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N.O.S. Tubes...Why? & Where to buy?


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Where do you amp gurus and tone seekers buy your New Old Stock (NOS) tubes? :icon_smile:

 

Isn't it a crap shoot to get a good one vs. a tube tester reject? :icon_pirat:

 

Haven't most of the good tubes already been sold? :icon_silent:

 

Why do I need NOS vs. any of the reputable products on the market? :icon_scratch:

 

Help a brother out please! :icon_salut:

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It's a crapshoot unless you have a tube tester or a very reliable supplier.

 

I don't have either so I take my life in my hands every time I buy tubes :-/

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If they are actually NOS - New Old Stock, your chances of getting good ones should be the same as buying current production. Because NOS have never been used. Otherwise, they are used tubes. Used ones may be vintage tubes, but still used. ANOS is just another acronym for Used.

 

As for a source, most you find will be used Vintage. Looked for matched numbers. And that ... is still a crap shoot.

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kcanostubes.com

And yes it seems most of them are gone. I'm lucky enough to have acquired some new old stock stuff over the years. Nothing super special, but enough I suppose. I would guess the best parts about old tube are that they outlast new production by a mile (well most of the time). And they seem to sound better vintage style circuits than new production tubes.

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I'm really lucky in that my amp guy has a pretty sizable stash, and knows what's what with them. He's tested all of them. Every once in a while I'll go "tone mining" at his shop. This consists of taking one of my amps in and just switching tubes in and out, until I hit a tube or combination of tubes that pleases my ears. Done that a few times, and it's always satisfying. Not always cheap...but satisfying. It's amazing how tubes can affect the tone of an amp...for better or worse!

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What 'Slate said…tube rolling is a gas. I was given a nice tube tester a while back, and I stock up on my stash from ebay. I'm a careful buyer, and expect about a third of my purchases to not be wonderful in sonic results. With that in mind, I have accumulated a nice collection to voice amps with. I sometimes invite a player over and we roll tubes in their amp, when that person gets the tone set desired, I sell the tubes to that musician.

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What 'Slate said…tube rolling is a gas. I was given a nice tube tester a while back, and I stock up on my stash from ebay. I'm a careful buyer, and expect about a third of my purchases to not be wonderful in sonic results. With that in mind, I have accumulated a nice collection to voice amps with. I sometimes invite a player over and we roll tubes in their amp, when that person gets the tone set desired, I sell the tubes to that musician.

 

The 'try before you buy' is a great idea. If you were in my neck of the woods, I'd enjoy testing various tubes in my amps. Seems I'm always swapping blindly.

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I think that if you are on the obsessive quest for the "perfect tone" then the hunt for nos tubes will help scratch the itch for a while. My ears are not good enough to hear a difference.

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I think you might be surprised at the differences you would hear, given the opportunity.

+1

I remember the first time I did. I had a Peavey Classic 30 in the early '90s that had stock Chinese preamp tubes in it. I swapped them out in favor of some JAN/GE tubes. It was almost a religious experience! And I don't consider myself one who would be able to tell the difference either.

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If you are going to spend money on NOS tubes, in my opinion, they should be preamp tubes. We actually have some very good current production power tubes; Tungsten Sol 6v6s, 6L6s, 5881s, TAD 6L6s, ect.....

 

But NOTHING sounds like vintage RCA 12ax7s (and to a less extent RCA 12at7s). Is $35-40/12ax7 expensive? Yea, but they will last for about 10 yrs.

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I had the mindset that tubes couldn't make a difference and used what I considered to be the best of the new stuff on the market. I was wrong. It had been so long since I used RCA, GE., Sylvania, Mullard, etc. pre-amp tubes that my ears had forgotten. Many messages back and forth with Slider313 had me buying some NOS tubes. Some of them had different numbers from what was on the tube chart. After installing them it was truly a religious experience as davesultra said. I won't buy just any pre-amp tubes again. My Fender DRRI is the envy of everyone that is around during our weekly jam sessions. They can't believe it's a re-issue. KCA tubes is a good place to start.

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If you are going to spend money on NOS tubes, in my opinion, they should be preamp tubes. We actually have some very good current production power tubes; Tungsten Sol 6v6s, 6L6s, 5881s, TAD 6L6s, ect.....

 

But NOTHING sounds like vintage RCA 12ax7s (and to a less extent RCA 1nialva2at7s). Is $35-40/12ax7 expensive? Yea, but they will last for about 10 yrs.

That's because you don't wind those output tubes up John:) And don't forget how good Sylvania 12AX7s sound! Every one of my amps

has either an RCA or a Sylvania in the critical 12ax7 slots. I don't have a favorite between the two, I go tube by tube, although many V1

12AX7's have been swapped for 5751's.

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My ears are really not that picky, but when I bought some RCA blackplates 12 ax7s (I think) They are pre amp tubes anyway, and I put em in my old Gibby GA-8.. It made a big difference!! How? Well that's hard to explain.. Maybe fuller, with a bit more punch.. I dunno.. Maybe I'm just a cork sniffer who wants expensive tubes to sound better.. :icon_sunny:

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