Not so common sense

kevin360 · « **Reply #40 on:** 24 Mar 2013, 02:15 pm »

Quote from: cheap-Jack on 23 Mar 2013, 10:29 pm

I've been using paint thinner liquid to clean my old VCR heads - effective without any residue.

That's not a good idea. If you want to use something that leaves no residue, get a bottle of Golden Grain (190 proof, grain alcohol). We used it a Honeywell for tape heads (and if a repair was being a pita, we always had a little something to ease the pain

) for precisely the reason that it leaves absolutely no residue. Many thinners contain such chemicals as toluene, which is fine (even beneficial) for rubber, but can be destructive to some materials.

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Thanks for clearing up the confusion, Steve. If the tubes with silver getters and the ones with brown getters are from the same manufacturer, then I'd definitely be suspicious of those brown getters. The only point I was trying to make is that getter color isn't always an indicator of tube health.

SteveFord · « **Reply #41 on:** 24 Mar 2013, 03:44 pm »

This tube has a getter held up by two posts (in a perfect world).
In this case the getter has slid down the post on one side and is touching the plate and I think there's the culprit.
I'd take a picture but I'd have to smash the tube open and I'm hoping to resolve this amicably with the seller.

Bob in St. Louis · « **Reply #42 on:** 24 Mar 2013, 04:22 pm »

So Steve..... was the smoke white or black? Cause you know what that means.

SteveFord · « **Reply #43 on:** 24 Mar 2013, 04:25 pm »

It was burning oil not blowing out carbon!

Bob in St. Louis · « **Reply #44 on:** 24 Mar 2013, 04:28 pm »

Oh ok....I was thinking about whether we had a new Pope or not.
Sorry Steve. I couldn't resist.

Bob

SteveFord · « **Reply #45 on:** 24 Mar 2013, 04:36 pm »

Of course, the old "Habemus Papam!", not full throttle roll ons on deserted highways.

Bob in St. Louis · « **Reply #46 on:** 24 Mar 2013, 04:37 pm »

Exactly.

/End of "off topic".

SteveFord · « **Reply #47 on:** 24 Mar 2013, 05:12 pm »

This topic is as beat as that tube is.
The seller is refunding 1/2 of the purchase price, I'm buying a tube tester and am going to have my preamp given a check up.
Lesson learned the expensive way.

Bob in St. Louis · « **Reply #48 on:** 24 Mar 2013, 06:00 pm »

Well that sounds reasonable.

Maritan · « **Reply #49 on:** 26 Mar 2013, 02:56 am »

Glad things are getting worked out to your liking. Did you figure out how the UV3 is doing? And, I'm curious, what tube tester did you end up buying?

SteveFord · « **Reply #50 on:** 26 Mar 2013, 08:55 pm »

It appears that the big grey cap under the rectum fryer tube took it on the chin:

and I bought a Sencore TC154 tester which is somewhere between the seller's house and mine.

Kara at deHavilland was very helpful with an over the phone diagnosis and is sending me two caps and AVNerdguy is the fellow who steered me towards the Sencore line up. Thanks also to doug s. for steering me to Gixen for the snipe service!

I'm down but not out!

Bob in St. Louis · « **Reply #51 on:** 26 Mar 2013, 09:27 pm »

Good deal, glad to see you're on the road to recovery!

Maritan · « **Reply #52 on:** 27 Mar 2013, 01:48 pm »

Hehe. Your rectum certainly seems somewhat fried from this ordeal. Glad you got this sorted out.

SteveFord · « **Reply #53 on:** 4 Apr 2013, 09:51 pm »

Indeed I did; a new cap (plus a spare) showed up today and it's never sounded so good.
As always, Kara was a tremendous help. She said it's designed so that cap goes and saves the preamp from disaster in case your tube tries to fry your rectum.
I've said this before but if anyone is in the market for a preamp, give the UltraVerve3 real serious consideration as it sounds great, it really does. After a week of listening to headphones and a solid state system this is a real treat.

carusoracer · « **Reply #54 on:** 5 Apr 2013, 01:31 am »

Good to hear your back up and running.

With all the tubes I have been rolling I really should get a tube tester

I'm on to,something real nice with my UltraV, will be able to share once I confirm my findings

medium jim · « **Reply #55 on:** 5 Apr 2013, 02:38 am »

Quote from: SteveFord on 4 Apr 2013, 09:51 pm

Indeed I did; a new cap (plus a spare) showed up today and it's never sounded so good.
As always, Kara was a tremendous help. She said it's designed so that cap goes and saves the preamp from disaster in case your tube tries to fry your rectum.
I've said this before but if anyone is in the market for a preamp, give the UltraVerve3 real serious consideration as it sounds great, it really does. After a week of listening to headphones and a solid state system this is a real treat.

Steve, glad that I was right and the cap(s) showed up and that you are again feeling the love!

Jim

SteveFord · « **Reply #56 on:** 5 Apr 2013, 09:12 am »

Carusoracer,
Keep us posted.
It turns out the Philco rectifier tube is a rebranded RCA so I've got that, two Sylvanias and an RCA 6SN7 going at the moment.
I have some others to fool around with but I think I'll wait until my tube tester is back from being refurbished for obvious reasons.

opnly bafld · « **Reply #57 on:** 5 Apr 2013, 11:52 pm »

Buy well designed equipment and 99% of the time you don't have to worry about a bad tube.

Freo-1 · « **Reply #58 on:** 6 Apr 2013, 12:03 am »

Use quality tubes, and one can never go wrong.

They just don't make them like this anymore

SteveFord · « **Reply #59 on:** 6 Apr 2013, 11:17 am »

No, they certainly don't and probably won't do so again.
Back in the late 80s-early 90s I was working for AT&T and they spun off this division and called it Lucifent (we called it Lucifer).
The boffins at Lucifer discovered this gigantic supply of new tubes in one of the buildings that had been collecting dust for decades and they just blew the whole load out for peanuts.
What's this old crap doing here taking up space? Get rid of it!
No wonder they went broke.