Where is the spot to buy tubes these days

  • Thread starter Thread starter Holy-diver
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japetus said:
I miss Valve Queen :(
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Same. Bought my last set of SEDs from her before prices went berserk. Always liked Dougstubes and his fast shipping and text messages. Last transaction with Eurotubes was great, matched perfectly and shipped fast.
 
I would try Tube Doctor, ( Uncle Doug from you tube ) regards them highly for matched sets, I got -2- quad sets of JJs 6550s from tube depot and have had nothing but bad luck with them, take notice of two outer tube labels, then compare them to the two on the inner and the bias reading was sporadic had one set replaced with JJ EL34s because tube depot stood good for the bad ones, so far they have held up knock on wood or my head! noticethe two outer tube logos compared to the two inners bias was off the chart
#22 m head open back.JPG
 
73 super lead steve said:
I would try Tube Doctor, ( Uncle Doug from you tube ) regards them highly for matched sets, I got -2- quad sets of JJs 6550s from tube depot and have had nothing but bad luck with them, take notice of two outer tube labels, then compare them to the two on the inner and the bias reading was sporadic had one set replaced with JJ EL34s because tube depot stood good for the bad ones, so far they have held up knock on wood or my head! noticethe two outer tube logos compared to the two inners bias was off the chart View attachment 70453
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Those JJ`s are not the best tubes for that amp imo.
 
panhead said:
Those JJ`s are not the best tubes for that amp imo.
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they where the rave when they first came out, wonder if gold lion brand has 6550/EL 34s and not just KT88s and if they do there i'd say they would want a fortune, the JJs are cheep in price that's what draws every body to them -lesson learned not to sure about tube doctors tubes?
 
on ebay there is a seller selling wing c `s for 199 they are used but test 100% heads up
 
panhead said:
on ebay there is a seller selling wing c `s for 199 they are used but test 100% heads up
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that's odd that you just mentioned that, yesterday I was watch-n a you tube vid of Lee Jackson install-n those hand made caps ! he praised them highly
 
Tubdepot can eat it.. I got a quad of EH KT88's and they drifted wildly out of match. I couldn't even get a pair of them to come together..

I'll always get JJ's from Eurotubes. They've always been great to buy from. Out of probably 100 Tubes I got from them, I think like 1 Triode from one ECC803 ever failed..
 
73 super lead steve said:
I would try Tube Doctor, ( Uncle Doug from you tube ) regards them highly for matched sets, I got -2- quad sets of JJs 6550s from tube depot and have had nothing but bad luck with them, take notice of two outer tube labels, then compare them to the two on the inner and the bias reading was sporadic had one set replaced with JJ EL34s because tube depot stood good for the bad ones, so far they have held up knock on wood or my head! noticethe two outer tube logos compared to the two inners bias was off the chart View attachment 70453
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When referring to power tubes technically that would be "right pair" & "left pair".
Inner & outer refers to something else.
I agree JJ tubes are utter shit.
 
Samhain said:
When referring to power tubes technically that would be "right pair" & "left pair".
Inner & outer refers to something else.
I agree JJ tubes are utter shit.
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what happens if you have the chassis turned around? when viewing from the back the 2 closest tubes nearest the outer wall of the cabinet
SL-2.JPG
head are considered the outers 2 me and the 2 others are more inside
 
Dougs Tubes for me, been buying for 10+ years and never had any troubles.
Eurotubes are good for JJ's.
 
midnightlaundry said:
I'll always get JJ's from Eurotubes. They've always been great to buy from. Out of probably 100 Tubes I got from them, I think like 1 Triode from one ECC803 ever failed.
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I live within 30 miles of Euro tubes, I know Eddie pretty well, I have bought many sets from them in person, I have been buying tubes from them for over 20 years, I have never had a tube fail.
 
was looking for info on this as well as I need to retube my Mesa Dual Rectifier.
 
LP Freak said:
I don’t know how closely matched they were supposed to be but 5mA difference isn’t really that horrible
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The problem is if they upcharged for the ‘match’...5 ma is definitely not matched. 2 ma apart is acceptable. I’ve had many sets of tubes that have been off by as much as 7-8 ma and they sound just fine. But if you’re paying more for a matched set and they come in at 5 ma apart I’d be wanting some money back.
 
Racerxrated said:
The problem is if they upcharged for the ‘match’...5 ma is definitely not matched. 2 ma apart is acceptable. I’ve had many sets of tubes that have been off by as much as 7-8 ma and they sound just fine. But if you’re paying more for a matched set and they come in at 5 ma apart I’d be wanting some money back.
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Tube depot has been really good to me with matching. When I buy power tubes, I order in octets matched. Only one octet of tubes I have ever gotten a matched from tube depot was off by one tube more than 1mA. That's pretty solid. Even on an octet of Genelex Golden Lion KT88's were all the same mA. Which is pretty solid (although that hurt the wallet).
 
Doug's Tubes has been great. Been buying from home the last 10-12 years or so. I've also ordered stuff from the TubeStore for 1 or 2 tubes purchase for quicker delivery since they're local to me.
 
"Ness tone has some good prices on some NOS tubes." Nesstone tubes? I wouldn't buy the cheap ass tubes. All of the MESA tubes he has are garbage. The cheap power tubes fuckeed up my Strategy 400. He did return my money but I learned an expensive lesson on cheap tubes.

I bought a MaxiMatcher to test and match a few hundred tubes, Hopefully I'll get it soon, I just ordered it like two minutes ago. I agree, who would buy unmatched tubes and pay more than a couple of bucks? I recently acquired a pile of supposedly NOS tubes from a retired amp maker and I'll be selling them here, there and everywhere. I'll post in the ads once I get everything straightened out and offer them at below eBay rates. Fuck Reverb & eBay, but I will use them for the pricier tubes, sniff, sniff.

*Update 4/10/21*
Hello John,

Thank you so much for your purchase of a Maxi-Matcher II Digital Power Tube Tester. We are running about three weeks currently for shipment of a Matcher; PCB assemblies are currently being made and will be available in about two weeks, then we have to assemble, test and calibrate the units. We're very sorry for the delay! We shipped out every unit we had and are building more as fast as we can.

Thank you for your patience,
 
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Markedman said:
"Ness tone has some good prices on some NOS tubes." Nesstone tubes? I wouldn't buy the cheap ass tubes. All of the MESA tubes he has are garbage. The cheap power tubes fuckeed up my Strategy 400. He did return my money but I learned an expensive lesson on cheap tubes.

I bought a MaxiMatcher to test and match a few hundred tubes, Hopefully I'll get it soon, I just ordered it like two minutes ago. I agree, who would buy unmatched tubes and pay more than a couple of bucks? I recently acquired a pile of supposedly NOS tubes from a retired amp maker and I'll be selling them here, there and everywhere. I'll post in the ads once I get everything straightened out and offer them at below eBay rates. Fuck Reverb & eBay, but I will use them for the pricier tubes, sniff, sniff.
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I too have had trouble with Ness tone on Mesa EL84 power tubes, got two bad sets, was refunded for the first set. I know he calls them nos Mesa tubes, but I don’t consider them nos.

the nos rft and Beijing preamp tubes I got from ness tone have been great. As I mentioned before, I have had duds from every tube supplier I have bought from, but I do buy more than most as I fix amps part time for a local music shop.

Interested to see what you have when you get that far, particularly if you have any tubes that are not as mainstream for guitar amps like a 6sc7, 7027A, 7c7, 7f7, etc
 
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