15GP22 Owner Poll
 

I am starting this thread to get a feel for how much 15GP22 owners are willing to pay to have their current 15GP22 dud rebuilt.

At this point, the possibility of success is not known, however we do know most of the approximate costs that will be involved. I am not willing to divulge our costs, but I can tell you that they are VERY SUBSTANTIAL!!!

I am asking 15GP22 owners who may wish to have a tube rebuilt to make a post in reply to this thread, telling how much you would be willing to spend to get your 15GP22 crt rebuilt.

After I have a sufficient number of replies, I will make a post stating whether or not anyone was willing to pony up enough gelt to get the job done.

THIS SHOULD BE VERY INTERESTING!!

Bob

I'm probably going to derail this thread right off the bat as I am not an owner of a CT-100. However, If I theoretically owned a CT-100 with a dud 15GP22 I think that at least $2500 would be in the ballpark if what I would pay to have it rebuilt.. possibly more if success was already proven and time tested.

It should be noted that with no guarantee of success, payment up front with no refund should be factored into the equation.

There about 75 sets that need a working 15G.according to Pete Deksnis. This should be a good profit center for the only CRT rebuilder on the planet

Not necessarily so DonDon,

If, and I emphasize IF, we are able to develope a successful rebuild protocall, to either, tubes under vacuum, or also tubes that have lost vacuum, we would most likely do rebuilds on an exchange basis where you deliver us your intact dud and we deliver back to you a successfully rebuilt tube. We would probably only take your money if we already had a good tube ready to deliver.

We thought about doing it sort of "plunk your money down and take your chances" method, but it has too many drawbacks for both the buyer and the rebuilding team.

So consider this as a conventional rebuild situation, where you bring your dud to the rebuilder and he sells you an already rebuilt tube that is tested and ready to install in your set, when you state how much you would be willing to pay for a rebuilt 15GP22.

I'd maybe pay $1000 to support the effort, but I don't know if I need to have a working CT-100 so badly as to pay more. I've had several good working CT-100s, working GE 15CL100, and an "almost" working Stromberg-Carlson 15" set with good tube, so maybe I got my rocks off already. I guess if I hadn't had the thrill already, I'd be a higher bidder.

Charles

ONE MILLION DOLLARS!

(Sorry, that was Dr. Evil)

Maybe you could get the government to pay using an endowment for the arts grant, so long as you promised to smash them afterwards, as some kind of performance art?

As to the rebuild exchange, if a customer submits a non-leaker still under vacuum, will the exchange unit be a non-leaker or just newly sealed unit? I assume the guns will be rebuilt with new fils..

Had not thought about that. I guess it would be proper to exchange a leaker bulb with a rebuilt leaker bulb and a bulb that was under vacuum with a bulb under vacuum.

And certainly we will not rebuild leakers unless we have a reasonable expectation that we have a viable method of sealing the leakers in a way that will last. On our next attempt we will be rebuilding tubes under vacuum as well as at least one leaker, as an experiment to see if our protocall will work on leakers.

OK, now lets please keep to the topic. I would like to see only posts from people that have a dud 15GP22 on how much they would be willing to spend to have a dud 15GP22 rebuilt. Please post other issues to the 15GP22 Rebuild Project thread. http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/sho...d.php?t=184009

I think that trying to price now before success is acheived would be misleading. We do not know whether the answers are from collectors with duds. Can you use Pete's list with personal contacts to get a better results?

Perhaps you do some cost analysis with projected time and material costs, add profits and mark that up to a market price.

To answer your question--Probably far north of $1000. I have 6 under vacuum and sealed ready to send. Is the gun rebuilding process with new fils solved?

JF knows where I am....

Wow...you got SIX CT-100s ?!?..... I'm not worthy.....I'm not worthy....(Doing his best Wayne's World genuflection/bowing here...)

Speaking for myself and one other collector who will participate, one tube at first to see how the results are, then I am thinking 3 to 5 more tubes @ $1000 ea, but not all at once. Of these, only one has no white stuff in the neck. That one has no green emission, and an intermittent short on the blue. The others are without vacuum. One may have a phosphor problem too, which obviously rules it out. I'd have to look at it, and it's hopelessly buried for now.

Charles

$1200 to $1500 each
I have one under vacuum with VERY low emission and one that has gone to air.
I also have 3 tubes with excellent emission. Since I have 4 sets that use 15GP22s that leaves me short one good tube. Sure hope this rebuild project works out. Good luck to all those trying to make it happen.

The issues with rebuilding the guns have been resolved. We have a high tech method of removing the old cathodes from the G1 grid cup, and we have spoken to a manufacturer of electron guns and they have given us a price to install new cathodes and filimements and mount the rebuilt guns on the new glass stems that we are having manufactured. The glass stems are due to be shipped to us within the week.

So the answer to your question is YES, we have solved the issues with getting the guns rebuilt.

Not realy interested in parsing Pete's list. This informal poll will have to do.

We already know what we will need to charge to make this a viable undertaking, and to put it mildly "IT ANIN'T GONNA BE CHEAP" And not because we are trying to make a pile of money doing this. Our costs, for all of the oursourcing, are EXTREMELY HIGH. I would guess only the most serious of tv collectors will be willing to anti up for a rebuild.

I would think we will publicly announce a price to rebuild, after we have achieved a reasonable degree of success. Until that time it is premature to even anounce an estimate of the rebuild price.

We are just trying to get a feel for what 15GP22 dud owners are willing to pay in order to have their tube rebuilt. We are trying to see if there are any collectors who are serious enough to lay the kind of money on the line, that John Folsom and I are investing into this project. Anyone who is not as serious as we are, will be left sitting by the wayside with their dead 15GP22's, while the serious among us will be getting tubes rebuilt. (assuming we are successful, and if we aren't, then all bets are off)

So put a price tag on your tubes. Pretend you are in a bidding war on ebay, and you only have one shot to snipe your rebuild at the last second of the auction. So you determine what the maximum price is, that are willing to pay, and you submit your bid. You draw a line in the sand, and that is the absolute most you are willing to pay. One cent more and you say "that's too much for me"

Are you beginning to get the picture??? I am looking for the actual MAXIMUM dollar amount that that a 15GP22 dud owner is willing to pay, not some wishy washy ballpark estimate. I am looking for a solid "I will pay this much, and not a penny more" type of statement.

Furthermore, John Folsom and I have discussed the pricing issue, and we have come to the conclusion that if no one else is willing to pay what this is going to cost, then John and I will rebuild our tubes, and that will be the end of the project. Just what do you think the value of a rare, rebuilt 15GP22 with emmission like NOS is going to be worth on the open market? Is everyone getting a clearer picture now?


Bob

"open market" ?
Sounds like you got a fever.
Your project has been tried before, when parts were available, decades ago.
The "collectors" were unwilling to pay a reasonable price then, what makes you think they are going to spend thousands now?
Maybe a so called "serious" collector would, however the historical value of a museum piece would diminish.
I wonder if these hobbiests will start killing each other when there are only 2 functional 15G's left in the world ?

Eberts,

Your comments are unwelcome and without any merit!

FYI RCA was rebuilding 15GP22's. We have the physical evidence to prove it.

Material science has advanced since the "last attempt" and we believe we have at least a 50/50 chance of success.

As for my "fever", my temperature is quite normal. And at 61 I have conquered far more formidable projects than this one. There is never any guarantee of success when you start a project like this. I am one of the fortunate in this world that have the "Right Stuff" Your comments lead me to suspect that you do not!

In any event there are those out there that I have spoken to who are ready to anti-up for a rebuild if we are successful.