Preamp Tubes? - Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How?

[joshuaaewallen]

Lots of brisket. Hell Marty makes damn good brisket.

Mmm... Better get-er goin' as I'll be there in a bout 14 hours w/ BIG appetite!

Ok... Maybe not right now... But I am a sucker for a good brisket.

 

[RiverRatt]

Try Interstate Barbecue next time you're in downtown Memfis.

Brisket? Is that like barbecued beef or something?

 

[BluesRocker]

Memphis is the place to get barbecue. Plain and simple.

 

[joshuaaewallen]

​

Brisket can be cooked many ways. Popular methods in the Southern United States include rubbing with a spice rub or marinating the meat, then cooking slowly over indirect heat from charcoal or wood. This is a form of smoking the meat. Additional basting of the meat is often done during the cooking process. However, most of the tenderness from this normally tougher cut of meat comes from the collagen fibers that make up the significant connective tissue in the cut, which gelatinizes and lubricates the muscle fibers, resulting in more tender brisket despite the fact that the cut is usually cooked well beyond what would normally be considered "well done". The fat cap often left attached to the brisket helps to keep the meat from over-drying during the prolonged cooking necessary to break down the connective tissue in the meat.[1] A hardwood, such as oak, pecan, hickory, or mesquite is sometimes added, alone or in combination with other hardwoods, to the main heat source. Sometimes, they make up all of the heat source, with chefs often prizing characteristics of certain woods. The smoke from these woods and from burnt dripping juices further enhances the flavor. The finished meat is a variation of barbecue. Once finished, pieces of brisket can be returned to the smoker to make burnt ends. Smoked brisket done this way is most popular in Texas.

 

[Gtarzan81]

Memphis is the place to get barbecue. Plain and simple.

Near Austin Texas is THE place to get Barbecue! Check out Kreuz's and Smitty's in Lockhart. Also, the Salt Lick in Driftwood. Best bbq I've had, hands down.

 

[MartyStrat54]

Oh lord, it's becoming the "Food Thread." That's all I need to see is a big ole brisket that is mouth watering. Texas, Tennessee...it's all good.

 

[MartyStrat54]

2

 

[MartyStrat54]

1

 

[MartyStrat54]

5,000 Posts!!!



Thanks to each and everyone of you. I had just noticed that it was nearing 5,000 and jumped on it. You all are great!

 

[racko7566]

MMMMM.... meat, ive been away for a while and I miss everything, meat , 5000th post, tube testers. Damn it........

 

[MartyStrat54]

Yeah, you've been away for a while. Josh is back now. He's the guy who started this thread. I always like to go back and read the first page. It makes me laugh.

Glad to have you back Racko. My big news is that I bought a couple of old school amps and they are getting modified by Jon Wilder. Please see my billboard...I mean SIG.

 

[MM54]

Alright, I'm on a proper computer so I can post a couple pictures now

Here's the tester:
http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t283/Mightymatt54/Tester_Whole.jpg
http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t283/Mightymatt54/Tester.jpg
It's nice, works great (tested a bunch of tubes earlier today, see below) but there isn't a Noval (the big 9-pin) or Compactron (12-pin) socket, which left out a lot of tubes. The roller with data is from 1959 so there were a bunch of other tubes that I don't have the numbers to test. Until I get a mutual conductance tester, this is great!

So here are the boxes of tubes:
http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t283/Mightymatt54/Boxes.jpg

Kind of messy, but a lot of glass, a good few are NIB.

Here's the first box (smaller one) sorted out (includes a bunch of 9- and 12-pin ones I can't test ):
http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t283/Mightymatt54/Box1.jpg

And the larger one (without the 9-and 12-pin ones I can't test):
http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t283/Mightymatt54/Box2.jpg

What's with the one that's really heavy and has a quarter inch-thick lead coating with an x-ray warning ? It's on the far left, the dark black one.

Long story short, there aren't very many tubes I can use, but it's something to kill time and make a few bucks on. A lot of the tubes test at 100% or right around there. It's disappointing on the ones that you press the button and the needle dives down to 0 though

And do you believe that in that whole lot, there's only one 12BA6? I needed two to get my radio working again

 

[thrawn86]

Barbeque, 5k posts and Marshall. What a perfect Sunday evening. (oh, and 2,400 for me!)

 

[solarburn]

"I want to ride my bicycle"

You've been Queened!

 

[MartyStrat54]

Well the tester looks like it is in good condition for its age. Man, that's a lot of tubes. Too bad they aren't exotic 12AX7 tubes and 6L6's and such.

Yeah, my tester will test all you have except the four pin.

What are the numbers on the Novar tubes? 7868? If you have any of those that are good, they bring $30 to $40 a piece on EBAY.

 

[MM54]

Well the tester looks like it is in good condition for its age. Man, that's a lot of tubes. Too bad they aren't exotic 12AX7 tubes and 6L6's and such.

Yeah, my tester will test all you have except the four pin.

What are the numbers on the Novar tubes? 7868? If you have any of those that are good, they bring $30 to $40 a piece on EBAY.

Yeah, looking down into the boxes at first there were a couple 6AC7s that, in dyslexic optimism, looked like 6CA7

The tester is great inside, the outside of the box is totally beat to hell That handle is missing, which is bothersome, other than that though the only thing I had to do when I got it was knock the dusty white corrosion off the moving parts of the roll of numbers and solder that clip for the top of some tubes back onto its lead.

There are weird 8-pin tubes that don't have the normal base, they have really thin and short pins on them - I've only had one or two test good, but they're very odd.

I'm not sure what numbers are on the novar tubes, I have the ones I can't test in a bin (carefully set in, not thrown in like they were in the box, though >.<). I'll take a look through them as soon as I get through the second box sorting what I can't test from what I can, and the good from bad.

Some of those old 4- and 5-pin tubes are pretty epic, even if just to look at. You think I should bother with getting numbers off the 12-pin tubes too, or are they a totally dead technology? I'd never seen one until I got these.

Edit: Also, did you see in the picture of the larger box (the second one laid out) the one tube with the 1/4" thick lead coating? It has a warning printed on it about x-ray radiation

 

[MartyStrat54]

Yeah, a lot of old tubes were manufactured with nasty toxic materials, so be careful and don't break any of those old tubes. Your babies may be born naked.

 

[BluesRocker]

Been tube rolling all day today. Switching out some NOS tubes in the VM again. I left the Ray. BP in V2. Did have a high gain Philips in V1 but I put it in the PI slot and put the lower gain Philips in the V1. But one thing that I noticed is that when I turn the amp on the PI tube (NOS Philips) flashes bright then goes the way it should. Like when it flashes it looks like a light bulb and only does it when the amp is off for a few hours. Anything wrong here?

 

[RiverRatt]

Some tubes are cold-cathode x-ray emitters. You've got a really interesting collection. Some of the lightbulb shaped tubes in the first picture look like the really old ones that get the tube collectors salivating.

 

[MartyStrat54]

But one thing that I noticed is that when I turn the amp on the PI tube (NOS Philips) flashes bright then goes the way it should. Like when it flashes it looks like a light bulb and only does it when the amp is off for a few hours. Anything wrong here?

No, everything is fine, they are made that way. Many tubes light up in the base from a cold start. Most of them are Philips tubes.