Tube Socket help, I'm looking at a few, but not sure which material to buy?

[Palustris]

OK, I know you have received a lot of information, much of it conflicting, so let me put in my $.02: you are far better off with any NOS U.S. made socket than any ceramic Chinese made socket. The Chinese sockets are trash: weak mounting ears and cheesey contacts that weaken quickly and create intermittant noise.

Buy a good quality Korean Micalex before you buy a very poor quality ceramic.

Just for comparison here is a high quality ceramic NOS made in the US.

15 TUBE SOCKETS,AUDIO,RADIO,TUBES CERAMIC BASE WWII ERA - eBay (item 160369811956 end time Oct-21-09 10:56:05 PDT)

Sorry, I have already bought these; but the picture shows clearly the difference in quality.

[richwalters]

Here is the Belton pic of an int oct. I find them sturdy and reliable. One can get them from
TubeDepot.com!
Those loose chinese sockets I was on about definitely need extra tube support. No use on a Fender.

richy

[nic6paul]

Originally Posted by richwalters

Here is the Belton pic of an int oct. I find them sturdy and reliable. One can get them from
TubeDepot.com!
Those loose chinese sockets I was on about definitely need extra tube support. No use on a Fender.

richy

I bought a set of belton sockets for my Tubelab Simple SE but unfortunately the pin spacing didnt work with the pcb. I really liked the quality of those compared to the chinese sockets that I currently am using.

[Ty_Bower]

Originally Posted by nic6paul

I bought a set of belton sockets for my Tubelab Simple SE but unfortunately the pin spacing didnt work with the pcb.

Yes, their PCB mount sockets are a little funny.


http://s69.photobucket.com/albums/i4...tGo/Belton.jpg

[ChrisA]

Buy the Belton sockets, which are made of Micalex.

The best ones are made buy Belton and the material is "Micalex".
Don't bother with ebay, buy from a reputable souce. AES has Belton sockets
for $3.50 each. Search for P/N P-ST8-209MIP Antique Electronic Supply

For those not into Fender Guitar amps the main thing to look for in a socket for this amp is the contacts that grip the pins, not the insolation material as the tubes are mounted base up and hang from the socket, you don't want a loose fit.

[Pioneer621]

Well, if the tube sockets I am looking at on ebay (the ones I posted in my first post) are junk I won’t waste money on them. The way the tubes will be in these style amps I don’t want to risk one slipping out or making bad contact so I will look for a better socket. No one said to buy or not to buy the particular ones I was looking at so I thought they may be decent enough, but they are likely not very high quality & may not be well suited for the Fender amps.

Palustris,
The sockets in the picture look nice, the contacts on those look like they go around the tube pins well & make good contact, looks like it would hold the tube in well too.

Richwalters,
The Belton sockets look pretty good as well, I can’t see the contacts real well but they look good, I can’t really say much about any of them since I don’t have them here to compare, but they look nice. The New Old Stock ones Palustris showed look like they may be a little better made, but I can’t really say for sure as again I don’t have much experience with tube sockets & those NOS ones are quite a bit older.

Ok, do you guys think the Belton sockets would be adequate for my application & do they seem to hold the tubes in place with a nice snug fit? The tubes hang upside down in these Fender amps so the socket needs to hold them well.

I don’t think the guy is in a huge hurry to get it back, so I could keep my eye out for some NOS quality sockets on ebay & try to get a good price them. I don’t want to put junk or trash sockets in this guys amp, I am trying to save money, but there has to be something reasonable out here that is at a minimum the same quality or better then the original ones Fender used in there amps. The Belton socket may just be what I need?

The guy gave me the money for new tubes which I bought & there was a few dollars extra which he said to keep, I don’t think we are going to charge him anything for the sockets or the work as is why I was trying not to spend a ton, hopefully the Belton sockets are good & will work for this amp as they are not too expensive & I will only be spending a few bucks out of my pocket. I guess I sound cheap here, but I don’t have much money for this kind of stuff.

Ok, well I won’t jump into buying anything just yet, I will browse on ebay a bit more & see what I can find, if you guys think the Beltons are good I will probably get a set of them, but I won’t rush into buying anything.

Again, I appreciate all the help with this as I have never had to buy tube sockets yet & there seemed to be a few different types out there & I wanted to get some info on the subject before I went and bought some. Sometimes its good to live and learn, but it can be costly when you buy cheap stuff & end up replacing it with something better because the first stuff was too cheaply made. Thanks for all the help everybody!

[Pioneer621]

Buy the Belton sockets, which are made of Micalex.

The best ones are made buy Belton and the material is "Micalex".
Don't bother with ebay, buy from a reputable souce. AES has Belton sockets
for $3.50 each. Search for P/N P-ST8-209MIP Antique Electronic Supply

For those not into Fender Guitar amps the main thing to look for in a socket for this amp is the contacts that grip the pins, not the insolation material as the tubes are mounted base up and hang from the socket, you don't want a loose fit.

ChrisA, Yes that is one of my concerns; holding the tube in snuggly as they hang upside down in these Fender amps & need contacts that will grip the pins like you say.

Well, it seems a few people seem happy with the Belton Micalex sockets, so I am leaning towards them. They look like decent sockets as long as they do hold the tube in tightly.

[wrenchone]

Ive been grabbing a variety of sockets of various materials for use in amps as aesthetics demand - these are a few observations....

I'm using the Belton sockets in my Kingfisher amp. The octal sockets have fork contacts (as opposed to sleeve contacts) with very good retention force. This I would think is important in a guitar amp, which is likely to see a lot of mechanical abuse and vibration. I've also seen Russian sockets with fork contacts at very reasonable prices, both in black phenolic and ceramic. Since you're replacing a socket that had some high voltage tracking issues, ceramic may be your best bet, as George has mentioned. I have both of these sockets in hand (Russian phenolic and ceramic octals), and the build quality looks good - not surprising, since they were most likely military issue. I used the Beltons in my Kingfisher, as I had both 9-pins and octals in matching colors, and the tubes are right there on the top of the amp (ah, aesthetics...). The Belton octal socket has built-in mounting flange, while the Russian octal sockets have a separate mounting ring that can be deployed for either above or under-chassis mounting - a nice feature, though the rings are easy to misplace.

The Belton 9-pin sockets are good quality with ok retention force. They have sleeve contacts, as do the majority of sockets this size. I've seen 9-pin sockets for auction that appear to have fork contacts, but I wouldn't swear to it. The Belton micalex body material is very hard and durable, and stands up to soldering heat with no sign of degradation. This appears to be better quality material than your run-of-the-mill brown phenolic, maybe not far short of ceramic. I don't know about the tracking resistance compared to ceramic, though I would bet that the Belton material is far superior to plain phenolic in tracking resistance (it may not even be phenolic - it feels harder).

[wrenchone]

You may also want to invest in some jaw-style tube retainers. The fork contacts grip the tube pins pretty tightly, but I don't know that I'd totally trust that by itself to hold an upside down tube in place. Also, heat resistance is important, as all the air heated by the tubes is wafted upward, bathing the tube bases and sockets.

[Palustris]

Originally Posted by ChrisA

Buy the Belton sockets, which are made of Micalex.

Don't bother with ebay

Gotta agree there: leave the good ones for me.