More equipment for the desk...

Mourguitars

Well-known member
Bought one of these not pedal related , works well. Tested a NOS 12ax7 Telefunken on the Hickok and this little machine on both sides ...they were in the ball park, so its worth it to me to see if its good or bad, weak /strong on each side of the 12ax7's, 6l6 and EL34's. Was going to buy the Orange valve tester..kinda balked on that $500 price since it didn't do 5751, 12ay7 ect...he is looking for me a descent scope to put on my bench...slowly adding tools for the trade but i like this tester..small and compact. Also bought a Big GE Electronics tube case...can put tubes and parts in...i like this old vintage looking stuff !

Mike

 
I'd love to have one of those, but I don't deal with tube amps enough to justify it. Love the look of that, looks like an old 60s NASA control panel.
 
It fits nicely in this big service box, the service box is very well made. I put the tester in one wing and cut foam to keep it from moving around..pretty sweet ! Going to order those cardboard dividers for all my pre amp tubes for the other side...trick it out !

Tested all my tubes found some bad ones...the JJ's came out of my Black star S104EL34 , knew they were bad so replaced with new JJ's and put the Gold Lion CV4004 gold pins in and tamed that harshness. Will bias and put back in headshell in the a.m

Had 3 Sovtek 12ax7wc that came out of my Mesa 2:90 that was recapped new power tubes...those tested bad, new 12ax7's tested strong !

Time to put it back in the rack...and rock !

Putting the Tube tester to some use tonight .....


Bad tubes....


Time to clean this thing up...love this Service box
 
I'd kill for that JMP preamp...

I wish I could justify a tube tester. I worked at a music store for a while that had an Orange and it was pretty slick. I brought in all my tubes to test and marked them all. It was nice to be able to give customers the heads up on either bad tubes or potential problems, especially unbalanced phase inverters.
 
That JMP-1 its a fantastic pre...i always had one since they came out, that and the Intellifex I've had since the 90's...not a lick of trouble yet !

I thought about buying that Orange Tester..had in my cart multiple times...but balked then said ok , call my Sweetwater rep and they don't sell them anymore..went to Reverb put in cart again..something told me to hold off

It done the tubes i wanted tested good or bad but it only done 12ax7 pre amp tubes , but didnt do 5751's and the AY and AU's that i use..that Dyna Jet 606 does them ...payed $150 for the tester and the old service box, to me its worth every penny...like you said about potential problems i had bad tubes in my Black Star , bought from friend looks like someone slapped tubes in there to get rid of it...often the case and saved me a headache trouble shooting over something that i couldn't have done with out that Tube tester !

Had to look up the EL34 old #...6CA7.....manual is strait forward easy to use, you can buy those Dyna Jets clean for over a $100 vs $500 for the Orange tester....have some cash left over now to maybe try some ANOS tubes..but i hate spending that kinda money on one

Modern amps , modern tubes..a old vintage amp..the vintage tubes my school of thought..i have friends that pay up to 1k on old 12ax7's...its crazy !
 
I've had this beast for quite a while. I used to work with a couple of old ham radio operators who loved to scour the surplus yards. Bought this for $50 from one of them. It has served me well over the years. Takes a bit of patience and training to get all the dials and gauges set right, but it does something the other testers don't: it tells you exactly what the test conditions are for each tube (plate voltage, grid bias, etc.) and you can vary them to match the circuit application as req'd. It is waterproof and weighs a ton.

TV-2B-U outside.jpg

TV-2B-U inside 02.jpg
 
I've had this beast for quite a while. I used to work with a couple of old ham radio operators who loved to scour the surplus yards. Bought this for $50 from one of them. It has served me well over the years. Takes a bit of patience and training to get all the dials and gauges set right, but it does something the other testers don't: it tells you exactly what the test conditions are for each tube (plate voltage, grid bias, etc.) and you can vary them to match the circuit application as req'd. It is waterproof and weighs a ton.

View attachment 3549

View attachment 3550
Man that looks sweet!!!
 
Thats a awesome tester Chuck !

They don't make things like that quality anymore...Military Tuff !

I bought a bunch of JAN 5751 tubes and well...looks like GE 12ax7's i think..they have the Military stencil etched 12AX7 rebranded tubes i think, ill have to research them ...

Only NOS 12ax7's i bought was RWN and RFT's i bought from overseas... i need to go thru them and check out the date codes, kinda splurged on the old tubes this month since i bought my tester..

I can't stand plain white boxes but bought some old boxes to put them in...


Ive been lurking over on these classifieds and maybe buy some more bench testers...i like this old stuff !


Mike
 
Gotta test and listen to the NOS tubes. The tester won't tell you which ones are noisy or microphonic. The only time matching the two halves of a 12AX7 / 12AT7 / 12AU7 is important is for the phase-splitter and reverb driver. For all of the other spots in the amp, it's not necessary to match the two halves.
 
Mike,
If you're looking for scopes, check out the USB scopes. I've had and used Tektronix for a long time, but when my 465 stopped working I bit the bullet and bought a LabNation. It is sweet. Even has a built in function gen. Lotta good choices out there.

Your B&K tester looks like new! Mine's a bit "road worn."
 
Had a friend bring me over a big bag of 12ax7's and USA 5751's that all tested strong and good !

The 12ax7's are the triple mica , square getter chinese...from the late 80's early 90's...alot labeled Marshall ....i like those old chinese tubes , they sound different than todays production chinese...high gain but not harsh maybe ?

Really digging the tester !

Mike
 
I have a tube tester, but from what I gather it does harm to the tubes. I will take a picture of it when I get home.
 
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Thats a nice clean Tester J.F....looks sweet !

Ive been on a tube buying spree as of late , lots of ANOS....i bought all the most desired must have's so im pretty much done..well maybe !

I did buy some NP EHX 7025's that they came out with...some of my amps like the EHX and these are low noise..

Mike
 
Had to replace a tube socket that was soldered on both sides...felt a little squeamish about it, so i bought one of these with the extra tips....it was worth every penny ! Made job quick and easy...

That Flux OfF worked pretty well...it didn't take the sheen off the PCB like i thought it would

That Soldering mat comes in handy as well.....

Mike

 
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