Remember the Vacuum Tube Era

[twbranch]

Re: Remember the Vacuum Tube Era

I still repair and mod tube amps for musicians. I love it. Simple as hell. Fun and rewarding to finish the job. I work on SS amps too but would rather work on tube amps all day long.

[Alastair E]

Re: Remember the Vacuum Tube Era

Not quite vacuum tube (valve) era and will mean nothing to you guys across the pond, but I'm still looking for a 1970's 22" Philips G8 (550) my all-time favourite colour set, back when Philips was a quality brand you could trust.

We rented one in the 70's, It never once gave a hiccup and outlasted it's CRT. I remember restoring one in the 90's for someone that had taken great care of it, at that time a lot of work was needed but it was a labour of love. They don't make em like this anymore sadly

Ah--The G8 Chassis, Remember it very well! Lost count how many I repaired in the day....
If a cust phoned to say he had a Philips--it was nearly certain it was a 520 or 550 G8 set, and we got so good at them generally repaired them in the cust home, very rarely needed to drag one in to W/S

Sometimes, You'll see a G8 on ebay--but generally stupid money.

I'm searching (and have been for years) a Philips G6.--preferably the 22" (G22K511) The predecessor to the G8 with a hybrid chassis, Valve PAL decoder, shunt-regulated EHT....
I'm saving a fairly good A56-120X CRT I rescued some years ago for it, I live in hope!

On occasion they come up but are again--Really stupid money!

[keithf2]

Re: Remember the Vacuum Tube Era

can you tell me where you found the New Thread Button, I cannot find it.

[Ltank]

Re: Remember the Vacuum Tube Era

1972 my Dad gave me a Harmon Kardom tube stereo amp and two Altec Lancing. 15" two way speakers. 106 DB SPL rated, 16 ohm speakers designed for tube amps. Very nice. Did know what I had at the time and traded them off for motorcycle parts

[SteveNielsen]

Re: Remember the Vacuum Tube Era

keithf2 - you have to be at the top level of particular forum for the New Thread button to show, so go to the appropriate forum your subject belongs in and start there.

Budm - one of my school projects was a 5 tube superhet AM radio kit too. Back in 1968 the whole kit cost a whopping $15. That was for an Electronics Servicing class I got to take at the community college while still in high school after completing two years of high school electronics. Fun times.

I've worked on a few tube guitar amps and still have a couple of them; a `68 Fender Deluxe Reverb. I recapped it and it had a bad reverb tank driver transformer that crackled which I replaced, and a hacked up `72 Fender Vibrolux Reverb someone chopped the top off to make it separate from the combo cabinet but it worked fine. I recapped it too of course.

With the right set of speakers the Vibrolux is a kick ass tone and sustain king, in some ways I like it better than the Deluxe tone but my Deluxe still has the crappy stock 12" Utah speaker. Unfortunately the Vibrolux is not working now. One of the output tubes shorted and toasted some resistors. I haven't gotten around to fixing it yet because I'm not playing music these days (arthritis) but I can't bear to part with it either.

The first guitar tube amp I repaired was a blonde Fender Tremolux. All the big caps in the high voltage supply blew their guts out on an extremely hot day at an outdoor concert in Modesto. Thank God for that steel "bathtub" cover over them or that splooge would have gone everywhere. That amp was also plagued by an intermittent crackling sound that turned out to be a bad solder joint for a ground connection to the chassis.

I've also got a little old Voice of Music 3 tube amp I need to find a small point-to-point circuit board for. It works as is but that board has solder tabs broken off and looks like shit.

I worked in a TV shop for a little while back in the late `70s. That was a fun job. Pure blue on a CRT became my favorite color then. I've got a HV probe, a big heavy degaussing coil and a Sencore tube tester.

[PlasmaRon]

Re: Remember the Vacuum Tube Era

My first TV repair was at age 14 and my father had bought a b/w console that lasted six months and quit. He moved it to the back porch and said "enough with that" and later I asked if I could have it and he said "sure.. just don't bring it back into the house. " I did bring it to my room upstairs (with help from my brother) and we kept it secret. I fixed it by looking inside and seeing one tube that was glowing blue while the others were amber. I went to the grocery story and they had a tube tester/seller and I got a replacement and it fixed it! MY brother and I secretly watched star-trek episodes at 10pm on Thursday nights and kept the volume really really low! Great memories.

[Topcat]

Re: Remember the Vacuum Tube Era

Vacuum tube sets not forgotten. Today, my Sencore CR31A CRT rejuvenator has seen the light of day for the first time in ~20yrs, reviving a 21FDP4 in a 21" Predicta I was pretty much given a couple years ago.

It took me a while to refresh myself with the instrument....but like back in the service center days, she never let me down!

A near zero emission CRT (very dark) came right back to life!!



YAY for bumping a very old thread!!

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: Remember the Vacuum Tube Era

Gettin whacked by flyback in a '68 zenith brings back memories. Fear rhe the red anode cap. Lol

I got whacked by the spark plug wire on a gasoline lawn mower engine in the mid-1990s, LOL. (Most likely an old Briggs&Stratton 3 HP)

[momaka]

Re: Remember the Vacuum Tube Era

YAY for bumping a very old thread!!

Oh, who cares!

This restoration is absolutely awesome! My hat off to you, seriously.