"Wayne.B" wrote in message
...

On Fri, 12 Dec 2008 20:34:37 -0500, Tom Francis - SWSports
wrote:

Heck, I go back even further. Our high school math club used to
program Sylvania's mainframe (this was '62) using phone jacks/plugs on
racks six feet tall and four wide - there were fifteen of them.

With vacuum tubes no less. :)

I get a warm feeling just thinking about it, nothing like the soft red
glow from a rack full of vacuum tube equipment on a cold winter's
night. :-)



Have either of you had to buy tubes lately? Good Grief!

I decided to re-tube both the B3 and the C3 Hammonds, a M3 Hammond, two
Leslie 122 speakers and two Hammond PR-20 Tone cabinets.

Started searching for tube sets and nearly fell off my chair. The last
American made set of push-pull finals (6550's) for the Leslie's are $329.95
for a matched pair. I'd need four pairs of these. Forget it!

http://thetubestore.com/ge-6550.html

Opted for some Russian made versions for 60 bucks a pair.

Anyway, I cut back on re-tubing everything at once, and will just do one
organ/Leslie at a time. 13 tubes of various types.

Even shopping around for the best prices for tube sets for everything was
adding up to about $1,600 - $2,000.
It's a far cry from the old days of running down to Radio Shack, old tubes
in hand, using their tube tester and buying a couple of new tubes for a buck
or two each.

Eisboch