Hope you have spares

Interesting. My neighbor is a retired Air Force radioman and recently cleaned out his collection of vacuum tubes from his shop, couple of garbage bags full of them . I got started sorting them out and putting them in a spreadsheet and them my shop filled up with other projects. Maybe I should get going and finish that one.

 

I have a giant cardboard box full of hundreds of vacuum tubes.

Mike Matthews is simply using the press to underpin his price hikes due to labour shortage from covid.

To date the suppliers I use have had absolutely no issues at all with lead times or availability for orders - in fact quite the opposite of the article's statement.

So that seems like more BS.

 

Thankfully, vacuum tubes last a very, very long time. I’ve got mostly 6V6 amps and a tidy stockpile of (mainly vintage/NOS) spares.

I was checking valve prices today for a little project I’ve got on the boards and that just gave me one more reason not to buy EHX. I hate BS artists.

 

.

Sell your tube amps now before they are worthless due to lack of parts.
Buy Solid State amps.

.

 

As much as I love tubes and hate the option paralysis that comes with digital, I could get by just fine without tubes. This seems like an opportunity for him to buy one of those shuttered plants. Its such a random comment and out of left field that I have to question the motivation. It may be true, but I think trust but verify applies in this case

 

Made as much sense as the toilet paper madness that just happened.

mindless group think is bad…ummm k

 

Piffle, let the gouging continue.

 

I was in my local store about 2 weeks ago. They had a bunch of tubes. Well, two less EL 84 after I left

 

Mike is being a douche. My local shops have hundreds of tubes in stock between them and I have about 40 preamp tubes and 30-40 power tubes myself in a box.

 

We have a shortage of air in my area, we have been asked to breathe no more than 4 breaths a minute, you really don't want to be caught talking.

 

Toilet paper hoarders might have to sell off some of their toilet paper to make room for tubes.

 

when the guy selling them says there be a shortage...

i now only buy tubes that have been 100% tested by audiophile freaks who have a world class tube tester and i have never been happier.

used holy grail tubes from yesteryear that are verified good as new cost less than a new untested low dollar new tube.

let him keep his tubes, i don't want or need them.

 

No shortage of that, unfortunately.

 

I'll repeat my post from TDPRI:

The Guitar.com article is little more than an attention-grabbing mini rant from Matthews. Shame on Guitar.com for failing to validate anything he said, then piling on their own breathless hyperbole. The only thing they sort of verified is that Shuguang "does seem to have scaled back production enough to spark online rumours." There may be some facts to learn about the situation, but but neither Mike Matthews nor writer Cillian Breathnach provide any.

Perhaps these phrases from the article can be read like poetry:

Dire warning
Ominous warning
Precarious position

A perfect storm
Struggling to meet demand
There is a worldwide panic

Desperate customers
Fraught with this sort of danger
Could cause prices to rise dramatically

 

I have two Mesa/Boogies. I normally use smaller solid state amps for practice at home, just so that I don’t have to put hours on my tubes. The Mesas are for playing with other people at higher volumes. But just for playing at home, my Orange Crush 35 RT’s are just fine.

 

This thread reminded me that I was going to pick up a new set of power tubes for my Traynor. Gonna swap the set that's in it for a set of JJ EL34II and see how they sound.

 

The article may be bunk but in case it isn't (you never know) tubes may be a good hedge against the possibility of gold depreciating. Some countries that have suffered economic collapse have confiscated Gold and Silver from their citizens and made it a crime to own or trade in Gold or Silver.

But just name a country that has devalued the vacuum tube or have experienced a price decrease in tubes. Yeah. See what I mean?