Western Electric considering adding more tubes to their current USA production

[Rozman62]

Sign me up. I expect to pay more and don't mind funding a US job. Tubes wear out but not all that fast like guitar strings. I've bought ANOS tubes in the past because they last a lot longer than current tubes from overseas. I don't have to change tubes often enough to be concerned about spending an extra $100-200 over the next few years. The over reaction to this tube crisis is ridiculous. Bring it WE.

 

[Milburn S. Emery]

I will buy them from WE and remain loyal to them as long as the tubes are great - and it sounds like they will be. He really talked a lot about how their materials are higher quality vs the Chinese and Russian made tubes.

Sign me up.

me too.

 

[1234_thumbwar]

The way I see it is that a quality tube lasts for years if not decades it seems.

If these new tubes are built to last and sound like a good Sylvania style 6ca7, a quality GE 12ax7, or a CBS 5751 then I’m sold

 

[Dogs of Doom]

I think W.E. knows they can't come out with common 12AX7 tubes and charge outrageous prices. They know they have to be competitive price-wise to a certain extent, or it would be a worthless advention. That's how I read it.

they did a survey. It asked a question, what's most important:

quality
speed (in getting product)
price


seems like there was 1 more, but I can't remember right off.

I guarantee that most guitar players checked off quality & price.

if you get 10K replies & 90%+ say quality & price, then, that's what your goal should be...

 

[Dogs of Doom]

The way I see it is that a quality tube lasts for years if not decades it seems.

If these new tubes are built to last and sound like a good Sylvania style 6ca7, a quality GE 12ax7, or a CBS 5751 then I’m sold

old mil spec/JAN tubes used to be spec'd for 10K-15K hours. That's a lot of usage. If you play 1 hr/day, that's 10K+ days. That's over 27 years, at 1 hr every day...

 

[lespaul339]

Tom Morello still claims that his JCM800 still has the same tubes in it as when he bought it. Don't know if that's true or not but I heard him say it in an interview.

 

[NSV-Andy]

Good to hear. I will wait on some reviews (outside the yootoob influencers) once they become available to see if the tonez are up to snuff. I've no doubt they can make a great hi fi tube, but this is a new ball game for them.

All guitar amplifier tubes came from HiFi. Guitar amplifiers were always a niche industry; they had to use what was available because they didn't have the wherewithal to make something purpose-designed. The power amplifier tubes that say, Marshall and Fender used were all used in HiFi amplifiers. The tubes that we were able to buy are made to certain specs. It's up to the guitar amp maker to make it sound a certain way.

The difference comes from how a given manufacturer deviates from spec. Take the EL34 and it's American counterpart, the 6CA7. The 6CA7 has a bigger plate structure with elements spaced further apart. This gives it a specific sound that can be described as beefier on the lower end. The classic EL34 made by Mullard had a smaller plate structure with elements closer together that gave it a characteristic sound that emphasizes the higher end. They both bias at the same point and have the same plate dissipation, etc. But they sound slightly different.

What primarily governs the sound is how closely they manufacture the tube to (mechanical) specs. An EH-branded EL34 will sound substantially the same as a Mullard-branded EL34 as they are made in the same factory to (hopefully) the same mechanical specs. What separates them is how well they meet electrical specs regarding bias and cutoff, and some other electrical parameters.

I suspect that they will be able to make great tubes - it ain't easy to make a 300B for the crowd that they have been serving. Audiophiles are every bit as picky as guitar players, maybe even moreso.

 

[Old Punker]

I just saw this on TGP and knew they would get a massive response from the guitar community.

I'll pay more for a U.S. made tube within reason and remain loyal to WE if the product lives up to U.S. tube quality. I've never had a vintage U.S. made tube fail on me in nearly 20 years of playing guitar and owning tube amps. Foreign/current production tubes? I've had many failures and most were usually within a year of replacement. My expectation of a current production power tube is that it could fail anywhere between 1 to 3 years... If they can guarantee 5 years like the 300B and the price is reasonable considering, I think that is a steller value.

I've had a current production tube fail in 3 months of light use.

 

[Old Punker]

Listen very carefully “ the land of”

I got rid of my asbestos clamp last year, after the last piece of asbestos finally wore off.

 

[Old Punker]

I have customers who have been in the habit of fully retubing their gigging amps every year whether they need it or not.
In fact I just had one of those customers a few days ago. He had his stash of changed-out tubes with him and for fun we tested them.
Every one of the power tubes met rated specifications. None would qualify as "worn" by performance. So he's got spares for years.

Tube prices WILL go up. No matter what. No matter where they come from. So people will want to run their tubes longer.

Being a realist, I'd still have tube amps and retube them AS NECESSARY if preamp tubes were 50 bucks each and power tubes were 100 dollars each.
At the rate I go through tubes, which is very slowly, I'd be able to afford it.

@Matthews Guitars I've always run my tubes for as long as they seem serviceable, either until they become excessively noisy or extremely microphonic, have crappy tone, or stop working altogether. I've usually gotten 9 or 10 years out of preamp tubes and 2 or more years out of power tubes, even when I ran my amps 2-3 times per week. These are just regular JJ, EHX, or Mesa tubes. Now that I have 4 amps they see less use individually. I just hate to throw away stuff that still works, partly cause I'm cheap and also I hate polluting/filling landfill.

* Since you are in the tube tech business I think you're the right guy to ask...

Am I taking any risk of serious damage to my amplifiers by running my pre amp or power tubes until the end of their service life?

Thanks!

 

[EADGBE]

@Matthews Guitars I've always run my tubes for as long as they seem serviceable, either until they become excessively noisy or extremely microphonic, have crappy tone, or stop working altogether. I've usually gotten 9 or 10 years out of preamp tubes and 2 or more years out of power tubes, even when I ran my amps 2-3 times per week. These are just regular JJ, EHX, or Mesa tubes. Now that I have 4 amps they see less use individually. I just hate to throw away stuff that still works, partly cause I'm cheap and also I hate polluting/filling landfill.

* Since you are in the tube tech business I think you're the right guy to ask...

Am I taking any risk of serious damage to my amplifiers by running my pre amp or power tubes until the end of their service life?

Thanks!

Old worn out power tubes could damage an amp's circuitry or even a transformer. I don't think preamp tubes can though. But a tube rectifier could do damage also.

 

[Tatzmann]

Until you hear loud pops, until the fuses do
trip because of a valve short youre valves
are working.

They deteriorate over time ofcourse, but
as long as they work they work, just not as good
as before.

So when the volume and or sound gets
unnacceptable you surely should change
them.

Imagining the megatons of fine valves that
got thrown away from some faggos changin
them every year, without even working the
amps hard...lots of really dumb moneysack slaves like them guitars.

 

[Old Punker]

Old worn out power tubes could damage an amp's circuitry or even a transformer. I don't think preamp tubes can though. But a tube rectifier could do damage also.

So does that mean replacing power tubes once every year or two, even if they still sound good, just to be safe?

Or

Is it OK to run power tubes until they get tired (noticeable loss of output, noticeable loss of treble, persistent crackling noises)? Right now that is when I usually toss out power tubes.

 

[Old Punker]

Until you hear loud pops, until the fuses do
trip because of a valve short youre valves
are working.

They deteriorate over time ofcourse, but
as long as they work they work, just not as good
as before.

So when the volume and or sound gets
unnacceptable you surely should change
them.

Imagining the megatons of fine valves that
got thrown away from some faggos changin
them every year, without even working the
amps hard...lots of really dumb moneysack slaves like them guitars.

I see there's different opinions on this issue. I've been doing basically what you outlined in the first 3 lines. Also, when I hear the loud pops I first make sure that it's the tubes causing it, as I've discovered recently that's not always the case.

 

[Tatzmann]

You dont have to change valves which are
working until they start to loose substantial
output or the sound gets too smeary.

Until the point of a short its up to you.

But this point is surely not at a year of
normal usage.

But, i said this before...the kids nowadays
work them amps even harder than ACDC in
their heyday with their constant usage of
sucky sounding attenuators and interface
gizmos...so that one year rule might even
be true for those individuals...which might
be better off playing their virtual phone amps,
or please stop playing altogether.

 

[1234_thumbwar]

they did a survey. It asked a question, what's most important:

quality
speed (in getting product)
price


seems like there was 1 more, but I can't remember right off.

I guarantee that most guitar players checked off quality & price.

if you get 10K replies & 90%+ say quality & price, then, that's what your goal should be...

I went with quality alone, I figured the price was going to be high with US manufacturing but all the tubes in my amp are older than me by decades and going strong. If these new ones do the same the price can be justified when I’m playing them in the 2040s or 2050s

 

[1234_thumbwar]

old mil spec/JAN tubes used to be spec'd for 10K-15K hours. That's a lot of usage. If you play 1 hr/day, that's 10K+ days. That's over 27 years, at 1 hr every day...

That’s longer than I’ve been alive so my Marshall is gonna be happy

 

[Old Punker]

You dont have to change valves which are
working until they start to loose substantial
output or the sound gets too smeary.

Until the point of a short its up to you.

But this point is surely not at a year of
normal usage.

But, i said this before...the kids nowadays
work them amps even harder than ACDC in
their heyday with their constant usage of
sucky sounding attenuators and interface
gizmos...so that one year rule might even
be true for those individuals...which might
be better off playing their virtual phone amps,
or please stop playing altogether.

Yeah I bought a good attenuator (PS-2) about a year ago but I don't often use it as an attenuator. I've found that I can get almost as good a tone from my amps w/o it, and I don't see the point in killing off tubes. I only use the PS-2 to attenuate when that 'good tone' can only be dialed in at a volume that is not acceptable for home use, and that is rare.

I do however, use my attenuator often to provide a most excellent FX loop to amps that don't have one, and it does that really well.

 

[Tatzmann]

I would like this to work out for the american customers, but i cant shake the feeling that
this company is a little out of touch.

WHY do they step up just now?

They could have build their assembly lines
and filled out all the paperwork many years
ago...didnt need a sociocomical crisis for
this business decision.

 

[Tatzmann]

Looking at it id say as soon as the
current tube "crisis" hit private
guitar oriented moneysacks hit this
company up and offered financing...
or this company owner is a genius
who decided to first strip all the senseless
moneysacks off of their monies with his
outergalactic 300B. So he ate only rice for
bout 20 years and saved everything to get
the trainrolling...idk i cant shake the feeling
that this company is out of touch. This is
not moneysack no brains hifi customer
talk, just guitardude.