The old man told me to get it all out of the basement

dp63130 · 2008-03-22 3:15 pm

Howdy,
newb here getting ready to build his first rig, thinking the bottlehead might be the best option after reading some threads.

Anyway, my Pop was a hobbiest and told me to start pulling things out of the basement, tons of good stuff but the first things I grabbed were a few boxes of tubes, transformers, caps, etc...

I grabbed about 4 boxes(easily a couple hundred tubes) can anyone give me a little history lesson on these "Conn" tubes? looks like google is saying it was an organ company? There are a ton of GE and RCA tubes, just seems there are way more of the "Conn" type. He said they are all in good working order...

Thanks

An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.

nkg · 2008-03-22 3:51 pm

You need to show what the printing on the glass is.
nkg

tubewade · 2008-03-22 7:29 pm

You have a good assortment of valves to work with. Yes, Conn is an instrument manufacturer and all of the valves that say Conn would have come out of, or been intended for use in, an organ. They weren't manufactured by Conn, but most likely were manufactured by RCA, Sylvania, GE or Amperex.

Ty_Bower · 2008-03-22 7:45 pm

Cool find. Lots of small signal tubes, a bunch of rectifiers. I didn't notice too many power tubes, except for the 7868. How many of those do you have?

Have you been to Duncan's tube data lookup page?
http://tdsl.duncanamps.com/tubesearch.php

dp63130 · 2008-03-22 8:24 pm

dp63130 · 2008-03-22 8:32 pm

Thanks for the link, I'll check it out!
There are 26 of the 7868 tubes.

Ty_Bower said:
Cool find. Lots of small signal tubes, a bunch of rectifiers. I didn't notice too many power tubes, except for the 7868. How many of those do you have?

Have you been to Duncan's tube data lookup page?
http://tdsl.duncanamps.com/tubesearch.php

GordonW · 2008-03-22 9:18 pm

7027A = basically, a 6L6GC. One version of about the most ubiquitous output tube EVER.

With 40 of those, you can build WHATEVER YOU WANT.

Regards,
Gordon.

7n7is · 2008-03-22 9:46 pm

From the RCA receiving tube manual.

http://www.bonavolta.ch/hobby/en/audio/7868.htm

http://www.mif.pg.gda.pl/homepages/frank/sheets/049/7/7868.pdf

Brett · 2008-03-22 10:58 pm

Sell all of the 12AU7's. Horrible audio tube. Use the money for others.

The 7027's as has been said ore a 6L6 variant and a great tube. There are a wealth of designs out there for these.

7868 is a 9 pin 7591, a tube I'm very fond of. I would personally build a few amps around these, but they also have a bit of value if they're NOS on the secondhand market for owners of old Fisher and other amps.

mashaffer · 2008-03-22 11:03 pm

Nice heritage. I am waxing a bit green.

I find this site very useful..

Lotsa Data Sheets

mike

jnb · 2008-03-22 11:36 pm

Keep some of the 12AU7s. They're good to learn on, easy to work with, and versatile. They will also serve well in secondary roles.

dp63130 · 2008-03-23 12:21 am

Thanks for all feedback guys, really appreciate it.
I've read a few threads but does everyone think the bottlehead Foreplay III is a nice beginner kit?
-also
Any idea where I should sell the 12AU7? and what price is decent?

I started cleaning all the transformers, there are 10 of these but I have no idea how to ID them..
The only info on is K70272 3946550
http://s302.photobucket.com/albums/nn104/dp63130/?action=view&current=Photo13.jpg
The ones in the background are K70271... those look much bigger than the other guys.

again , I appreciate the help, doesnt have too much to offer on the subject.

d

pedroskova · 2008-03-23 12:28 am

dp63130 said:
I started cleaning all the transformers, there are 10 of these but I have no idea how to ID them..
The only info on is K70272 3946550
http://s302.photobucket.com/albums/nn104/dp63130/?action=view&current=Photo13.jpg
The ones in the background are K70271... those look much bigger than the other guys.

again , I appreciate the help, doesnt have too much to offer on the subject.

d

...the 394 code shows them to be Foster transformers...whom I've never come across before.

EDIT: they're still in business ...email them: maybe you'll get lucky.

Brett · 2008-03-23 12:34 am

dp63130 said:
Any idea where I should sell the 12AU7? and what price is decent?

Ebay. Sell them individually or in pairs and I would suggest listing them in both the hifi sections as well as guitar amps as there are quite a few MI amps that use them. Check current/past listings to get a feel on price. Play up the NOS aspect.
Might also be worth digging around to see who actually made them as the Conn and Zenith are both relabels to the best of my knowledge.

Then, you can use the $ to buy some good iron.

dp63130 · 2008-03-23 12:37 am

Great, I'm not excited about using ebay but I'll grab the old man a bottle of scotch.

Good iron?

Brett · 2008-03-23 12:52 am

dp63130 said:
Great, I'm not excited about using ebay but I'll grab the old man a bottle of scotch.

Unfortunately, it's your best bet for selling them unless you take a bit hit by selling them in bulk to a dealer.

The scotch sounds like a good idea. Get him plastered and see what else you can raid.

dp63130 said:
Good iron?

Power and output transformers. Lundahl, Magnequest and Electraprint are three great makers, all easily available in the US. I've used all of them, and have a preference for the Lundahls. Power transformers from Hammond as well as secondhand are also good options.

dp63130 · 2008-03-23 12:55 am

Cool thanks.

Actually, thats how I came to own all this stuff, booze. Although he wants an amp out of it... I'll build him one once I get the training wheels off.

-d

Brett said:
Unfortunately, it's your best bet for selling them unless you take a bit hit by selling them in bulk to a dealer.

The scotch sounds like a good idea. Get him plastered and see what else you can raid.

Power and output transformers. Lundahl, Magnequest and Electraprint are three great makers, all easily available in the US. I've used all of them, and have a preference for the Lundahls. Power transformers from Hammond as well as secondhand are also good options.

gain wire · 2008-03-23 1:01 am

If you're wondering what he means by iron, he means the output transformer. This is a very important part of a tube amplifier. The laminations (where the coils are wound on, with paper sandwiched in between) are made of iron, hence, the term iron! I've read that Mercury magnetics makes excellent reproductions of the classic transformers used in guitar amplifiers.
I'm done now.
by the way I want your 12au7 tubes.

Ty_Bower · 2008-03-24 12:45 am

dp63130 said:
Actually, thats how I came to own all this stuff, booze.

Hey! I resemble that remark!

dp63130 · 2008-03-25 1:23 am

more picts

Started going thru the other box, I'd say half of these tubes have the silver deposit at the top of the tube... I guess I need to buy a tester since they are used? No idea whats in the box or if they are any good but if I had to guess there are 3 or 4 hundred in this box too.

There are too many different tubes but some of the numbers are:
Super Airline 1K3
Silvertone 12AV5
Emerson 6AX4
17GT5
Sylvania 1G3GT
6Z10
6JT8
3BU8
12B4A
6EJ7
304TL
6B4G
8FQ71
Western Electric 408A
6CW5

An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.

Are any of these usable for smaller amps or are they headed for the recycle bin?

The old man told me to get it all out of the basement

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