Get at them tubes..

Discuss the stuff that makes your ears bleed.

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godgrinder
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Re: Get at them tubes..

Post by godgrinder »

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Re: Get at them tubes..

Post by kdawg2a »

In my 30+ years of being a guitar playerist I have pretty much only ever used tube amps, some new and some old. All my current amps (6 amps?) are tube. I would estimate, in total, ive owned around 20 different tube amps in the corse of my electric string plucking times. Never once have had to replace a tube.
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Re: Get at them tubes..

Post by Capt. Black »

IMHO, Non issue.

Geopolitical issues aside...

We're in the middle (as in who knows how long it will actually affect things) of a pandemic.

Nobody but a small percentage of big acts around the world are gigging. Most of whom are probably not using tube amps that much. The upper and mid level musicians that do use tube amps are generally still waiting for suitable venues to become viable.

The factories are not shutting. The export is banned to western countries until the end of the year, maybe longer. As the dude in JB's video notes, the factories are months behind in production anyway. COVID hitting the work force is probably a big factor there, as it is in most manufacturing countries.

If anything, when supply eventually restarts, they'll be over stocked. Which will likely coincide with a steady increase in demand as countries "normalise" and socialising in public venues properly comes back.

Meantime, with the ongoing gentrification of cities here and around the world, more people are living in places where noisy amps are a non starter. So they've already been looking at ways to play quietly. Modelling amps, attenuator systems and plugins have been in common use for a decade at least.

That doesn't mean people are quitting tube amps in droves. They are, like a lot of us, keeping them for situations where they CAN be used such as studios, rehearsal spaces and live gigs while making use of alternatives for quiet home practice and recording.

Tube amps are not going to die all of a sudden. Tubes are just a sophisticated light bulb and most will last for years. My two main amps, a '61 Jansen IA715 and a '74 Marshall Super Bass haven't needed re-tubing for 10-15 years. Before that, changing tubes was not a necessity so much as curiosity to try out combinations until I found what I liked best.

In short, by the time the situation in the Ukraine resolves itself and COVID is no longer as rampant as now, we'll all still be doing the same thing we are already. Nothing much changes.

It's a bugger for companies like EHX, TAD et al. It's a significant inconvenience for tube amp manufacturers. But I believe it's a temporary glitch and nothing for us as consumers to shit the bed over.

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Re: Get at them tubes..

Post by calling card »

Yet no one mentions Shuguang or Psvane, MIC.
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Re: Get at them tubes..

Post by chur »

Looks like there might be some movement already - https://shop.ehx.com/russian-tubes/
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Re: Get at them tubes..

Post by calling card »

kdawg2a wrote: Thu Mar 17, 2022 1:59 pm In my 30+ years of being a guitar playerist I have pretty much only ever used tube amps, some new and some old. All my current amps (6 amps?) are tube. I would estimate, in total, ive owned around 20 different tube amps in the corse of my electric string plucking times. Never once have had to replace a tube.
No fog & failure of vacuum loss? No microphonic preamp ones? Self destructing rectifiers?
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Re: Get at them tubes..

Post by Capt. Black »

calling card wrote: Thu Mar 17, 2022 2:26 pm Yet no one mentions Shuguang or Psvane, MIC.
The dude in JB's video mentioned the one factory in China had suffered a fire in 2019 (?) and has not yet shown any sign of re-opening. I don't know if there are more factories producing tubes in China.

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Re: Get at them tubes..

Post by Bg »

godgrinder wrote: Thu Mar 17, 2022 1:36 pm Groove Tubes tried but failed:
https://legendarytones.com/aspen-pittman-interview/
Yeah that was back in 2008, later that year though Fender bought them out and then sunk them... as they tend to do.
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Re: Get at them tubes..

Post by godgrinder »

calling card wrote: Thu Mar 17, 2022 2:26 pm Yet no one mentions Shuguang or Psvane, MIC.
Psvane is probably too expensive for the testers/relabellers and amp manufacturers. I bought a few Psvane 12AX7's since they were the only one that didn't have a price hike recently. But it still costed more that a post-price-hike Shuguang.
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Re: Get at them tubes..

Post by vinylguy »

If you guys think they are expensive check out ELROGs.

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Re: Get at them tubes..

Post by Molly »

Just because export restrictions are eased doesn't mean it's ok to buy them.

I'm in no hurry to send money to Russia.

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Re: Get at them tubes..

Post by hamo »

vinylguy wrote: Thu Mar 17, 2022 3:54 pm If you guys think they are expensive check out ELROGs.
Is that Rog's Spanish cousin?
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Re: Get at them tubes..

Post by jeremyb »

Molly wrote: Thu Mar 17, 2022 4:37 pm Just because export restrictions are eased doesn't mean it's ok to buy them.

I'm in no hurry to send money to Russia.
Sounds like the war isn’t that far away from being over, Ukraine just has to agree to stay out of NATO and not let foreign countries have military bases on their soil and Russia will back off.
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Re: Get at them tubes..

Post by IMOCD »

Molly wrote: Thu Mar 17, 2022 4:37 pm
I'm in no hurry to send money to Russia.
Based on this assumption that one makes a stand against countries/regimes that carry out atrocities in other countries, does that mean that buying from Fender and Gibson are off limits as well? :shifty:

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Re: Get at them tubes..

Post by godgrinder »

vinylguy wrote: Thu Mar 17, 2022 3:54 pm If you guys think they are expensive check out ELROGs.
These hifi types like 300B were never cheap aren't they?

Anyway what I meant was that stuff like Psvane probably has less margin to work with compared to Shuguang or New Sensor for guys like Ruby/TAD/GT. A few years ago a matched pair of EL34M was like $20 retail from Shuguang's official webstore. Once it goes through GT they'd be a few times of that price.
Amps:
Soldano SLO100 x2 | Wizard MC1 & MC2 | Diezel Herbert
Fryette Pittbull CL | Marshall 2203KK | Krank Rev 50 | Mesa Mark 2A

Rack stuff:
VHT/Fryette GP3, GP/DI & 2/90/2 | Peters FSM/Chimera
Verellen Meatsmoke | Synergy SYN1 | Mesa Studio

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