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In Reply to: RE: NOS tubes posted by cityjim on May 24, 2009 at 23:15:14
While it is true that Marantz and Mac basically ended their tube gear production in 1968, tubes did not disappear, and were the backbone of military gear even after. The GE plants did not shut down till the early 90's, IIRC. and some companies like Richardson (IIRC, they own Eimac and Cetron, among other things)actually still rebuild and manufacture new tubes, particularly for transmitting use. In fact, in my area there is only one television and radio station which uses transistorized outputs: the rest all use tubes.
While most Western nations have ceased production of tubes, the military had huge stockpiles, and these stockpiles were not deleted from their inventory until after the fall of the USSR in 1992. In 1995 we see a huge number of surplus sales not only in the US but throughout all NATO countries, and the SEATO countries also. In 1995, I recall a surplus sale in Ogden where the Air Force dumped 140,000 6189's, a 12AU7. I remember placing a bid of a dollar each tube for a pallet, but never won it ( good thing as what the hell would I have done with 10,000 tubes). In the same year or close to it, the Australian government dumped a large number of British type tubes, including KT-66. As recently as two years ago a British surplus depot had 400 genuine KT-88's for sale. I remember purchasing metal base 5AR4's from a Swedish source with Swedish military numbers on them. When Mt Pinatubo erupted and the US closed down Subic Bay in the Philippines, US surplus centers received a fairly large number of vacuum tubes. I distinctly remember seeing one lot with over 250 12AX7/5751's.
Some tubes like 807's which were workhorse tubes in WWII are plentiful because of their plate caps. Modern designers do not use them because of the liability factor so the millions made during the war years are still very plentiful because there is simply little demand for them.
Prior to the fall of the USSR, many American tube manufacturers had explored solid state desings. You see this in CJ and ARC. In fact the fall of the USSR pretty much coincides with the ending of the GE manufaturing, the last of the large American manufacturers. But the fall of the USSR also opens the doors of the West to Russian made tubes, which had never stopped behind the Iron curtain.
But there is no doubt that NOS tubes are drying up. The large caches from the cold war years have been sold and placed into general distribution. Yes you can still find NOS, but many are used and the truly new tubes which are desirable are climbing rapidly in price. The EBay listings of NOS tubes have dropped considerably over the past three years: significantly so by my observation and the prices have risen.
Stu
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