What will US Sanctions do to availability to Russian-mfgr'd Vacuum Tubes?

[drewl]

Ugh Always have better luck with EH/Sovtek

[Axtman]

I have not had good experiences with Ruby, JJ tubes or other Chinese tubes. I am sure many of you feel diferently.

[nosaj]

[Helmholtz]

As said by others there should be still tubes available from Slovakia (JJ) and China.

[The Dude]

One has to wonder not only about availability, but what the current situation is going to do to prices.

[Chuck H]

Yep. It's the prices going up I'm most concerned about. Second to that would be quality. China will just about have a monopoly EL34 tubes that can take higher voltages. I've blown up enough JJ's over 470Vp to stop trying all together. The Ruby approved Shuguang EL34's can take the voltage and actually sound really good. But they tend to be microphonic in my experience. Maybe good enough for Marshall heads and similar. But, the mind set here with a potential monopoly means China can put out crappier tubes and we'll be forced to pay or get nothing at all. I've seen this happen with other east Asian products and know it can go that way.

[g1]

I think the amp manufacturers will be getting first dibs (or be the highest bidder) so it will be slim pickings.

[Chuck H]

I think the amp manufacturers will be getting first dibs (or be the highest bidder) so it will be slim pickings.

Exactly this^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I've already seen this with other components. Most notably reverb tanks. All kinds of manufactured amps out there using reverb tanks but "I" have to buy three to get one that's not so unruly or bad sounding as to be unusable. I've literally done this with the last three reverb amps I've built. Just get three tanks and hopefully one will be ok. And I'd already started doing this to some degree with tubes too. That's not going to get better. Maybe we'll be paying a higher premium but companies like Ruby that test tubes appropriately before sale, and hopefully Mike will stay in the game and find useable products to vendor, might make it so we can at least get useable tubes. I CAN say there are some vendors out there (not to expose anyone outright but it rhymes with thetubestore) have sold be so many bad tubes right out of the box that I take any opportunity to warn against patronizing them.

[The Dude]

It seems you don't have to worry about it, Chuck. This is what you see when you go to the site.


I guess the tube thing will be much like the toilet paper thing and everyone will be hoarding tubes.

[Enzo]

The companies are in the business of selling tubes. Certainly if Marshall wants to buy 100,000 tubes, they will fill that order instead of the four tubes I want. Imagine "Sorry Mr Marshall I'd like to fill your order, but there is this guy who needs four and..."

I have not had good experiences with Ruby, JJ tubes or other Chinese tubes

Be aware Ruby doesn't make tubes, and they sell all brands. And they don't keep it secret. CZ means Czech Republic, so a 12AX7CZ means it is a JJ tube. JJ is not a Chinese tube. They do sell CHinse tubes, but they sell the others too.

I always had good results with Ruby. They test all the tubes. I am willing to spend the extra few cents for that. And as for Chinese, I really liked the Chinese 6L6GCMSTR (or whatever order the alphabet soup is in) they sell. I find them sturdy and reliable.

[g1]

NOS pricing will probably go nuts, even used stuff. Some of the 'iffy' tubes that I've hung onto 'just in case' may end up seeing service in customer units.
A small but satisfying hoarder triumph.

[The Dude]

Yep. Time to get out the step ladder and get that used tube box off the back of the top shelf.

[g1]

CZ means Czech Republic, so a 12AX7CZ means it is a JJ tube.

That's what I thought too, but JJ is in Slovak republic. So not sure how that works. The rebranders were that daft and nobody complained? Sorry to nitpick.

[Enzo]

Because when they started that, Czechoslovakia had not broken up yet

[g1]

Ah, that makes sense. I didn't think JJ was that old, but they probably started doing that when it was Tesla.