Upscale Audio says not to worry about tube availability

[AnotherJohnson]

https://upscaleaudio.com/pages/vacuum-tubes

Apparently they’re being inundated with panic stricken buyers.

Kevin says he has a HUGE inventory, but that he’s run out of tubes that have been evaluated and rated. He has to catch up. He’ll take care of his regular customers first, but he thinks this will all pass over. “Tubes last for years. Don’t try to replace them now if they’re not bad.”

He says DON’T PANIC! And also DON’T CALL!

This may be why Jeff’s not answering the phone too.

[admin]

Yeah. I've seen this a lot. A friend at work (who is into guitar tube amps, not high end audio) literally asked me about this earlier this week. I did give him a couple of recommendations on where to buy tubes. I don't see the war in Ukraine lasting a very long time (ie years) so I doubt that sanctions will have a very long term effect on Russian tube output. But it's always good to have a few spares around.

[Big Dog RJ]

As usual us folks down unda, like to panic "always" and so quite a few suppliers here are on zero stock! Very similar to the dunny paper episodes... people didn't want to run short whiles on the porcelain...

Ah! So then why tubes? Well... we really don't want to be running around for tubes in the middle of fine tunes! All Russian brands are at a full stop and zero orders going through. Local suppliers will now probably resort to European or US equivalents, which are ok I guess.

We'll have to see how it all turns out. Got plenty of dunny paper though!
Cheers, RJ

[admin]

Perhaps people switching more to European made tubes would be a good thing? People hold the Russian made tubes as something miraculous but perhaps this is more hype than true performance. I wouldn't mind European made tubes becoming more standard,... but hopefully not the Chinese.

[AnotherJohnson]

We need someone to step up to the KT120, KT150, 6H30, etc.

[admin]

Agree. I feel lucky that I did a full tube replacement on the ART 300's just the other month. 16 KT120's was a big purchase, but in retrospect, perhaps well timed.

[AnotherJohnson]

Agree. I feel lucky that I did a full tube replacement on the ART 300's just the other month. 16 KT120's was a big purchase, but in retrospect, perhaps well timed.

YES!

Serendipitous indeed!

[MattHooper]

I bought back up KT120s and 6550s for my Premier 12s just in case. Fortunately I got them from a vendor who hadn't raised his prices yet.
I'm glad I got them. There's tons of speculation about "will tubes be available again soon or not, and now much more will they cost?" and I don't have to worry about that, so it's worth my peace of mind.

I certainly do hope tubes remain available for the general health of the tube amp industry and for us tube amp owners, of course.

[AnotherJohnson]

Kevin says the factory is owned by a US entity.

If the Russians don’t cancel them and seize their assets to offset their losses, we may see them selling their output to China and then China selling them to the US.

[AnotherJohnson]

I was greeted by Upscale’s latest announcement by email this morning.

Rather than post it here, this is the gist of it.

1. DON’T PANIC. DON’T STOCKPILE.

2. Upscale has tubes, more have arrived/are arriving, and their big tube tester is repaired, so they’re replenishing their graded inventory.

3. Rather than raise prices, Upscale will limit tube sales to no more than 4 tubes of any given type every 180 days. He points out that that will allow replacements of power tubes in matched quads, and will allow replacement of random small tubes as needed.

4. He can’t ship to Canada because of Canadian government restrictions on goods made in Russia.

So … I checked his inventory for some tubes I use. Many, but not all, were for sale. Prices were not much different than they were in January.

[admin]

Interesting. Still glad I bought my 16 KT120's a few months ago!

[AnotherJohnson]

Interesting. Still glad I bought my 16 KT120's a few months ago!

I looked for KT120s, and they did not have them on inventory yet.

I have always thought that it was a good idea to keep a full stock of spares on hand. I did not anticipate the current situation… i was driven by my desire to not have to wait for shipping when something failed.

I’ve recently acquired an industrial strength tube tester … a Hickok 752A. It has been well maintained, and recently calibrated. The previous owner appears to have managed to get an Amplitrex before the shortage.

It can perform several tests, including one related to cathode reduction which is predictive of remaining life. I will no longer be tossing functioning tubes on a schedule. Instead I’ll be testing and labeling them for possible future needs.

[admin]

That's cool. AJ, can you post a pic or two of the tube tester. I'm kind of interested on how they work.

[AnotherJohnson]

Many tube testers are for quick checks for shorts and gas leaks. The 752A is more. This one had been in the General Electric Company’s corporate equipment inventory.

It allows use of auxiliary DC power supplies for higher current tubes. It can check the second side of a twin triode with just the push of a button. It has additional sockets to accommodate less common specialty tubes.

I’ll take some pics, possibly this evening, but you can google Hickok 752A and a lot of stuff comes up. It was built at the end of the tube era (about 50 years ago). My old one was WWII military surplus, and not nearly as capable. I’ve put my name on the list for when the Amplitrex is available again. But until then, this is better than throwing tubes out that still have life.

I’ve also got a pretty cool guitar amp tube test rig that actually allows the measurements to be made with the tube plugged into the amp. It’s for power tubes only and it’s not as versatile as the 752A.

[AnotherJohnson]

Here’s a link to a YouTube video of a 752A.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Dqgk72h4Vkw

[admin]

Does it come with a manual? So many knobs!

[AnotherJohnson]

Does it come with a manual? So many knobs!

It came with several manuals and a standard 6L6S test tube to check calibration.

The main manual covers general instructions, and then the others cover tube data.

The knobs are primarily to create the correct voltages for the pins in use, and then also to load the tube to measure it’s characteristics under load.

[AnotherJohnson]

So much for the idea that people won’t stockpile and panic.

Upscale has suspended tube sales this evening. Apparently there was run on tubes today, and Kevin has thrown up his hands ….

This is looking like the hoarders just can’t control themselves. It’s always been clear that there is an OCD component to this hobby. It looks like it’s fully in play.

[admin]

Well, here we go.... I hope this won't be a chain reaction where people are like "oh no they stopped selling it here so I should buy more anywhere I can find it."

[AnotherJohnson]

Well, here we go.... I hope this won't be a chain reaction where people are like "oh no they stopped selling it here so I should buy more anywhere I can find it."

That’s already started. It started with the invasion.