New noisy tues

[bsco]

Good afternoon......Has anybody here had problems with new replacement 12AX7 tubes?? doesn't really matter what brand but I have some GT ones here.. When you install them and gently tap the sides of the tube, it will make fairly loud cracking sounds....depending on where you strike them...and you don't have to strike them very hard either..... and this is with the volume up around 2, so the amp isn't very loud.....any thoughts, comments, etc greatly appreciated...
Cheers.....
Bernie

[Leo_Gnardo]

Is this problem with one particular amp?

FWIW GT has been owned by Fender for what 7, 8 years. Also, they don't make tubes. GT re brands tubes. There was a time (pre Fender) when they claimed they actually tested the tubes offered for sale. Don't know about now. If I'm not mistook GT is mainly selling Russian made 12AX7 lately, Sovtek/EH types I generally avoid.

I've been using mostly JJ over the last couple years. Rarely a problem, sometimes a bit of hum then that tube goes to an amp that has DC filament supply. Not clanky as you describe. I find Chinese Shuguang 12AX7's to ping, almost ring like a little bell when tapped. Occasionally one will start whistling on its own. When they've been in use for a couple years sometimes they'll rattle.

<CENSORED> See thread, rhymes with "dump" for amusement. And bemusement.

Tues is tomorrow, bound to be noisy, thanx for the prediction.

[Tom Phillips]

Have you ruled out possible bad or corroded contacts in your test socket?

[Enzo]

STOP!!!

Good bad or indifferent, leave the political crap OUT of the technical sections. If you MUST comment, put it down below in the political junk area.

[bsco]

STOP!!!

Good bad or indifferent, leave the political crap OUT of the technical sections. If you MUST comment, put it down below in the political junk area.

WOW!! Sorry man......calm down.....I didn't mean to upset you.......it was just a comment.......I think I'll go back and remove the post

[bsco]

There you go Enzo....deleting done to the best of my ability......

[Leo_Gnardo]

deleted

[Bob M.]

Do you think the Stones were making a comment on noisy tubes brands, used on certain days, when they wrote 'Goodbye Ruby Tuesday'?

[bsco]

Do you think the Stones were making a comment on noisy tubes brands, used on certain days, when they wrote 'Goodbye Ruby Tuesday'?

?????

[Chuck H]

When I buy preamp tubes for a build I buy one extra for every two tubes I'll need. Usually it's noise or excessive hum. I've heard the crackle thing with new tubes and used/good pulls of old euro makes. Sometimes it'll stop after some burn in. More commonly it's bad contact. Do investigate the possibility of dirty pins or sockets as mentioned. If the tube won't behave you'll need to return it or toss it. I use to keep tubes I paid for even if they didn't work. I got tired of digging through my old tubes and finding duds I hadn't put in the right box. So now I just toss 'em since shipping makes returning them barely worth it in $$$ and definitely not worth it in time. So preamp tubes simply cost me one third to one half more than the advertised price due the ones I need to cull at home. I do know of one vendor I WON'T buy from because the dud ratio is consistently too high (remember when tube vendors tested these things for relative goodness to qualify their markup?). It rhymes with The Lube Store. Which is an item I might have purchased if I'd known.

[bsco]

When I buy preamp tubes for a build I buy one extra for every two tubes I'll need. Usually it's noise or excessive hum. I've heard the crackle thing with new tubes and used/good pulls of old euro makes. Sometimes it'll stop after some burn in. More commonly it's bad contact. Do investigate the possibility of dirty pins or sockets as mentioned. If the tube won't behave you'll need to return it or toss it. I use to keep tubes I paid for even if they didn't work. I got tired of digging through my old tubes and finding duds I hadn't put in the right box. So now I just toss 'em since shipping makes returning them barely worth it in $$$ and definitely not worth it in time. So preamp tubes simply cost me one third to one half more than the advertised price due the ones I need to cull at home. I do know of one vendor I WON'T buy from because the dud ratio is consistently too high (remember when tube vendors tested these things for relative goodness to qualify their markup?). It rhymes with The Lube Store. Which is an item I might have purchased if I'd known.

If I run into noisy tubes the first thing I do is to clean the socket contacts with deoxit....and I will switch them around just to see what happens.....

[g1]

?????

I think that was a joke as Ruby is a brand (re-seller) of tubes, and the typo in the name of this thread.

[drewl]

I don't know what was censored or why, BUT-
I have had problems with every type or brand of tube.
Yes, sometimes brand new tubes can be noisy or microphonic, unfortunately that's the way it is as they are not made as good as in the olden days.

Also unfortunate is the tubes you buy from any vendor may have been returned from some else for being too noisy or microphonic.

Especially if you are only buying one or two from places that routinely sell hundreds or even thousands to bigger fish.

[Leo_Gnardo]

Yes, sometimes brand new tubes can be noisy or microphonic, unfortunately that's the way it is as they are not made as good as in the olden days.

Also unfortunate is the tubes you buy from any vendor may have been returned from some else for being too noisy or microphonic.

Old hands at tube gear will tell you the same problems existed in the 50's and 60's, and likely before that too. We may venerate brands like Mullard, Brimar, Telefunken, Amperex, RCA, GE, Sylvania etc but there were plenty of noisy & otherwise defective tubes shipped under those brand names in the distant past. You had to evaluate each one in use just like today. Add to that, occasionally there were cases of "brand shifting." Even though tube manufacturers were in competition with each other, they would cooperate to fill contracts. I've found GE 6L6's labeled RCA, RCA labeled Sylvania, Mullard preamp tubes labeled GE, etc. When you ordered your favorite brand, might get a surprise in the next box full you opened. We don't see much brand shifting going on these days, instead there are outfits that test tubes to some extent then relabel them as Groove Tube, Ruby, Tube Amp Doctor. Finally there's the confusing 3-card monty games played by New Sensor and their archipelago of brand names and Russian production lines.

Sometimes I've been shipped expensive NOS tubes that turned out to be crap. Yes I suspect they were rejects 50 years ago that someone didn't send to the dump where they belonged. These days, heck for the past 30 years, anybody that finds tubes with the "magic" brand names flogs them any way they can. Some turn out to be rubbish, others gold. There are precious few tube outfits that can be trusted to deliver the real thing, definitely working, never cheap. For the most part I buy tubes made by current manufacturers. If a customer insists on NOS, they can pay the money to whichever vendor they want, and if they don't work out, let them hassle it with the vendor, I've no time for that.

[Justin Thomas]

Sometimes I've been shipped expensive NOS tubes that turned out to be crap. Yes I suspect they were rejects 50 years ago that someone didn't send to the dump where they belonged. These days, heck for the past 30 years, anybody that finds tubes with the "magic" brand names flogs them any way they can. Some turn out to be rubbish, others gold. There are precious few tube outfits that can be trusted to deliver the real thing, definitely working, never cheap. For the most part I buy tubes made by current manufacturers. If a customer insists on NOS, they can pay the money to whichever vendor they want, and if they don't work out, let them hassle it with the vendor, I've no time for that.

That's why I only paid $20 for that Seimens projector with 2xEL84, 2x12AT7, an EZ81, 2xEF86, & a 12AX7, all Mullard, Tele, & Seimens brands... I scored a couple UOS 12AY7s, too, in a Mic pre. Otherwise, it's new ones for me... I like JJ & plain old Sovtek. I have bigger issues with the NOS 12AU7s that I need for oddballs. NOS 12AT7s are ringy as hell, too.

Justin