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‘In the know’ about tubes

Being a total anorak I’m always curious as to what makes a good tube. By ‘good’ I mean low noise, low microphony and reliable. That seems pretty straight-forward, but I have to say that manufacturers and tube vendors these days aren’t exactly forthcoming with information about the construction and materials used in their tubes. This stuff is really, really important for good sound quality and guitar tone. The quality of the materials and construction techniques utilised to manufacture the tube will ultimately determine its audio performance. If short cuts are taken in the manufacturing process then no amount of cryogenic treatment, tube-matching or tube rebranding will make it better. Fortunately we don’t have to live in ignorance as the vast pool of tube expertise, that is the physicists, chemists, metallurgists and engineers who worked for the likes of Mullard and Philips during the 1960s generated a huge amount of technical literature, some of which has now found its way onto the internet – much-prized knowledge for die-hard tone enthusiasts like myself. If you want to get in the know about tubes then I can highly recommend the following book Materials and Techniques for Electron Tubes by Walter Kohl, senior engineering specialist at Sylvania. You’ll find the the answers to what makes a good tube within its pages.

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6 COMMENTS

Robert M. October 6, 2016 at 07:43:00 Log in to Reply

The other day I noticed that links to download digitized copies of a few books on the subject of tube technology have been posted here on your site. What a great resource to make available for those who want to know more. Quite a reflection on how strong your dedication to this increasingly arcane aspect of the business is. I can't help but note how congruent this is with the quality that goes into Effectrode's pedal designs and builds. Thought I'd mention that to let you know the extra mileage you put in does get appreciated. You're one of the best IMO, Phil.

Phil October 9, 2016 at 02:04:14 Log in to Reply

Thanks Robert, I aim to inform an educate wherever possible, as there's all too much manufacturer marketing hype out there that confuses musicians. Good to know you appreciate my efforts. Thanks again, Phil

john April 4, 2016 at 01:10:14 Log in to Reply

Quality of tubes is compared and discussed in various issues of Vacuum Tube Valley: www.tiffe.de/roehren/VTVhttps://web.archive.org/web/20130805141923/https://www.jumpjet.info/Pioneering-Wireless/eMagazines/VTV/vtv.htmalso see:Some good articles about capacitors https://www.scribd.com/doc/2610442/capacitor-sound https://www.scribd.com/doc/24913258/picking-capacitors https://www.humblehomemadehifi.com/Cap.htmlThe Subminiature Vacuum Tube: The Cycle of Technology you can download the video here: https://techtv.mit.edu/videos/229-the-subminiature-vacuum-tube-the-cycle-of-technology

Phil Taylor November 18, 2018 at 12:36:19 Log in to Reply

Thank you for the links John, Best, Phil

John April 3, 2016 at 03:51:03 Log in to Reply

The front and back parts of a Raytheon subminiature tube manual was scanned and uploaded to opendrive. The middle part has a lot of pages of datasheets. I've been able to find submini datasheets on the internet already, so those weren't scanned.https://od.lk/d/OV8xMDc2MjIxOTFf/RaytheonSubmini2r.pdf

Phil April 3, 2016 at 08:26:19 Log in to Reply

Hi John, thanks for the link to this fascinating document. It's tempting to scan and convert these kinds of documents into searchable HTML webpages, but there's just not enough hours in the day. thanks again, Phil

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