Western Electric is back ..in North Georgia ... https://www.wired.com/story/one-mans-quest-to-revive-the-great-american-vacuum-tube/
Tubes is Georgia !
- Thread starter Greywolf
- Start date
bodia
Authorities said.....best leave it.....unsolved
That’s pretty cool!
Simon Says
Paramedics > Fire Fighters
Are they the guys who do $1500 power tubes?
DISTORT6
NJ Devil
RickP
Established 1960, Still Not Dead
If he puts out a quality tube, this boy will be stocking up on a lifetime supply of each type I own. Another sort of retirement nest egg. Come on, Western Electric!
BTW, those $1500 tube sets are going in those high dollar audiophile-grade amplifiers. I expect the guitarist-centric ones to be no worse than we’re seeing now. And please, Wired reporters, certainly you can find a more objective mind to ply for opposing views than the whining angst-bag of YouTube.
BTW, those $1500 tube sets are going in those high dollar audiophile-grade amplifiers. I expect the guitarist-centric ones to be no worse than we’re seeing now. And please, Wired reporters, certainly you can find a more objective mind to ply for opposing views than the whining angst-bag of YouTube.
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11top
Cousin Eddie's cousin
One of my favorite shows I’ve ever seen (In Bloomington Indiana).
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Unfortunately, though they plan to do guitar amp tubes, for now they only sell the 300B, a very expensive hi-fi tube.
I've been looking forward to them going into production on the other stuff that they say will be less expensive, but so far, nothing.
I'd bet there are many more guitar players than tube audiophiles. I don't see why they'd ignore our market.
andy474x
Knows the Drill
The article makes it sound as though they’ve been doing some serious hands-on work getting equipment up and running and doing manufacturing R&D to make 12ax7’s. Hopefully that’s true.
Fascinating that the cost of USA production could potentially be offset by fewer rejects and higher consistency. If they can couple that with a good sounding tube design, I’d be in for $40-50 bucks a pop. I’m currently using whatever I can get my hands on of NOS RCA, GE, Mullard tubes, preferably long plate models when supply allows, and then JJ e83cc (not ecc83s) and new production Mullard for the rest. Although world affairs being what they are, I’m on a hiatus buying NP Mullards due to their manufacturing location. I don’t have a particular axe to grind against new production tubes in concept, but I do have to admit that NOS preamp tubes just tend to work and sound better than most of what I can get my hands on of NP, aside from those mentioned above.
Interesting also to hear about Western Electric using graphene in their tubes. I had a solo lab project in my analytical chemistry class in college synthesizing grapehene. Had a cool instructor that saw a rough outline for making it in a chem journal or something, and assigned it to me to see if it could actually be done in a “rudimentary” college lab. It took some macgyvering, but it was indeed possible. The only problem with isolating it was it had to be coated on to a mechanical pencil lead! Not exactly useful, but interesting nonetheless.
Fascinating that the cost of USA production could potentially be offset by fewer rejects and higher consistency. If they can couple that with a good sounding tube design, I’d be in for $40-50 bucks a pop. I’m currently using whatever I can get my hands on of NOS RCA, GE, Mullard tubes, preferably long plate models when supply allows, and then JJ e83cc (not ecc83s) and new production Mullard for the rest. Although world affairs being what they are, I’m on a hiatus buying NP Mullards due to their manufacturing location. I don’t have a particular axe to grind against new production tubes in concept, but I do have to admit that NOS preamp tubes just tend to work and sound better than most of what I can get my hands on of NP, aside from those mentioned above.
Interesting also to hear about Western Electric using graphene in their tubes. I had a solo lab project in my analytical chemistry class in college synthesizing grapehene. Had a cool instructor that saw a rough outline for making it in a chem journal or something, and assigned it to me to see if it could actually be done in a “rudimentary” college lab. It took some macgyvering, but it was indeed possible. The only problem with isolating it was it had to be coated on to a mechanical pencil lead! Not exactly useful, but interesting nonetheless.
dmatthews
Dave's not here
Been a year since I posted this https://forums.prsguitars.com/threads/tube-revival.51297/
Hopefully they're further along.
Hopefully they're further along.
The very fact that you actually got as far as synthesizing a chemical in your college lab reminds me of why I chose not to go into medicine and got a law degree instead.
As I scientist, I was not a scientist.
Prina
Avoiding imperial entanglements
- Joined
- Jan 5, 2023
- Messages
- 1,242
Sounds like it:
"Today that equipment is being installed on Whitener’s factory floor, along with additional machines shipped over from Slovakia in 2007. New machines that will automate processes like the hand-bending of wires needed to make 12AX7 tubes are being peppered in."
Fingers crossed!
Some are, but there were also great tubes made by Philips' Netherlands subsidiary, Bugle Boy, by their eventual UK subsidiary Mullard, by Telefunken and Siemens in Germany, by Brimar (British American) tubes in the UK, etc, etc.
Philips also made JAN (joint army-navy) tubes for the US military, and there have been others making very good tubes. RFT in East Germany, Tesla in Czechoslovakia, and so on.
RickP
Established 1960, Still Not Dead
The hope, for me at least, is that they would take up the gauntlet of making top quality tubes similar to those classics Les refers to above. In essence, NOS quality in a readily available new tube. Having any quality tube maker added to the option list is a plus, and reestablishing an American source could be huge as world events affect supply internationally. It’s a big deal for US guitarists, and healthy for all.
Remember a tube is made of component subassemblies; how well the subassemblies are made not only affects the audio quality, it affects the life of the tubes, susceptibility to mechanical ringing, microphonics, etc.
I once posted pics of modern, reissue brand tubes vs the original NOS tubes. The differences in materials quality and assembly are quite revealing, and you can easily see why the old ones just work better.
Here's one of many f'instances: The old tubes had mica spacers with "fingers' to keep the spacers from vibrating against the glass; the vibration causes ringing. The new ones just have round spacers that lean against the glass randomly. The new ones have bent supports at the wrong angles for the plates. the getter is at odd angles. The old ones have straight supports, thicker wire. Etc. Etc.
This stuff adds up.
Are the guys in Georgia promising all this?
I have no idea! It's a good question. Looking at their very expensive hi-fi tube pics, they look pretty darn good, but without seeing their guitar amp tubes yet, it's anyone's guess.
