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Cryogenically treated vacuum tubes...?

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  • #91
    It has occurred to me more than once that the process of buying all the machinery for making tubes from a formerly great company's corpse and moving them elsewhere is not necessarily the way to make great tubes.

    Products are the embodiment of four things, mixed just the right way: knowledge, materials, tools, and labor. Knowledge is what makes the other three possible; labor is what gets the "mixed just the right way" done. Moving the tools to somewhere else and using new people tosses the knowledge and labor over the side. I have read accounts of the GE tube facility's reject rate going up for a day or so after the workers were off on holiday. When they got back in the groove, rejects went down. Of course, in this kind of "automation", the "labor" was actually highly skilled, experienced workers micro-adjusting the machines as they worked, a non-obvious mixture of knowledge with labor.

    Our (i.e. humans') ability to adjust and control processes with computer-controlled tools of near-infinite fineness gigantically outstrips the abilities of the 1950s. I have no doubt that a new, start-from-zero effort to design and manufacture modern 6L6s, EL34s, and 12AX7s would produce incredibly uniform and long lasting tubes.

    The only problem with this is that there is not enough money to do this. Especially with the competition from mediocre historical-legacy factory setups of old tube manufacturing equipment, there is no incentive to do something like this. No business manager would invest the money in the engineering team and soft/hard tooling to make tubes. The competition from the cheap/mediocre tooling means there is no reasonable reward for it.

    That's a shame. Modern manufacturing is light-years ahead of the state of the art when people stopped worrying about how to make a good tube.
    Amazing!! Who would ever have guessed that someone who villified the evil rich people would begin happily accepting their millions in speaking fees!

    Oh, wait! That sounds familiar, somehow.

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    • #92
      It's like anything else, RG. Imagine how great we could make buggy whips these days.
      Education is what you're left with after you have forgotten what you have learned.

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      • #93
        Today's whips are actually made to higher standards than most vacuum tubes. They have a lower failure rate, anyway.

        Indy Whips : Indiana Jones Whips Handcrafted by David Morgan
        "Stand back, I'm holding a calculator." - chinrest

        "I happen to have an original 1955 Stratocaster! The neck and body have been replaced with top quality Warmoth parts, I upgraded the hardware and put in custom, hand wound pickups. It's fabulous. There's nothing like that vintage tone or owning an original." - Chuck H

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        • #94
          Nice! Now if we could only get Mr. Morgan to hand craft some tubes!?!
          "Take two placebos, works twice as well." Enzo

          "Now get off my lawn with your silicooties and boom-chucka speakers and computers masquerading as amplifiers" Justin Thomas

          "If you're not interested in opinions and the experience of others, why even start a thread?
          You can't just expect consent." Helmholtz

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          • #95
            Actually, we do. There is a thriving, if small, market in buggy whips for the horse hobbyists. I was corrected on this point when I mentioned buggy whips to a friend who actually does have a buggy. The suspicion is that the market is too small to attract the get-rich-quick imitators.

            But... er, most of the old original tooling has been lost, I think.
            Amazing!! Who would ever have guessed that someone who villified the evil rich people would begin happily accepting their millions in speaking fees!

            Oh, wait! That sounds familiar, somehow.

            Comment


            • #96
              Originally posted by R.G. View Post
              But... er, most of the old original tooling has been lost, I think.
              Well then! They can't possibly be as good as buggy whips from the hay day. I'm holding out for the NOS buggy whip.
              "Take two placebos, works twice as well." Enzo

              "Now get off my lawn with your silicooties and boom-chucka speakers and computers masquerading as amplifiers" Justin Thomas

              "If you're not interested in opinions and the experience of others, why even start a thread?
              You can't just expect consent." Helmholtz

              Comment


              • #97
                Originally posted by Chuck H View Post
                Well then! They can't possibly be as good as buggy whips from the hay day. I'm holding out for the NOS buggy whip.
                Good god! Did I really miss using that myself? Good one.
                Amazing!! Who would ever have guessed that someone who villified the evil rich people would begin happily accepting their millions in speaking fees!

                Oh, wait! That sounds familiar, somehow.

                Comment


                • #98
                  Originally posted by Chuck H View Post
                  Well then! They can't possibly be as good as buggy whips from the hay day. I'm holding out for the NOS buggy whip.
                  New or old, better not get caught actually using that buggy whip - PETA will be sure to nag you. They're for show only now. These days you have to convince your horses to move by talking to them - gently - no cuss words! Ya can't even hang a carrot in front of your mule, that's psychological torture.

                  Just imagining the replies. Someone's bound to say "Who said . . . I was gonna use the whip on my hoss?"
                  This isn't the future I signed up for.

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                  • #99
                    I've been bad, I need to be punished...
                    Education is what you're left with after you have forgotten what you have learned.

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                    • Originally posted by Enzo View Post
                      I've been bad, I need to be punished...
                      I will be laughing the rest of the day!
                      "I took a photo of my ohm meter... It didn't help." Enzo 8/20/22

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                      • Originally posted by Enzo View Post
                        I've been bad, I need to be punished...
                        What the sadist replied to the masochist:

                        "NO."
                        This isn't the future I signed up for.

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                        • Enzo in a ball gag and Wenzo with a buggy whip!?! I pressed the "delete" button until the letters wore off but I can't shake the image.
                          "Take two placebos, works twice as well." Enzo

                          "Now get off my lawn with your silicooties and boom-chucka speakers and computers masquerading as amplifiers" Justin Thomas

                          "If you're not interested in opinions and the experience of others, why even start a thread?
                          You can't just expect consent." Helmholtz

                          Comment


                          • Today, the safe word is "banana." perhaps that will help.



                            Asked the masochist, "why do you hang out with the sadist?"
                            "Beats me."
                            Education is what you're left with after you have forgotten what you have learned.

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                            • Enzo will be here nightly until Thanksgiving. Try the veal.
                              "Stand back, I'm holding a calculator." - chinrest

                              "I happen to have an original 1955 Stratocaster! The neck and body have been replaced with top quality Warmoth parts, I upgraded the hardware and put in custom, hand wound pickups. It's fabulous. There's nothing like that vintage tone or owning an original." - Chuck H

                              Comment


                              • really is this true??? I always wondered why it was mirrored silver thought it just reflected heat back in??
                                R U pulling my leg???

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