Members gardo Posted April 14, 2015 Members Share Posted April 14, 2015 Self serve tube testers were once a common sight in electronics stores. You could walk in wth a hand full of tubes and easily find out if they were good or not for FREE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members JRicoC Posted April 14, 2015 Members Share Posted April 14, 2015 I don't remember them, but seems like a pretty cool idea ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members thatsbunk Posted April 14, 2015 Members Share Posted April 14, 2015 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gardo Posted April 14, 2015 Author Members Share Posted April 14, 2015 Looks good, but not for that price Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DeepEnd Posted April 14, 2015 Members Share Posted April 14, 2015 I do remember them. In fact, there's a local place called the Electronics Exchange that still has one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WRGKMC Posted April 14, 2015 Members Share Posted April 14, 2015 The ones in stores like that didn't usually work very well. They would tell you if they tubes had good filaments and gave you a good or bad range on a meter. I think they might have told you if they were gaseous too. But for the stuff that counted like microphonics, tube gain, and optimum bias levels etc that impacted sound quality couldn't be done with those. They mainly told you if they were dead. The portable one I used as a tech was fairly good because you could use it to match tubes, but it still comes down to tweaking them in an amp and doing a test under operating conditions and injecting a signal and using a scope to test their fidelity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members knotty Posted April 14, 2015 Members Share Posted April 14, 2015 The ones in stores like that didn't usually work very well. They would tell you if they tubes had good filaments and gave you a good or bad range on a meter. I think they might have told you if they were gaseous too. But for the stuff that counted like microphonics' date=' tube gain, and optimum bias levels etc that impacted sound quality couldn't be done with those. They mainly told you if they were dead. The portable one I used as a tech was fairly good because you could use it to match tubes, but it still comes down to tweaking them in an amp and doing a test under operating conditions and injecting a signal and using a scope to test their fidelity.[/quote'] Yep. Really complicated this guitar lark. I am surprised there are more than 3 people qualified to plug in and play. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Ratae Corieltauvorum Posted April 15, 2015 Moderators Share Posted April 15, 2015 Since I've got a tad realistic and returned to big fat 4 string world, I have forgotten about vacuum tubes, there's just too much good solid state kit available Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mr.Grumpy Posted April 15, 2015 Members Share Posted April 15, 2015 We had one at our local drugstore until it moved in the mid-70s, and they had them in local Radio Shack stores until the late 70s. The Radio Shack branded tubes had gold-plated pins, oooooh! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members GAS Man Posted April 15, 2015 Members Share Posted April 15, 2015 Yeah, I remember those and TV repair vans that were often seen in the neighborhoods. Finding the bad tubes in TVs used to keep a fair number of folks employed. But that was a concept that became passe' along with the term of "durables". Now it's "consumables" (Well, except for maybe cars which have become more "durable".) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted April 17, 2015 Share Posted April 17, 2015 We had one at our local drugstore until it moved in the mid-70s' date='[/quote'] In SoCal, they had them at Thrifty's Drug stores for years. And some great tasting inexpensive ice cream cones too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members AlamoJoe Posted April 18, 2015 Members Share Posted April 18, 2015 Boy do I ever...brings back memories of me and mu Dad pulling all the tubes out of the Zenith and goin g down to U-Totem to test 'em. Brought the set back to life! Also fixed a Old Victorla cabinet style radio with U-Totem tubes. Actually rigged up a jack and played my Musicmaster through that thing...Till Mom heard me any way.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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