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Vintage Asylum Classic gear from yesteryear; vintage audio standing the test of time. |
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Vintage Asylum Classic gear from yesteryear; vintage audio standing the test of time. |
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In Reply to: your swapmeet/thrift store vintage story posted by tesla on April 1, 2015 at 20:00:55:
About twenty years ago I spent a fair amount of time trolling the surplus stores in San Diego for tubes and transformers. At one store I had a nice chat with the sales guy, an engineer from the Ukraine, making minimum wage selling surplus electronic parts out of a dingy warehouse. He was proud of the shop and offered to take me up into the loft where the tubes were stored. The idea was, you asked for a particular tube down in the office, they checked their inventory sheet, and the Ukrainian engineer ran up to fetch them. They charged whatever Antique Electric Supply listed as their purchase price, e.g., the price they paid to buy the tube.
So customers were not generally allowed up in the loft. It was hot, musty, and dark up there and racks of tubes were lined up alongside tables with tubes on them and more boxes on the floor. It was a big jumbled mess with very little order to it that I could see. Anyway, at the far end of one old table covered with boxes of tubes were two Western Electric 300B tubes in the old style boxes from the early 1940s sitting prominently by themselves. I made a mental note, bought a few token tubes to thank him for the tour and left.
A year or so later Sound Practices issue No. 1 came out with its glowing praise for the old triode and I remembered the tubes at the surplus store. I also remembered that Ned Carlson had been selling them for years at about $160 each. I called Ned and he said that someone "offshore" had bought out the entire inventory of his supplier (AT&T) and that there were no more. Happily I had a backup source, so I went back to the surplus store. I found my Ukrainian buddy and asked if I could go up in the loft to pick out some tubes. He said the owner didn't want anyone up there any more and further they didn't list any 300B tubes in the inventory. I told him exactly where they were and he went up to search.
A few minutes later he came back with the two tan boxes with the sealed blue and white tape that said Western Electric on it. I asked him how much and he looked up the AES price. He almost choked! $180 each he said. I told him that was a lot of money, was he sure, all the while hoping the owner wouldn't return and demand the retail price. So he said, yes that's what the computer says, but he would give me a 10% discount for buying both tubes. OK, I said but that sure sounds like a lot as I hurriedly wrote the check praying that the owner wouldn't show up and nix the sale.
As I finished my signature, the owner walked in the door and made his way to the office to see what was going on. I handed the check to my buddy, thanked him, grabbed the tubes, and headed out the door. I was about 50 yds. up the street when I heard a familiar accent. Mr. Sir! MR. SIR! My heart sank. YOU FORGOT YOUR RECEIPT!
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Follow Ups
- RE: your swapmeet/thrift store vintage story - Palustris 09:37:33 04/03/15 (2)
- Great punch line! LOL! (nt) - Crazy Dave 09:30:50 04/07/15 (0)
- RE: your swapmeet/thrift store vintage story - bcguitar 06:29:06 04/04/15 (0)
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