On Sat, 13 Dec 2008 01:41:08 -0500, "Eisboch" wrote:


"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!

Oh yeah - had to get new finals for my homebrew "California Kilowatt"
about two years ago- 3-500Cs. I got Russian tubes (Chinese tubes are
crap) and they were still $110 a piece.

Dude!!

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.

Know what - your better off too. I've got Russian tubes in my Dad's
Collins S-line and in the KWM-2 and they are solid as a rock. All the
Mac 50s have Svetlana 6L6GCs plus other tubes all Svetlana and they
sound just as good as they did the day I bought them.

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.

I feel your pain - analog is expensive. :)

Even shopping around for the best prices for tube sets for everything was
adding up to about $1,600 - $2,000.

Yep - been there, done that. :)

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.

Gone - long gone. Finished.

Radio Shack is just another Best Buy now, only smaller with a little
more "stuff".