Tube Brands

[N2IXK]

The 322-1 code indicates that the tube was actually made by Tung-Sol, and branded for FoMoCo.

[bgadow]

Tung-Sol must have been in pretty tight with Ford; my '51 Fordor is loaded with TS bulbs. I didn't pay attention to the codes on the tubes in the Bendix-built radio; most are original FoMoCo branded.

I also like picking out the oddities. A couple years ago I purchased what ended up being over 50,000 tubes. I pulled out the best of the lot for my own use and sold the rest. Some things I found interesting: a pile of Truetone tubes, all for late 60s series string stuff; a bunch of Hytron tubes, apparently from after CBS unloaded the division-they looked like "Standard Brand" kinda stuff. Got some later 70s "new logo" Panasonic tubes-it seems strange to see them from a company you think of as modern. I've found a number of used IBM branded tubes, and NOS Hewlett-Packard, packed in tubes (got a handful of 6GH8's.) On some newer RCA (new logo) tube boxes, under the flap, you may find the old Cunningham name and logo. Guess this was their way of keeping the trademark active.

[Charlie]

Man... how the hell do ya go through 50,000 tubes??? That's a whole new hobby!!

One odd item I came across... a Genalex A2426. Didn't find much on the web for it, but apparently there are a few out there. Noticed one or two on ebay on the other side of the rock. Truetone tubes... I see those regularly... likely pulls from radios/tvs. I see Panasonic tubes now and then... not as often as other oddballs.

I've noticed in the past couple of days that 6GH8's seem to be the ones to fail most often in a tester... mostly due to shorts.

I still have a few more boxes to go through... but I am really kinda burned out on this. The only thing that's been making it interesting is the odd ball brands that I come across now and then.

One thing is for sure... there are certain tubes that I won't have to look for anymore. I won't be looking for any video IF or video output tubes anytime soon!

[marty59]

With all my tube aquisions over the years, I believe the most abudant tubes out there are 1B3/1G3, 6AL5, 6AQ5, 6AU6, 6CB6, 6CG7(6FQ7), 12AU7's.
I do get a chuckle when I come across good used 6GH8's!

[walterbeers]

There used to be a drug/variety store in Omaha NE. called Skaggs, that had a tube tester and sold Triad tubes really cheap. Don't know who they were made by, but the several I bought at various times seemed to work OK. They used to also sell cans of R12 Freon for a $1 or so. Of course thats long gone, since the environmentalists got into the action. Oh the good ole days!

[Charlie]

Originally Posted by marty59

With all my tube aquisions over the years, I believe the most abudant tubes out there are 1B3/1G3, 6AL5, 6AQ5, 6AU6, 6CB6, 6CG7(6FQ7), 12AU7's.
I do get a chuckle when I come across good used 6GH8's!

Agreed.... I have a lot of those now!

I am just glad that I am getting this stuff cleaned out and sorted. Many of these boxes haven't been moved in years. I really wasn't sure of what I had in there. There's been a time or two in which I needed something for a TV, got it online, and now come to find out I have what I needed all along.

Haven't seen any Triad tubes yet. I still have a long ways to go. No telling what else I might find.

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by walterbeers

There used to be a drug/variety store in Omaha NE. called Skaggs, that had a tube tester and sold Triad tubes really cheap. Don't know who they were made by, but the several I bought at various times seemed to work OK. They used to also sell cans of R12 Freon for a $1 or so. Of course thats long gone, since the environmentalists got into the action. Oh the good ole days!

Mid-West auto stores in Milwaukee, advertised a list of Triad tubes that they were selling for $1.00 each. They also had a self service tube checker.
The tubes were about the same quality as Olson's Shield tubes.

[electronjohn]

I have a bunch of "Triad" brand tubes in my stash...look kinda like rebranded GEs in some cases.

Regarding the "Ten" you found...a WAG sez maybe "Fujtsu-Ten"?

[earlyfilm]

Originally Posted by Charlie

. . . . . going through boxes and boxes of tubes . . . . I allow a tube to warm up for 8-10 minutes in the tester. Many times, grid leakage doesn't show up for several minutes. Since I've started this, it seems on average that I end up discarding 1 in 4 tubes.

Charlie, if the tubes are used pulls, 1 in 4 with grid leakage is expected.

If these tubes are NOS, suspect that the short indicator on your tube tester has become too sensitive due to the resistor-capacitor circuit that the gas test uses. A slight leakage in the capacitor will usually result in good tubes showing leakage.

For the record, in the 1950's, blank generic boxes (especially with the Standard-Brands design) could be bought for a few cents each (with or without the white space for the tube number) and a rubber stamp used to create fake labels. I used the numbers and letters from an old toy printing press and made hundreds of these replica tube boxes. We sold these tubes at a huge discount as tested used tubes.

Most of the tubes came from junked trade-in sets from the dealers that contracted their service work from us. This worked out fine, as most of the do-it-yourselfers had older TVs. With that said, the fastest movers were the 5 tubes used in the all-American 5 radios.

Jas.

[Charlie]

Came across another couple of oddballs. One was a Toshiba 6AG7 tube box (had an RCA in it). While Toshiba certainly isn't an unknown brand, it is one that you wouldn't normally see in your tube caddy.

The next one is a 12SA7 branded MAXIM. Never heard of that one.