New Tube Tester Day

[psychodave]

I must say, tube testing/matching equipment gas is something Ive not really experienced until now... It is somewhat strange
WoOZ and Psychodave are miles ahead of me in ways I have not even thought about until now
Years ago, I purchased a Marshall Dual Monoblock 100/100 power amp from Psychodave, the big day came with its arrival. After a minimum of 2 hours to get it unboxed and out of the nuclear bombproof packing job (it was a thing of beauty, really) I went to install the tubes and noticed Dave had the SED Winged C's numbered for each of the 8 sockets and had instructed me to make sure they were each in the right socket, as he had matched them up and biased the amp with each one in a specific location..
I remember at the time thinking "wow, Dave is uncommonly anal about power tubes" I later realized that it was more "No, he just knows more about this than I do, and likes everything to be as good as it can be. And he has taken the time and effort required to learn what he has learned over the years"
I much more appreciated Dave for that...

Now those 8 winged c’s would be worth big $$$ today.

Seriously, I leave nothing to chance. I write down everything I use and mark all tubes and amps so I can replicate (or get as close as possible) to recreating a sound or feel. For me, the tube testers were a necessity simply because I have literally 100’s of tubes. I needed to find out what I actually had...

 

[RedB4Black]

Dave - Where do you buy bulk tubes? ebay?

 

[JTyson]

I must say, tube testing/matching equipment gas is something Ive not really experienced until now... It is somewhat strange
WoOZ and Psychodave are miles ahead of me in ways I have not even thought about until now
Years ago, I purchased a Marshall Dual Monoblock 100/100 power amp from Psychodave, the big day came with its arrival. After a minimum of 2 hours to get it unboxed and out of the nuclear bombproof packing job (it was a thing of beauty, really) I went to install the tubes and noticed Dave had the SED Winged C's numbered for each of the 8 sockets and had instructed me to make sure they were each in the right socket, as he had matched them up and biased the amp with each one in a specific location..
I remember at the time thinking "wow, Dave is uncommonly anal about power tubes" I later realized that it was more "No, he just knows more about this than I do, and likes everything to be as good as it can be. And he has taken the time and effort required to learn what he has learned over the years"
I much more appreciated Dave for that...

Now those 8 winged c’s would be worth big $$$ today.

Seriously, I leave nothing to chance. I write down everything I use and mark all tubes and amps so I can replicate (or get as close as possible) to recreating a sound or feel. For me, the tube testers were a necessity simply because I have literally 100’s of tubes. I needed to find out what I actually had...

No doubt.. BIG bucks..
Who would have thought at that time we would be in the position we are today with them, they were always a top selling item. If great sales=great economic position for the company (which normally, it does) They should be expanding their operation instead of the opposite.. Always strange to me how that went down, but I dont know any details of why it happened to them

 

[EvilBatman]

Awesome. I bought them a few years ago. One of the best investments to get. We all have amps that cost thousands of dollars and have no clue what tubes we are putting into them. I don’t put any tube into my amps without first testing them. An added benefit is I know exactly what I’m putting into my amp and can replicate it in the future. So many people are tone freaks yet ignore this major aspect of tube amps.

FYI: I’ve bought plenty of tubes from popular tubes sellers only to find out what I got isn’t what I ordered.

With all my amps... I'm well over 100 tubes in use... scary... but true. And tube quality seems to only be getting worse and worse.

These are fantastic points.

 

[SQUAREHEAD]

That Maxi preamp II looks absolutely wonderful…
I never worry too much about the power tubes because I can set the bias where I want it with my Bias king, I have a bunch of quads of the Siemens 34’s which are my favorite, enough to last my lifetime… I don’t particularly like the winged c 34s…
but preamp tubes are a completely different ball game… It’s fantastic to see what’s going on with conductance and gain for each triode…

 

[LunatiBSW]

Nice buddy!
Those are the best testers. I have my orange valve tester but would love to step up to these in the future

 

[Snave]

Can't beat the Maximatcher stuff.