Bad Tubes

[drewl]

UGH!
this is the 3rd &^%(*(&*^ bad batch of EL34's I've gotten from a certain place.
I tried different mfg's with no luck.

Where can I get good EL34's before I go postal!
thanks!

[Enzo]

Try a different delivery choice. If you use UPS, try FedEx. If you use Fed EX, Try UPS. Avoid the USPS. Your local depot monkeys might be bouncing your boxes.

I rarely get a bad one from CEDist, myself

[JC@]

In the last few years I only got one broken EL34 and two faulty 6L6, and maybe 2 or 3 faulty 12ax7, I buy at least 25 pieces in each parcel and use the postal service. Just to compare... I mean maybe is not the transport..

[Alex R]

Yeah hard to tell isn't it. My shipments come across the Atlantic, similar numbers to yours JC, and similar failure rates if we're talking about a shipment every month or so. So far I haven't been complaining but I'm saving them up. Faults are shorts in every case but one (noisy ECC83), which might I guess suggest rough treatment in the post... or poor manufacture, who knows.

[yankeerob]

I've bought loads of tubes from both tubestore and tubedepot over the years and never had a bad 'un - I've heard great things about the JJ's BTW - and that's all Dave at Matamp will fit in there stuff - both EL34's and 6V6's...

I never pay retail anymore for anything if I don't have to...

[clintronics]

Resistors

Check the 1k/5w resistors that go to the EL34 sockets. They need to be 1k ohm. If these are off value they can cause the tubes to seem bad from the store. On 6L6 tubes the resistor will be 470 ohm.