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#1
06-22-2011, 09:15 AM
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In Tube Heaven
It's raining here today, so Hud and I went to a small local furniture store check out dressers for his new baby sister this morning. The store has been in the same location for 102 years and used to be a general store. We were the only two people in the store, so I stopped and chatted with the woman who was working the floor. She said her great-grandfather started the store and her grandfather was still running the day-to-day business. They used to be spread across three different buildings downtown, but had consolidated down to one when they stopped selling/repairing appliances. She said the appliance repair side of the company was the biggest money maker from the 1930's - 1970's, but it came to an abrupt halt when inexpensive imports made it cheaper for people to simply throw away their broken TV's, radios and refrigerators rather than repair them.
When she mentioned the TV's/radios, I asked if they might still have some old vacuum tubes and she said she wasn't sure, but she'd check. I said I'd be interested in purchasing some and she told me to wait while he talked to the grandfather. A very old man came out and said, "You need some vacuum tubes?" I said I used them on various projects and would love to see what they have in stock. He said, "Son, if you have a use for them, you can take them all. They are just gathering dust here. But they are all at least 50yrs old. I don't think I've ordered any new ones since Kennedy was president." I told him old vacuum tubes were pretty valuable nowadays, but he just laughed. He said he didn't have the time or energy to go through them all and would be just as happy to clear the space in his stockroom. He had a kid load 13 boxes of tubes in my truck and I'm still going through them. I've gone through a couple hundred of them so far. Some are broken or compromised, but most are pristine. Lots of tubes from Sylvania, RCA, Mullard, Amperex, Raytheon and Siemens. Plus a few brands I've never even heard of. Many of them aren't suitable for guitar amps, but will work very well for my vintage ham radio equipment. Should be enough to last me the rest of my life...and my kids if they end up interested in old electronics. Now my next project will be repairing my old tube tester...
__________________
How I wish...how I wish you were here. A few Canadian and American Guitars 
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#2
06-22-2011, 09:43 AM
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I love hearing storys like this. Mine is a sad one. My dad spent 40 years in the Electrical Supply business from the early 40's thru the 70's. I had no idea he had accumulated BOXES of new tubes and stored them in the family attic. Well, when he died my mom had some young guys help her clean out the attic and the tubes were THROWN AWAY!!!!
Congratulations and send me some of those Mullards and Amperexs!!!
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#3
06-22-2011, 09:54 AM
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Congrats to HudsDad. I would sure love to be in that situation myself!
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#5
06-22-2011, 01:04 PM
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U struck gold dude !! lol
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#7
06-22-2011, 04:20 PM
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Quote:
__________________
How I wish...how I wish you were here. A few Canadian and American Guitars
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#8
06-22-2011, 05:20 PM
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Congrats on your score HudsDad.
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#9
06-22-2011, 07:35 PM
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Tube Gold, indeed! Great find / gift.
__________________
Will
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