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Registered Member #30
Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 10:52AM
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Posts: 6706
He's obviously not a guitarist, they turn it up till it explodes, then kick it around the stage.
A tube tester would certainly be nice to own, but they're not compulsory, I've built four tube amps and restored a radio without one. All the bad tubes I found were obviously bad, either weak, noisy, too much hum, or in the case of power tubes, clouds of glowing gas and complete fuse-blowing breakdown.
Beware of the cheap emission testers, they often connect all electrodes except the cathode, and use them as the anode. This can damage the tubes with excessive current. If you want a tube tester, get a proper one that can measure mutual conductance, like the Avo, Hickock etc. There is one very good Russian one with regulated DC supplies, but I can't remember the name.
Registered Member #3567
Joined: Mon Jan 03 2011, 10:49PM
Location: USA, 1960s
Posts: 260
I've never payed more than $30 for a tube tester.
Clears up any info about tube testers.
Also, my favorite quote:
"To convince themselves that owning such a tube tester was no big deal, many old time tube technicians began believing that the only 'real' test was tube substitution."
What if you don't have a radio that uses that tube? What if it works fine in one set, but bad in another? 12AX7s arn't everything, you know. The real king is the 45!
Registered Member #3271
Joined: Mon Oct 04 2010, 02:29AM
Location: Canada
Posts: 159
I have two. One (Stark, Toronto) for vintage tubes from the 30s and a Mercury model 1101 (looks identical to the Eico model) that I used during the 50-70s for both TV and radio. Can post pix if you want.
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Poll- Who owns a tube tester
