212Mavguy Posted January 23, 2020 Posted January 23, 2020 ...Have not been exhibiting any GAS tendencies for many, many months until the last 24 hours, I paid off my credit card yesterday. Oooops... Saw a VOS, actually NOS Valvo red print labeled E80CC/6085 dual triode preamp tube on Ebay, they often go for wildly varying prices anywhere from 45 to over150 bucks a pop before shipping. This tube has a gain factor that is low, somewhere around 12AU7 territory, mu of 18, but they put out a lot of current and are built to last 10,000 hours and they do sound fantastic. They are pin compatible with 12ax7. I have one that I stuck in the V1 position of my Red Plate Blues Machine a few months earlier to tame the "splat" that I hear at the pick attack of this amp's clean channel when using a flat pick and aggressive attack, the distortion lasts only a very short period of time and then the rest of the note sounds fine, it is a product of the tweed style preamp it has. This happens at all clean channel gain settings...I have another Red Plate, a really rare one, an Aurora 34 head, number 7 of the only 7 ever made, and it has the same preamp and also exhibits the same behavior. Anyway, I saw this tube's auction going for 20 bucks opening bid plus 10 bucks shipping, it had a late evening ending time, so for shits and giggles I tossed in a bid and went to sleep. When I woke up, I had won the auction for opening bid. Yaaaay! So that was the first auction thang for anything but fishing equipment for at least the past year...so now I can use the new tube in my Aurora 34. Part 2.... For a few days prior I had seen a Roy Clark up, finished in antique natural like my 555 and it had been sitting below market price from the original owner, also on eBay. I noticed that the closing time was (again) not at the optimum eBay prime time, in this case about three hours earlier than would have provided more desirable results for the seller price wise. The pics were quite good. The description was sparsely worded. One thing I found interesting was that the center block not attached to the back, unlike my 555, also a thin bodied instrument. It looked like it had been barely played... So after work today I did not have enough time to get home and use my laptop, and I had never used my cell phone to bid on any eBay auction before, I went to my favorite bar at the ski resort after a fantastic day of teaching, had a Stella poured and waited the last 21 minutes, sipping and drooling while watching the closing minutes' bids for activity hurling the price put of reach, started my bid/snipe process with 30 seconds to go instead of 8, had a couple fumble fingered moments of anxiety using the cell phone's dialer, but luckily put in the confirming bid with 10 seconds to spare at a price that I thought would win. Usually I hit the confirm button with only 3 seconds to go on the laptop at home. Luckily, there was no upward hurling of the price in the last seconds. My heart was truly pounding. When sniping, you either win or lose, you find out right after the auction ends, either a Yay! or a Waaaah! Occasionally, particularly in my tube auction activities I have been beaten in literally the last second. I have a NHGD on the way! When it gets here I'll A/B it with my 555 and share my thoughts after I perform the hours of due diligence tweaking the setup if necessary and pickup adjustments for both pickup and string to string balance. The type of pickups in it were not listed in the description, so I'm guessing Schallers. My 530 has those in it, they sound gorgeous in that one so am not worried. Likely they will sound hotter than the Seth Lovers in my 555. I did not get this at a retailer on a blowout sale, got this 21 year old instrument made by the "old crew" like I got all but one of my Heritage guitars and bass,...on eBay... for a price that was waaaay better than any dealer's blowout price on a new one. Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay! And yes, I'm blaming the cell phone!
Gitfiddler Posted January 23, 2020 Posted January 23, 2020 Hey 212, each and every time I see one of your posts, I immediately fill a special glass with an equally special adult beverage, and slowly read and sip...sip and read until I'm smiling like a love-struck teenage girl. Congratulations on your NTD (New Tube Day) and NHGD New Heritage guitar day! Outstanding Ebay-ing. (Pics or it didn't happen!)
FredZepp Posted January 23, 2020 Posted January 23, 2020 Congrats on the Roy Clark deal . A NHGD is very exciting.. ! I dig it in natural finish. But I know you were pretty thrilled about grabbing that tube also... a good 24 hours there with both of those finds.
DetroitBlues Posted January 23, 2020 Posted January 23, 2020 Nothing quite like a NGD! Especially on a rarer model. Congratulations. Looking forward to some center-fold quality pictures and a full tone report.
tsp17 Posted January 23, 2020 Posted January 23, 2020 7 hours ago, DetroitBlues said: Nothing quite like a NGD! Especially on a rarer model. Congratulations. Looking forward to some center-fold quality pictures and a full tone report. +1!
yoslate Posted January 23, 2020 Posted January 23, 2020 212, I, as Tim does, also enjoy your posts. Might be a bit better though if you'd include a little detail occasionally! (Congrats on the scores! And never did go for one, but I've been intrigued by the Red Plate noisemakers for quie some time!)
212Mavguy Posted January 24, 2020 Author Posted January 24, 2020 Crap! There is nothing worse than feeling the weight of the coolest , most influential folks in the forum asking for me to actually post pics. AAAAAAUGH! Yeah, guys, keep heaping it on, bring it... huge, I can feel it coming... know that I deserve it. Oooh, the guilt! The guilt! I feel it! Waaaaaah! Feeling so low that gonna have to part my toes to stick out my tongue. I feel...so IGNANT! Just the few of you that have responded have a total of around 55,000 posts here. oh, the mass is beyond nuking critical! Guess I am gonna have to find someone who knows cell phone I.T. to get me out of this jam I'm in. Me actually posting pics on a thread...reminds me of Gallagher the comedian...Totally New Concept! OK, yep I done asked for it...keep piling it on...we do need a few laughs here these days, so I'll put myself on the cross here. Let's have some sledge-o-matic flame fun with this.
JeffB Posted January 24, 2020 Posted January 24, 2020 4 minutes ago, 212Mavguy said: Feeling so low that gonna have to part my toes to stick out my tongue. Ha! LOL! Ha ha. Thats great. Im going to use it. Oh yeah! looking forward to the pic's and rundown when the RC arrives.
Gitfiddler Posted January 24, 2020 Posted January 24, 2020 13 hours ago, 212Mavguy said: Yes You did good, my friend!
Steiner Posted January 24, 2020 Posted January 24, 2020 16 hours ago, 212Mavguy said: Yes See how easy it is to get photos up?
212Mavguy Posted January 25, 2020 Author Posted January 25, 2020 Steiner, yes, but... I lack those skills that Gitfiddler so kindly and amply displayed. Thanks to him for bailing me out, and thanks to all respondents for the compliments. It is supposed to arrive tomorrow afternoon. It will be sitting in its case in the house for overnight. In the pics it looks as if it was played very little, so am taking that like new look as a sign that the seller may have not enjoyed playing through it all that much. I can't imagine that the setup is going to be all that dialed in. Will put some new strings on it unless it arrives with new ones. The tube turned out to be junk...the inside of the bottle showed staining from many hours of use, was also microphonic and noisy. It's going to be returned. You win some, you lose some...in the old stock tube auctions, I expect one or two out of five to be crap. Tube testers are poor predictors of in circuit results.
Steiner Posted January 25, 2020 Posted January 25, 2020 212Mavguy, it's who you know, not what you know. Speaking of that; there's a tube tester on the market that came out 3 to 5 years ago, costs about $250. Are you familiar with it? If so, is it viable? Is there a viable alternative? I agree with your assessment on the guitar. I've bought a few that needed nothing more than a good luthier's talent to become top-shelf instruments. Happy NGD! Nice snatch!!!
212Mavguy Posted January 27, 2020 Author Posted January 27, 2020 I may have messed up...in looking at the headstock photos, there might exist a cracked or repaired headstock that was not disclosed in the written description...the staining of the finish from a guitar hanger was described in writing and is also visible. if what looks like a crack is just a scratch or finish crack is no biggie, of course. If the defect is visible in the pics, the seller may say that the problem was actually disclosed...and therefore the buyer has reduced or no recourse. The guitar is going to arrive a few days overdue from the estimated arrival date. The seller does have 100% positive feedback for the last 12 months. If it does turn out to be a wood crack or repair the resale value won't be much different from the auction's closing price. If that is the case I will probably exercise the return to seller option. Finish crack will not have a great impact, affecting resale value much less. In the pics it does look more like wood cracking or repair, though. I failed to zoom in on those headstock pics before pulling the trigger...sloppy on my part. If the instrument ends up sounding fantastic I might also consider keeping it as a "Player" gig instrument. RE: tube tester...Steiner, Unfortunately, the best way for testing power tubes still is to measure in a real amp. In the real amp you can hear it as well as obtaining current draw numbers. Sometimes power tubes are microphonic as well as preamp tubes are, and that is easiest to find in a real amp while operating. The Amplitrex is likely the best tube tester out there, but they are very expensive. So better to just roll the dice and gamble from my viewpoint for my personal needs. The relatively new Orange tube tester costs around 500 bucks a pop new...
rockabilly69 Posted January 28, 2020 Posted January 28, 2020 6 hours ago, 212Mavguy said: I may have messed up...in looking at the headstock photos, there might exist a cracked or repaired headstock that was not disclosed in the written description...the staining of the finish from a guitar hanger was described in writing and is also visible. if what looks like a crack is just a scratch or finish crack is no biggie, of course. If the defect is visible in the pics, the seller may say that the problem was actually disclosed...and therefore the buyer has reduced or no recourse. The guitar is going to arrive a few days overdue from the estimated arrival date. The seller does have 100% positive feedback for the last 12 months. If it does turn out to be a wood crack or repair the resale value won't be much different from the auction's closing price. If that is the case I will probably exercise the return to seller option. Finish crack will not have a great impact, affecting resale value much less. In the pics it does look more like wood cracking or repair, though. I failed to zoom in on those headstock pics before pulling the trigger...sloppy on my part. If the instrument ends up sounding fantastic I might also consider keeping it as a "Player" gig instrument. RE: tube tester...Steiner, Unfortunately, the best way for testing power tubes still is to measure in a real amp. In the real amp you can hear it as well as obtaining current draw numbers. Sometimes power tubes are microphonic as well as preamp tubes are, and that is easiest to find in a real amp while operating. The Amplitrex is likely the best tube tester out there, but they are very expensive. So better to just roll the dice and gamble from my viewpoint for my personal needs. The relatively new Orange tube tester costs around 500 bucks a pop new... Hey Wheaties, I have the professional version of ADOBE photoshop on my computer, and I copied all the pics that were on the ebay listing and blew them up to see what you were describing as a possible crack. After looking at all three pics that would have revealed the crack, I don't think there's a crack there, but I'm pretty sure both sides of the headstock are a bit dinged up from a hanging guitar stand. I'm sure a little nitro touch-up can clean that up!
Steiner Posted January 28, 2020 Posted January 28, 2020 11 hours ago, 212Mavguy said: RE: tube tester...Steiner, Unfortunately, the best way for testing power tubes still is to measure in a real amp. In the real amp you can hear it as well as obtaining current draw numbers. Sometimes power tubes are microphonic as well as preamp tubes are, and that is easiest to find in a real amp while operating. The Amplitrex is likely the best tube tester out there, but they are very expensive. So better to just roll the dice and gamble from my viewpoint for my personal needs. The relatively new Orange tube tester costs around 500 bucks a pop new... It was the Orange unit I was thinking about. It seems like a very steep price of entry. I don't go through enough tubes to sanctify the price. Thank you for your thoughts.
212Mavguy Posted January 28, 2020 Author Posted January 28, 2020 Steep price of entry indeed! Cheaper to just buy what you desire and play old stock tube roulette...What a pile of overpriced CRAP that Orange tester is...30 bucks worth of parts (if even that) inside. Just like one of their modern production amps...ugh. Buy a RedPlate or Ceriatone to get real tone at a fair price. Dan, I saw both stains and something on both sides that looks at least like finish cracks... I sure hope that it's only a boogered finish! If there is no headstock cracking then I'm gonna leave that situation alone, plug straight in to my Harry Joyce and play so loud that I piss my Parrots off!. Bet it arrives tomorrow, only 3 days late. No wonder I'm so worked up.
rockabilly69 Posted January 28, 2020 Posted January 28, 2020 2 hours ago, 212Mavguy said: Steep price of entry indeed! Cheaper to just buy what you desire and play old stock tube roulette...What a pile of overpriced CRAP that Orange tester is...30 bucks worth of parts (if even that) inside. Just like one of their modern production amps...ugh. Buy a RedPlate or Ceriatone to get real tone at a fair price. Dan, I saw both stains and something on both sides that looks at least like finish cracks... I sure hope that it's only a boogered finish! If there is no headstock cracking then I'm gonna leave that situation alone, plug straight in to my Harry Joyce and play so loud that I piss my Parrots off!. Bet it arrives tomorrow, only 3 days late. No wonder I'm so worked up. yeah they are probably minor stains and finish mars from a stand, like I said easy repair if that's all it is, and as you said, just play the damn thing:) You must have been in a hurry Saturday, I was wanting to have a beer with you as I had to stick around PARK CITY for a 7:30 Sundance gig at The Montage.
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