I am gonna change my 20W stranger amp to a Valve driven one. So where can I buy a valve pentode and a valve triode?
Haha, so you are planning to replace the diodes with vacuum diodes and transistors with vacuum triodes? Best of luck with your experiment. PS: Keep a Dry Chemical Powder fire extinguisher nearby.
man this sucks. I aint getting anything under $20+ import. BTW, whats the iport duty on vaccum tubes?
@yazi ..... err ... i dont think thats possible you should probably make sure that you know what you are doing before ordering any tubes. you should consider .. 1) will your psu be big enough to juice up the tubes? 2) will you need to change (read redesign the circuit) any other parts of the circuit. 3) tubes heat up!, is the pcb good enough to take the heat? 4) tube take more space that solid state transistors, is your pcb big enough? 5) how would you squeeze tube's legs into the slots for transistor? transistor have legs a mm apart and tube can go upto 10mm apart ... i think you would need to build a tube amp from scratch ..
Hah, Men, You misunderstand me! I am going to make a circuit from scratch. I am just gonna use parts of the old infrastructure. And its tough. But a Mig-25 Foxbat also ran on valves, not transistors!
Yazi, Since I have covered this path almost a year back, let me tell you my experience. Not wanting to be a wet blanket, I'm hoping you find ways around the problems. 1. You don't need to use the older components. Whatever components can be used, are some small caps and resistors, which will not cost you more than Rs 200 in all. Better get new parts than use old stranger amp parts. 2. You don't need to import the tubes. The pre amp and main amp section tubes are available in India, in fact I have a few lying with me. These are not USD 20 or anything, the preamp sections are about Rs 100, the main amp section ones about Rs 400. 3. Components are not a problem. The problem is, like Shak said, the power supply side. One, they are bulky, so you need lots of space in the board. Next, they are not available in India. I searched high and low, but I could not get the winding data for the output transformer, so chance of getting one fabricated too. You do get some ready ones from brands like Hammond etc, but those cost almost Rs. 8000 and are available only in the USA, and by the time they reach India, the whole project will not be worth it. I have finished almost all the board, and it cost me only about Rs. 1700 for the whole thing including the tubes and the supply side transformer, but now I cannot find the output side transformer anywhere. This is where I got stuck and I lost interest, about 1 year back. One thing I have been thinking of going to the seconds market and hunting for any old valve transitors transformers, but not got time yet (read too lazy). I'll update you if I have any luck. You keep posting in this thread on your progress too, here's wishing you luck.
God a pcb and a box to match it too! Its an old LP speaker box, fitted with Sony speakers! Its perfect! Now for the components...........
You get the tubes in India, I have bought 12AU7 and 12AY7 tubes from Bangalore, they are all in the Rs.100-200 range. Regarding tube amp parts, they are pretty expensive abroad.Even the chassis and the faceplate are costly. Check up this site: www.ceriatone.com This guy is based in Singapore and supplies amp kits for all popular vintage amps, mail him and maybe he could ship you the required transformers.
Man, theres a difference in Quality. While there are many valve tubes out there, some just outstrip others. Take the Svetlana tubes, Russia, for example, they are the best.
Nothing...but if it costs 100Bucks for a better one i seriously dont mind changing cus on www.thestompbox.net ,they all change their tubes in the G7 and G9 and they say it sounds better.
How do u know tht the tubes u get for 100-200 here are better thn the one u already have? Like yazi said, if ur going to change tubes, make sure u get good ones.
hehe.....im pretty happy with the Tubes on mine...but i've never seen a tube and i want to learn more about this stuff so i thought "hey why not". I dunno i just love learning about all this stuff....Btw should the tubes be lit up brightly? or just a dim light?...and still waiting to know where i can get tubes in bangalore
laney, some jobs are better left to pros and older guys with more @!#$. Leave your stuff, grow to 18 then tinker. Buddy, before tinkering, you need to know the basics of electronics or you will end up blowing the tubes all over your @$$.
ok thanks...but i wanna see one (*tears*) at least! i cant make out anything on my zoom. so once again where can i get tubes in bangalore?
