Jump to content
Gibson Brands Forums

Tube Replacements.. Vox thinking ahead?


Rabs

Recommended Posts

Interesting. Watched the whole thing. It certainly isn't there yet, but I'm glad to see them working on it. Even on my laptop speakers the difference was pretty noticeable. I imagine that Vox is perfectly giggable. It also seems like a good thing to have in the bag as a spare just in case.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I liked that theyre selling the product as a stand alone component for other companies and builders. I looked in the video description to the link to where you can purchase it from but they must have forgotten to include it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well if what they say is true, and they say that its only a prediction not a fact. Then the industry as a whole will need to address this matter. I can see what they are saying.. Making tubes is an old skill and mostly still done by hand.. The machines they do use are old, like over 50 years old, maybe 70.. The whole process is very inefficient and at some point I can see that they will go under. And tube amps themselves are very inefficient as far as power consumption goes. So what with the world leaning towards more efficient energy use.. It could be that they wont be able to make tube amps as we know them due to some environmental legislation.

 

If or when this will happen no one actually knows.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not for quite awhile. I believe at least one valve manufacturing plant has recently been reactivated or set up (Eastern Europe or possibly China) to meet demand.

The Russian military still use valve equipment, as in the event of a conflict it will still work. So I'm told...... :-k

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't know, in my perception tubes were going the other way, now Mullards are being reissued, at least the brand.

 

Sure they are using 70-year old equipment but to me it's like saying your German anvil is about to be obsolete...not gonna happen.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The whole process is very inefficient and at some point I can see that they will go under. And tube amps themselves are very inefficient as far as power consumption goes. So what with the world leaning towards more efficient energy use.. It could be that they wont be able to make tube amps as we know them due to some environmental legislation.

 

If or when this will happen no one actually knows.

 

Peak glass, you're saying?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's too bad that the Nutube is incompatible with other tubes so you can't just swap them out to check them out and see how they work.

 

They even talked about that in the vid briefly. Of course their aim is to develop a low voltage device that sounds tube like, so it will never be a replacement in circuits that use actual vacuum tubes.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

BTW, China actually has two tube manufacturers other than the Schuguang factory. One of them makes the premium tubes that the Tube Store sells - I forget the brand. I don't know much of anything about the other brand. The Shuguang (Sino) 12ax7 tube is the only new 12ax7 that's really usable for any cathode follower position in a Marshall. Most other brands fail at a high rate, according to Bruce Egnater. Bruce said they had thousands of JJ 12ax7's go bad in the field and it was a gigantic problem. [scared]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

=The Shuguang (Sino) 12ax7 tube is the only new 12ax7 that's really usable for any cathode follower position in a Marshall. Most other brands fail at a high rate, according to Bruce Egnater. Bruce said they had thousands of JJ 12ax7's go bad in the field and it was a gigantic problem. [scared]

 

Interesting. I have a buddy who loves the JJs in his Marshall but they don't last very long. I just yanked some Chinese tubes out of my own JTM45 and replaced them with the new Svetlana tubes (made in the New Sensor factory like the Tung-Sol and EH tubes). So far so good, and they sound smoother - less harsh than the Chinese ones I removed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You couldn’t pop this in place of a 12AX7 etc even using some type of adapter because the voltage requirements are totally different. I got the datasheet a few days ago and this could be revolutionary for tubes in stompboxes, but IMO it is not as exciting for amps until they develop a power tube version. How they are going to achieve that, I don’t know.

 

They cost $50 each, or I would have already bought some to experiment with.

 

Here’s where you can buy the Nutube itself. They also have them listed at 5 pieces for $200

 

http://www.ebay.com/ulk/itm/222598731590

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

I forgot to mention that I got to hear a nutube in person with the new Vox Continental organ/synth. With this keyboard you can overdrive the output by cranking the gain of the nutube and it sounded really great to me. It sounded nice and natural, not fizzy, and a smooth transition into overdrive. As far as I can tell, at least in that application, it does exactly what you’d expect from a tube

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...