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Man I am getting old

W

wgrr

Super Member
I remember when I could walk to the Consumers grocery store, test my tubes, on a very good tester, and buy new tubes if needed. That was 20 years ago. The store is gone now a causality of Wal-Mart despite being far superior to the afore mentioned competition.

I wonder what the future of new tube production is. WE is finally going to ship new production 300B tubes in 2013 after a much ballyhooed announcement a few years ago. $900 a tube, really?
 
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I remember the tester at the neighborhood drug store when I was a kid (late '60s, early '70s). Tube bad? Grab a new one from the cabinet below for a buck or 2.

Interestingly, my boyhood best friend managed to buy that tester for a song at an auction many years ago and it lives on in his basement/electronics workshop.

The future of tubes? God only knows. With the energy concerns of the future, I don't think the market for them will ever be what it was when we were growing up, that's for sure.

I wonder, really, why are those 300B's so expensive? They can't possibly be more difficult to manufacture than say, a penthode or dual triode. :scratch2:
 
Its the "Mercedes-Benz" syndrome- You're paying for that "W/E" monogram. They're trying to cash in on the cachet of their name & reputation.
 
yep, its the name. You can buy a 300B made by someone else for a lot less money. To some extent I guess you get what you pay for, but my inner skeptic makes me question if the WE really is that much better.
 
The only way to lower the price would be to have wider acceptance to make specialized manufacturing into more of volume manufacturing and henceforth . . . profitable. Me? I won't be buying any WE, especially at those prices.
 
I DON"T know if this is true or not, it's just a possibility.

Are the WE tubes made here in the USA. For low production items, here in the USA is the highest cost location in the world. Not saying that this accounts for all the high cost, just one possibility.

Shelly_D
 
Hiya,

Are the WE tubes made here in the USA. For low production items, here in the USA is the highest cost location in the world. Not saying that this accounts for all the high cost, just one possibility.
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Well other than the fact that the people who are spending big bucks for WE 300B's are over in Asia and particularly China.

I have demo'd equipment powered by vintage WE tubes vs most the new production and I can tell you that the WE tubes have a imaging that the new stuff can not touch. Very 3D.

Throw in the fact that the WE tubes were made to last (10,000 hrs min) and you can see why people prize them.

Now that the thread has gone off into la la land I pull out my buzz words. :)

Frannie
 
shelly_d said:
I DON"T know if this is true or not, it's just a possibility.

Are the WE tubes made here in the USA. For low production items, here in the USA is the highest cost location in the world. Not saying that this accounts for all the high cost, just one possibility.

Shelly_D
Click to expand...

Arkansas with the Kansas City tooling, but not the generations of skilled tube makers. I have a feeling the Kansas City tubes will end up selling for more than the Arkansas ones after the dust settles. Just a hunch. If they are waiting for me to pay 9 bills for any tube, they should settle in good and bring lots of food.:D Heck, you can still by old stock RCA 2A3s for around 100, so I'm good on SET. :music:
 
As long as Fender, Marshall, Vox, et al are building tube amps for musicians, you'll be able to find more popular octal and 9-pin power and signal tubes for reasonable prices. AFAIK, nobody makes a 2A3 or 300B or 845 guitar amp, so don't expect the prices to go down long-term.

-D
 
Some of those skilled hands from the KC plant are still around and I'm sure will be tapped if possible. I bet they don't cut any corners, why would they? They're on the map 'cause they made the map. I don't have any experience with the 300's, but other WE tubes I have used have never disappointed. wgrr, I'm right up the road (71 to Neosho MO) if ya wanna test your tubes, free even. Just like the drug store 'cept I won't try to sell ya' a thing! lol PM me if ya wanna.
 
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