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Post by zpilot on Mar 10, 2016 1:48:17 GMT -7
I used to do a lot of repair work so when I found a tube that worked well for me I would buy a fairly large quantity for two reasons. First was quantity pricing. Next was to insure I had a supply of reliable tubes. A supplier's tubes might work great for awhile and then due to changes at the factory or a war the quality would go downhill or the tube might become unavailable. Because of this I have a fairly large stock of tubes left over from those days. For example, I have a half-dozen matched quads of JJ EL84's from about 2003 which is when they were making a great tube that didn't rattle.
OK, so here is my point. Due to the ever changing supply if you like what is in your amp you just can't rely on that tube being available the next time you need them or that the newer version won't have changed (most likely for the worse). The one benefit of buying new production tubes over NOS is that they are relatively cheap. Stock up if you can. When you get those tubes run them all in your amp for 10 hours or so to burn them in and then place them in storage for future use. That way if you have a failure you can return it now instead of having to try months or years from now when the warranty may be expired or the supplier out of business. A tube will most likely fail very early in it's life.
Sure, a new tube may become available that is somewhat better than what I am currently using but I'm more into consistency than searching for the Holy Grail of tubes. For instance, I've got my MAZ 18 dialed in with the tubes and a speaker that I like and I'll be happy with that as my base tone for a long time.
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Post by strat59 on Mar 10, 2016 6:49:09 GMT -7
Smart- thanks for posting. I hadn't thought of burning in and storing.
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Post by BritInvasion on Mar 10, 2016 9:02:21 GMT -7
Great advice!
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