Minature 9 Pin Preamp Tube Sockets

[big_teee]

What is your 9 pin tube socket of choice.
Is there some that are heavier duty, and harder to break when wiring the Heaters.
What is the most rigid minature socket Made?
What socket does most of the amp builders out there use?
Thanks in advance.
T

[bob p]

This is a joke, right? I mean, you wind pickups that have those teeny little wires on them... I could never do that.

[big_teee]

This is a joke, right? I mean, you wind pickups that have those teeny little wires on them... I could never do that.

Well what tube socket do you prefer?

T

[bob p]

The reason I didn't say anything helpful was because I don't have much that's helpful to say. I don't have to buy noval sockets (I have a lifetime supply of old junk from the great tube purge at Motorola), so I'm not at all picky about them, and I wouldn't know what to tell you to buy.

How big of a wire are you using? If you're having problems with wires being too heavy for your noval sockets, then maybe you could downsize your wires. Noval tubes don't pull all that much current, so the kinds of wires that you really need won't be heavy enough to be troublesome.

[wyatt]

I used Clinch and similar for years, but the caveat with old sockets is oxidation.

I agree decrease you're wire gauge. 22-gauge is more than large enough supplying preamp tube heaters. Remember current demand goes do as you pass each tube.

22-guage PTFE can safely handle 4A-4.4A in a guitar amp application. That's enough to use it throughout for most 50-watt and less amps, but more than enough for ANY preamp application.

[big_teee]

I used Clinch and similar for years, but the caveat with old sockets is oxidation.

I agree decrease you're wire gauge. 22-gauge is more than large enough supplying preamp tube heaters. Remember current demand goes do as you pass each tube.

22-guage PTFE can safely handle 4A-4.4A in a guitar amp application. That's enough to use it throughout for many small amps, but more than enough for ANY preamp application.

Thanks.
I have a love hate relationship with Teflon wire also.
Some of it the insulation is so thin, the whole wire can go through the terminal hole.
These are new builds, and new sockets, just having trouble with the double connections, and flimsiness of the sockets.
T

[wyatt]

Thanks.
I have a love hate relationship with Teflon wire also.
Some of it the insulation is so thin, the whole wire can go through the terminal hole.
These are new builds, and new sockets, just having trouble with the double connections, and flimsiness of the sockets.
T

22-gauge Topcoat would work just as well.

For preamps, the 22-gauge pushback would work too, though I can't recommend it for whole-amp applications, not like the PTFE and Topcoat. IIRC, it's officially a 300V wire, which translates to less current handling in heater applications.

[Ken Moon]

I like the Belton micalex sockets with the built-in tube shield, like these. They seem to hold the tube better than the ceramic ones, I've never seen one crack or break, and the pins have nice long holes where you can easily solder two wires, like you need to do for heaters. They also make them without the tube shield base.



Here's a pic of some heater wiring using these:

[Mick Bailey]

Out of modern production I prefer the Belton sockets as the best balance between quality and cost. The ones with the integral shield won't take some of the larger 12AX7s though - such as the Sovtek 12AX7WA. The Chinese ceramic sockets are to be avoided; the contacts eventually relax and there's no way other than splitting the socket to re-tension them. If you have tubes with gold pins they also scrape the gold off.