

Aside from that I've had a few preamp tubes go bad.

So yeah, I guess the ones that have failed were in amps that had seen a lot of use. Makes sense. The whole idea of replacing tubes every year though, I just can't get behind that. Seems like a pointless waste of money to me.
 
I’ve primarily replaced tubes trying shit. I guess the good bed with that is that I have a drawer full of tubes. I have enough to last the rest of my life anyway.
Only once was it really needed when I bought a used amp and it sounded weak, replaced tubes and it was great again.
 
ZEEGLER said:
In 35 years of owning many different tube amps, I have had 2 actual tube failures. One of which was one of the original 6L6s in my 35 year old Peavey Butcher. I'm not particularly worried about suddenly needing replacement tubes, especially since I have 12 amps. I guess if I owned only one amp, it might be prudent to keep a spare set.

Yeah, not worried.
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I've only ever had one myself - one of the stock KT88's in my D60 lost vacuum two weeks after I bought it (VHT honored it and sent me a new set). Since then/besides that, never had a single issue otherwise (25ish years now)
 
Give it 3-6 months and you can buy the hoarders TP and tubes for pennies on the dollar…
 
PDC said:
Give it 3-6 months and you can buy the hoarders TP and tubes for pennies on the dollar…
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this and hopefully much sooner
as always nobody except the defense contractors are winning this war.
maybe i'm lucky but i've only had 12ax7's go microphonic on me after years of abuse and use at gigs,studio work etc etc
i have 2 el34 and one kt88 based rigs that are doing just fine with no signs of slowing down.
if you are a touring or studio pro cat you already have back up tubes and or rigs right?.........what is the real dilemma here?
 
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MadAsAHatter said:
Maybe this tube freak-out will extend to people dumping all their tube amps thinking they'll never be able to find tubes again. Might be able to pick up some good deals then while we wait for the tube hording to subside. Or at least maybe put the ridiculous asking prices we've seen on amps back in check.
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I am starting to see tube amp prices drift back down a bit. Hope the trend continues.
 
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