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Tons of Tubes-O-Rama


thebes

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Headed into the hollers of Virginia over Easter. While the other weekend warriors were out stalking wild Turkey's I was in search of something more elusive.

You see even if you are a city slicker, if you take your time , don't blat and bray and carry on like an urban fool a little grudging respect will eventually be forthcoming from those nice country folks. It takes time, and often some corn likker, but a steady man will eventually become entrusted with snippets of local folklore and gossip.

Such was the case with my good friend Craig S. Lister of the Village of Charlottesville, a sleepy college town nestled in the foothills of the Shenandoah Valley. Craig was kind enough to share with the information that somewhere near the mountain town of Waynesboro resided a fellow with veritable Midas horde of tubes of all flavors, shapes and eras.

Well you just know I headed up that mountain riding a mule with a spare pack animal just in case. Ill also tell you this, it was touch and go for awhile. Big-hearted folks but reluctant to trust you. So I started spinning tales of a common man with an uncommon idea, this hear fellow named Paul Klipsch. At the better parts of my story he took to slapping his knee and as the jug got lower the pile of boxes just grew at my feet.

Don't quite remember the trip back down that mountain, but I guess the mule knew the way. When the fog rolled out of my brain I was surprised at the extent of my haul. 15 boxes chock full of tubes, glorious tubes.

Please not that that is an Olds Rocket 88 in the background of the picture, jsut to the left of the truck with the license plate that says "Farm Use Only"

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A real smorgasborg of tubes in this lot which is heavy on radio and ham tubes. This is because the gentleman, who in reality is a retired Chemical Engineer and international engineering consultant, is a ham operator and radio restorer. Hellava nice fellow to boot.

The haul includes practically a full box of rectifiers, many, many 6L6's and 6V6's, lots and lots of 6SN7's and quite a collection of 12AX7 and 12AT7's.

The nicest find of the lot was a pair of what are almost surely NOS Admiral 2A3's which test better than new , and this groovy looking RCA silver globe 45 which also tests like new.

Here's a pic of the tubes with some neato Deco cover art with a 12AX7 for size comparison.

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You can never have tube much hair, or tubes. Since I have no hair.....

I may have some GZ 34's and just the old dreary Telefunken, Mullard and Amperex in the small stuff. Ho, hum.

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Holy cow! You will make an absolute KILLING on ebay with some of those! The 2A3's, 45's, 6SN and SL7's all bring in a pretty penny! Hundreds of dollars actually! Remember my haul a couple years ago? I sold those separately for over $100 a pop for many, mainly the 2A3's. ZOWEY dude!

Edit: Have I told you I love you lately?

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Now, now keep the drool off the screeen.

Just looked, no GZ34's but tons of 5u4's of all flavors, 5Y3 etc. and a couple of 5R4GY, one of which is the size of a house and super cool looking. Looks to be NOS and will be very fine on my Crystal SET if it can replace the 5U4 I'm already using.

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Mr Lister, hound dog laying at his side, shine jug in his lap, with dualing banjos playing in the background slowly said: "hold on now, you actually WANT dem dar old worthless tubes?"

Hey Mike, I need me some more of those little Maggie SETs don't ya know.[;)]

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You got it Mike. I've taken a pic showing it next to a 12Au7 and a TALL bottle 5U4GB. Gigunta. Also threw in a pic of something called a RK34. Looks like it should be in a Mighty Mouse cartoon.

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You got it Mike. I've taken a pic showing it next to a 12Au7 and a TALL bottle 5U4GB. Gigunta. Also threw in a pic of something called a RK34. Looks like it should be in a Mighty Mouse cartoon.

That 5R4 is a military ST type of bottle.

I was thinking of the Chatham 5R4WGY. They have a real thick glass bottle, and probably weigh at around 2-3 pounds.

You could probably clob someone over the head with one and not break the glass envelope.......

The RK34 appears to be a dual VHF transmitting triode. Did you find any 829B/3E29's in the bunch? Those are a dual tetrode VHF transmitting tube. Now those look like serious martian tubes.......

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You mean these flying saucers? I've even got bases for them. I've also got one of those Jan potato masher 5R4's.

Yup. The guy being a ham radio operator, it doesn't suprise me that he had some martian tubes. I think the smaller one is a 832?

Now that you have a nice pair of strong 2A3's, you could build a single-ended 2A3 amp. You'll never look back at single-ended 6L6 again......

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