This forum seems to have little overlap with the big bucks hifi crowd. I’m sure someone has bought some given the impressive setups that have been posted.
I’d really like to buy some of those Chinese WE 205d or 102d tubes but they have gotten expensive.
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Another one is the ECL86, hopefully. Lots of classic audio uses it, and there are modern circuits like the original dissident audio Baby Huey as well.
Thinking about NOS tv/radio tubes, I have a 1950s am/FM zenith radio. It still works excellently and is used regularly on its original set of tubes... The Mica capacitors are beginning to play up but I haven't changed them yet! It's a 110v unit no transformer so I use a Iso to keep it safe. Now to the point...
I've seen plenty of guitarists who have no idea about tube swapping and never have in over a decade. Others are more regular (every two years etc) and a select few retube on tours more often. (It's probably the freight that kills the tubes) I you were to make a product using odd ball sweep tubes, tv tubes etc. How many spares do you need for product support? I'e each amp needs 10x pairs of spare opt tubes in the shop stash not for sale except for servicing past clients amps.
And then finally in a decades time if your still building amps and selling them the parts dry up and your old amp will need rebuilding and retubing back to el84 etc.
I'm not against nos tv tubes and are about to build a pair of tweed style amps for myself and a friend. Being hobbyist who aims to sell an amp or two year to fund the next project, I'm not keen to use anything except mainstream tubes for a amp that goes to a stranger. It's simply good business. Pricing on new WE tubes? I'd guess small dual triodes to come in around $25.00 max and larger power tubes $60-70 max each.
Who else wants to take a realistic guess at pricing? I'm sure price expectations would help indicate to WE the price people are willing to pay.
I've seen plenty of guitarists who have no idea about tube swapping and never have in over a decade. Others are more regular (every two years etc) and a select few retube on tours more often. (It's probably the freight that kills the tubes) I you were to make a product using odd ball sweep tubes, tv tubes etc. How many spares do you need for product support? I'e each amp needs 10x pairs of spare opt tubes in the shop stash not for sale except for servicing past clients amps.
And then finally in a decades time if your still building amps and selling them the parts dry up and your old amp will need rebuilding and retubing back to el84 etc.
I'm not against nos tv tubes and are about to build a pair of tweed style amps for myself and a friend. Being hobbyist who aims to sell an amp or two year to fund the next project, I'm not keen to use anything except mainstream tubes for a amp that goes to a stranger. It's simply good business. Pricing on new WE tubes? I'd guess small dual triodes to come in around $25.00 max and larger power tubes $60-70 max each.
Who else wants to take a realistic guess at pricing? I'm sure price expectations would help indicate to WE the price people are willing to pay.
Indeed, and the flip side of this is that nobody can start up a production line of any miniature button-base valves without a commitment for at least that kind of initial order, times lots. Folks can hand build a few pinch base valves in pre-War fashion and charge appropriately, if the market will bear it (read: 300B). But the hope of new production miniatures, even something borderline profitable (maybe) like a 7199, will only cause heartache. The dollars just can't work. New machinery, new staffing, NLA materials, huge learning curve before any income, etc. That ship has sailed.
We need to learn to live in the present. Try to read some of smoking-amp's (and a few others) guidelines, grounded in reality. The past is not coming back, but the future is far from bleak.
We adapt or we die off, but we can't go back because it's not there anymore.
All good fortune,
Chris
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And not to be mean, but somewhat negative, because it can't be helped: Western Electric was dissolved back in the Reagan administration. A modern company bearing its name has the same connection to Ma Bell as modern TungSol, Genalex, Mullard, etc. have to their originals - a desire for a past that has slipped away. Our desire is admirable; our self delusion needs to be closely questioned.
All good fortune, and now I'll shut my yap,
Chris
All good fortune, and now I'll shut my yap,
Chris
If I were WE, I’d be sweating bullets. Can you imagine what will happen to their 300B sales if they make an “affordable” 12AX7 and the reviews are anything less than stellar?
I'm fairly optimistic, on some of the Mullard factory tour movies towards the end of their era you can see the almost fully automated miniature 9 pin valve lines (Mullard are almost boasting this). If the new WE plant has picked up a similar line of machines I think it's all possible. I mean an incandescent lightbulb factory is automated, so what's a few more elements in the glass bubble. Also a big company like Behringer uses a bunch of dual triodes in many of their current products and they're popular. A couple of million dollars of parts procurement is nothing. I see both sides of the coin and obviously WE are going to take the plunge. No pain no gain.. Any way if they go under I'm ok as I could never afford a pair of 300b's unless they're a gift 😉How about Brimar, what's holding them back, money or regulations?
Good point. Automation is getting cheaper and more widespread every day. No need for trying to spin up a new factory based on machines older than every employee.
Apart from the obvious quality and mechanical issues with a new tube line is the chemical composition of the cathode coatings.
I believe WE has this well in hand. The rest is QC and logistics. Maybe smuggle a few of the Russians over to help 😉 I say go for it WE
I believe WE has this well in hand. The rest is QC and logistics. Maybe smuggle a few of the Russians over to help 😉 I say go for it WE
It's entirely possible now that EH will need to source products from another factory.
I'm hearing Russia will put huge tariffs on all tech exports, and then the USA to do the same on imports, then there's the travel bans being toted.
As for the cathodes I always thought they'd be problematic but allegedly not so. There's story
of the Adelaide Phillips? Tube factory limiting the package size of the cathodes that came pre-made from another factory in Europe for one line of tubes, 6cm5 I think, I thought it a was radiation problem, maybie not. Maybie just a guarantee against loss of freight or damage.
I'm hearing Russia will put huge tariffs on all tech exports, and then the USA to do the same on imports, then there's the travel bans being toted.
As for the cathodes I always thought they'd be problematic but allegedly not so. There's story
of the Adelaide Phillips? Tube factory limiting the package size of the cathodes that came pre-made from another factory in Europe for one line of tubes, 6cm5 I think, I thought it a was radiation problem, maybie not. Maybie just a guarantee against loss of freight or damage.
This honestly is one of the most inane threads I have ever seen on here. Hello!? WE does not and will never make 12AX7 tubes. It is sad how few know any history of the company on here. I hope the owner reads this and makes WE tubes and not the crap people are pushing here.
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I figured that there are plenty of projects to keep me satisfied until I'm buried that use common garden tubes (low mu output and high mu input) - meaning stuff that is in production in China and the Slovak Republic. WE is a nostalgic play, whom I'd love to see prosper by making tubes that have sufficient demand.
I'm pretty sure most people here know that WE never made a 12AX7. WE already makes a 300b and 274b so I'm not sure what you're so angry about. What are you going to do if WE does crank out a 12AX7?
WE is like RCA*: A memory. The actual Western Electric being desolved in the 1980's... WE will make 12AX7 because money talks. They would be foolish not to. Even though 12AX7 is crap compared to 6N2P IMHO.*RCA and GE brands are tm of Thomson now, right?
** growing up in the 80's/90's, RCA meant Renowned Crap Association... But Sarnoff was gone by then...
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Depends on whether WE's business plan is to service the products of a dead and gone industry or gamble on the potential of revitalizing a new one. The 7199 is good example of the former, charitably a very mediocre tube selected for its low implementation cost during a specific period in audio. Sounds to me like basing a business venture on a market for historically accurate 1970s small block Chev Holley carburetors.