Who are your go-to's for purchasing VINTAGE tubes?

[jeffb]

I've my fave suppliers for CP, but I was wondering who do folks like for vintage NOS/ANOS, etc., tube?

Keep in mind I don't have any way to test/sort/match anything for myself. I'd need a reputable place who knows their $&^%.

 

[DirtySteve]

Who are your faves for CP tubes?

I've bought some NOS tubes recently (RFTs) from an ebay supplier, but I feel like I got lucky that they are good. I also bought some Raytheon 6V6 power tubes and they are good, but I got them cheap because they tested good, but were used so I don't know how good they really are, just know they are working right now. So I'm also interested in this question.

 

[Matthews Guitars]

This far down the road, I'd be surprised if there are any consistently reliable and well stocked sources of really good vintage tubes. By now most of the stock must surely be well picked over. I personally would not have any desire to spend hundreds per tube when there's no guarantee you'll get your money's worth.

I say, buy new manufactured tubes and be done with it. By this point even the Sovtek/Russian tubes are actually objectively pretty good, and that makes sense because they've been building tubes for more than 40 years. That's LONGER than the span of time that any of the OG tube makers were making the tube types we use! Yes! This is truth! The 12AX7 was released to the public by RCA in 1947. Called the ECC83 in Britain, it's exactly the same tube. 40 years later in 1987, Mullard was gone and I believe NO OG tube manufacturer was still making it. In America, Sylvania/Philips/ECG was the last holdout to leave the field, in 1987, which leaves the reissue makers, the Russians and the Chinese, mostly. Shuguang, Sovtek, and Svetlana, to name but three, are all very much veteran tube makers at this point, and make good tubes. Their previous quality control issues have essentially become a thing of the past. If I order a load of new tubes from any of them, I EXPECT them to work and test within reasonable range of normal specifications.


I doubt that there's very much of an audible difference between good OG NOS tubes and premium grade modern production replicas. I myself have yet to hear anything out of "vintage" tubes that makes me think that they had some magic to them that the Russian and Chinese tube makers haven't figured out yet.

Is there some tonal difference? Probably. Is it enough for me to consistently hear it in a recording? Probably not. Am I willing to pay hundreds to get a chance of finding that tone out of random NOS tubes? No.

 

[playloud]

I generally avoid the used/vintage tube dealers. Given their typical business model is buying tubes in bulk for pennies (e.g. via estate sales), and then selling at a major markup (e.g. >100x) - often without adequate testing - "reputable" is an adjective in short supply.

Once you get a decent eye for the ones you're interested in (e.g. European ECC83s/EL34s/GZ34s etc), you'll realise they're "hiding in plain sight" on many of the usual sites (Ebay, Reverb etc.) You can usually identify the ones that are likely to be ok from photos, and then test them under actual conditions in your amp(s) with a light bulb limiter to avoid damage. Even if some turn out to be duds, you'll be saving so much money compared to the dealers it doesn't really matter. To give you an indication, I picked up a pair of Mullard ECC83s and a (Heerlen) Philips ~US$60 a couple of weeks ago. All in excellent condition.

The best deals are on (often virtually unused) valves in old gear. Depending on where you are in the world, there are probably 60s/70s amps sitting in your local classifieds that have their original tube complement.

Or if you have time/storage space on your hands, just cut out the middle man and buy the estate sale boxes yourself.

 

[jeffb]

Who are your faves for CP tubes?

I've bought some NOS tubes recently (RFTs) from an ebay supplier, but I feel like I got lucky that they are good. I also bought some Raytheon 6V6 power tubes and they are good, but I got them cheap because they tested good, but were used so I don't know how good they really are, just know they are working right now. So I'm also interested in this question.

I pretty much use only JJ tubes for new production anymore. And I only use Eurotubes unless I happen to come across some crazy deal (like the super cheap JJ 6L6s I got from Stew Mac recently)

I've used Tube Depot and Doug's Tubes as well. Doug has pretty much had nothing interesting in stock the past 4 or 5 years, but he was very helpful when I was using him. I used to get all my ruby tagged Chinese tubes through him, as well as some New Sensor stuff. He used to have quite a bit of NOS stuff from the 70s,80s,90s.

Tube Depot nickels and dimes you for testing on everything. I don't think TD screens their stock of JJ stuff to the same degree Eurotubes do, as I've had some squirrely matching and noise/microphonics on some JJs . I only use them rarely these days- usually sale items or the rare occasion I want some New Sensors to try.

I've used a couple other Mom & Pops here and there for one tube/time purchases of new production. Can't really say much in those cases. Got the tube, it worked.lol.

 

[Purgasound]

Just had a guy in another group buy some "NOS" tubes that were "tested and matched". They were tested at barely 200V so of course they each ended up pulling a drastically different amount of current when installed in an amplifier with 450V+ on the plates. It's a crapshoot. I don't think there's even much NOS stuff left. It's all used and people just throw around the term "NOS" to make more money. There's no quantifiable justification for spending the extra money. I buy lots of old tubes but only when I can get them at a reasonable price.
If there was a reputable seller that had a consistent stock that would be great but this is a market where the supply will only go down as time goes on and it's already dwindling.