Western Electric USA considering expanding their tube operations due to the current global pandemic

  • Thread starter Thread starter 311splawndude
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They said they were working on 12ax7’s and 6l6 Monday so I hope they aren’t too far out
 
I just hope the prices are reasonable. For me $500 for a Quad of 6L6GC would be about top for me. For a 12ax7, like $60 would be about it. Both of those are about 4x what I was typically seeing for JJ and New Sensor.
 
311splawndude said:
The Tube Shortage Pandemic that is :D Sorry, just trying to get your attention.

I saw this on the Mesa Boogie FB page and thought I pass it along. Can y'all click on this add some amp tubes to the list?

https://www.westernelectric.com/expand

6KoVWTA.jpg
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Freaking AWESOME and I just voted for EL34 and 12AX7's.
 
311splawndude said:
Yeah man.

Pass this around to your buddies and other forums etc etc. Let's show W.E. we need them and they need us.
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I posted it on TGP yesterday in a thread I've had going for a year about possibility of someone starting a new mass production source of high-end tubes.

As far as price... Here's some pure speculation since this is the what the interwebs is for: probably going to be sky high if made in USA (rather than some new partnership for overseas production). Think vintage NOS 1950s/60s "holy grail" tubes with perfect test spec prices. They already charge a fortune & offer 5 year warranty for their 300B tubes. What a theoretical new guitar tube's warranty would cover is key to the price - degraded tone (which is subjective) or only total failure? Their best bet is targeting owners of ultra high end & vintage guitar amps that would be willing to fork out a grand or more for a retube kit. Many of the audiophile hi-fi amps their 300b tubes are marketed at run upwards of $10k for comparison.
 
9985 said:
I posted it on TGP yesterday in a thread I've had going for a year about possibility of someone starting a new mass production source of high-end tubes.

As far as price... Here's some pure speculation since this is the what the interwebs is for: probably going to be sky high if made in USA (rather than some new partnership for overseas production). Think vintage NOS 1950s/60s "holy grail" tubes with perfect test spec prices. They already charge a fortune & offer 5 year warranty for their 300B tubes. What a theoretical new guitar tube's warranty would cover is key to the price - degraded tone (which is subjective) or only total failure? Their best bet is targeting owners of ultra high end & vintage guitar amps that would be willing to fork out a grand or more for a retube kit. Many of the audiophile hi-fi amps their 300b tubes are marketed at run upwards of $10k for comparison.
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I hear ya. I just hope they can do something vs nothing and I'm willing to pay a bit more for US made tubes.
 
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311splawndude said:
I hear ya. I just hope the can do something vs nothing and I'm willing to pay a bit more for US made tubes.
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I hope so too, as do lot of others that have been tracking W. E. The current geopolitical shit show (and panic buying/hording jacking up prices) might change the business case math enough to make it happen. I won't hold my breath... but W. E. are a real company with real engineers making real (expensive) audio tubes in Georgia today, so it's not as crazy as someone starting from scratch, like some of the other failed attempts I learned about. Maybe a crowd funding model with X number of pre-orders for guitar tubes. Interestingly, some of the audiophile reviews I read about 300Bs compared W. E. to Electro Harmonix tubes in the "lower end" hi fi gear (a bargain at $3-5K, the Bugeras of that world).
 
I’d gladly pay top dollar for a high quality USA made tube.
If you haven’t tried NOS Mullard or Genelex glass……those things last forever!
Pay more for something that lasts 5X as long and sounds badass? I’m in.
 
Really hoping they can hit a nice equilibrium of price and quality of under $500 for a quad of power tubes and under $100 for preamp tubes. It would really suck to see them invest a bunch of time and money into R&D only to have customers priced out of the market.
 
Making tubes that cross over between guitar amps audiophile hi fi /headphone amps are more likely to appeal to W. E. since they are laser focused on that market, which already bears the nosebleed prices.

Here's an example - owners of one of these $6k toys or similar would likely pay big bucks for a USA-made 6L6 if durability, warranty & quality is there.

https://ampsandsound.com/products/bigger-ben
"Mere mortal" guitar amp owners without Dumbles or Two Rocks are going to be pissed about the prices if it happens, at least initially.

Hope somebody with engineering knowledge would weigh in about any quality control/tolerance differences between audiophile (20-20KHz) and guitar amp tubes reproducing about a third of that range. Is that a thing, like 1950s aviation/military equipment needed tighter spec tubes than a guitar amp? Could lower grade tubes that didn't pass QC for hi-fi specs be perfectly fine for guitar amps?
 
Kapo_Polenton said:
How much more hypothetically would you guys pay for a power tube if on average you buy them ( non NOS , regular production)in the range of 28-50$ ? Would you pay x 2 gladly? X 3??
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If high quality, guaranteed failure free and long lasting (decades) 100-150€ for a power tube would be my max. Cause yeah, tubes aren't going ti disappear anyway, and I've have power tubes living that long without costing an arm and a leg, so for certain prices I expect them being at least this good.
 
Zado said:
If high quality, guaranteed failure free and long lasting (decades) 100-150€ for a power tube would be my max. Cause yeah, tubes aren't going ti disappear anyway, and I've have power tubes living that long without costing an arm and a leg, so for certain prices I expect them being at least this good.
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There is no way any tube manufacturer will ever guarantee failure free tubes.
 
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