who do you guys use for tube sources for your tube radios for replacement and /or modification? same ones as the tube audio crowd?

I typically get most of my tubes from antique electronic supply, unless they price something truly outrageous, in which case I can typically find what I'm looking for on Ebay. Over the last few years, I have found quite a few tubes for sale over Craigslist or at local auctions, so I now have quite a hoard.

thanks for that. I got another input for AES and rite now they are having a sale till dec31 for everything, almost anyway. Prices are not bad at all.

There are a lot of good places out there. The radios shows are probably the least expensive place to pick tubes up.

Besides AES www.vacuumtubesinc.com is another good place.

John

I'd focus first on replacing all the wax paper caps and electrolytic caps before replacing tubes nowadays. Tubes sitting on the shelf or in a rarely used radio will last forever, but those old caps go bad used or not after 40 or so years.

I second that. I have radios going back to the last 20s and rarely need to replace any tubes.

I have heard that both Radiodaze and Antique Electronics supply are slowly phasing out at least their TV tubes, so buy now!

However, most radio tubes are still common should continue to be fairly easy to find.

John Kendall's Vintage Electronics in suburban Baltimore (www.vintage-electronics.com) also has a large selection of used radio tubes (don't know about high-power tubes such as TV horizontal output, damper, etc). He has just about any tube that was common in the 1950s-'60s in AA5 radios and such; I purchase tubes for my vintage radios online at his website and have had excellent service; the prices are reasonable as well, but the shipping charges could be quite high, depending on where you are. (I live near Cleveland and once paid $10 for a tube that only cost $2.25 on the site; the rest was for shipping charges.) He will have my business from now on, any time I need tubes for my old sets.

This site has decent prices plus you can get some used tubes at a big discount.
http://www.findatube.com/