Lucked out

[diamondsouled]

Just put an ad in our local free paper and two days later an older English gentlemen calls me up and says he has a tube tester and a big box of tubes he wants to find a new home for.

I go check it out and the tester is a Heathkit TT-1A in great condition. The box of tubes is interesting. A lot of industrial types but a couple NOS Tele 12AX7s, 9 NOS RCA 12AU7 clear tops, a nice NOS quad of Mullard 7189s, a NOS Amperex ECC88, several other NOS 12AT7s, 12AU7s, 12AX7s mostly Amperex and Philips. About a dozen other decent NOS rectifier tubes and 12SN7GTs.

I figured that $200 for the works is not a bad deal. I'm sure the Mullard 7189s are worth that.

Now to see if I can figure out the tube tester!!! Will probably refurbish it before I give it much use, get rid of the old electrolyics at least and clean the switches.

Cheers

Lar

[currituckco]

holy crap, nice work!

[bolly]

why yes, yes you did! :thmbsp:

[spaceman]

Congrats! :thmbsp: If you don't have a use for the 7189s, let me know. ;)

[Urizen]

Nice haul!:thmbsp:

[diamondsouled]

Not quite a Hickok 539 but should give a fairly accurate gm reading once it's all calibrated.

Nothing quite so much fun as searching through a dusty ol' box of tubes where you're not sure what you're going to find.

There were some Honeywell 102988 tubes that look identical to RCA 12AU7s clear tops that I have but there is only one reference that I could find on line that verified that. Anyone familiar with Honeywell tubes?

http://www.alcosupplies.com/honeywell

Thanks

Lar

[toxcrusadr]

Did you get a manual? If not let us know, someone will know where to find it.

[WopOnTour]

Some TT-1 and 1A stuff on BAMA
http://bama.sbc.edu/heath.htm

Nice haul Larry!

WOT

[radioactive]

Not quite a Hickok 539 but should give a fairly accurate gm reading once it's all calibrated.

yes it should.i have a buddy that has they same tester and once calibrated it should do you fine.nice haul on the tubes also.:thmbsp:

[diamondsouled]

It actually came with the original assembly manual and a couple older tube data books. I downloaded the user manual from BAMA and am waiting to get a new black cartridge before I print off the most recent 1978 tube data manual; 58 pages!!!

Not sure what to do with all the industrial and TV type tubes.

There is a good site with some useful info on refurbishing the TT-1A:

http://www.kw.igs.net/~knickerson/heathkit.html

Sure nice there are folks around who take the time to put stuff like this up on the net!

I am tempted to just plug it in and see if it is close to being in calibration. I took a look inside and all the electrolytics look fine, no leaks or bulging, which I know doesn't really mean they're fine.

Never used a tube tester other than an simple emitter type so it will be interesting to begin to be able to check the gm values so I can balance my tubes more accurately.

The tester actually had a bit of interesting history. It was used up at one of the mines that are in the mountains near here on the Yukon NWT border called Cantung. The fellow I bought it from worked there from the time the mine reopened back in the early 60s when there was still a lot of tubes being used in the mill.

He was quite happy to know that his ol' tester was going to someone that will put it too good use.

Now I'm going to have to keep an eye out for an amp to use those Mullard 7189s in, lol!!! Been thinking of picking up an Eico HF81 or something similar that I could use for an upstairs headphone amp-lower powered bedroom type system with the correct WAF, he he.

Cheers

Lar

[spartanmanor]

WTG! nice find.

[Arkay]

Lucked out?

No, Karma: Luck favors the prepared ADVERTISER!

Congratulations on a nice haul. :thmbsp:

Always nice when gear passes from the hands of someone who values it, into the hands of someone else who does, too. I think we all hope that when the time comes, our gear will end up in appreciative hands, too. :scratch2: Sort of an "audio golden rule" in there somewhere...

[diamondsouled]

Lucked out?

No, Karma: Luck favors the prepared ADVERTISER!

Congratulations on a nice haul. :thmbsp:

Always nice when gear passes from the hands of someone who values it, into the hands of someone else who does, too. I think we all hope that when the time comes, our gear will end up in appreciative hands, too. :scratch2: Sort of an "audio golden rule" in there somewhere...

I have sort of felt like I was living in a vintage electronics and tube desert up here in the middle of the Yukon. From speaking with that old timer though there may be more tube stuff around than what I would have first expected. There are not a few decommissioned mines and mills around that date back to the golden age of tubes. Not sure how well the tubes would survive with our cold winters but I guess if they did it would be kind of like free cryonic treatment lol.

Think I'll keep the ad going for a while to see what else pops up; being that they are free classifieds!

Cheers

Lar

[dspear99ca]

hey diamondsouled,

I live in the BC interior, not quite as desolate as the YT, but I also have marvelled at those AK posters who walk out of a garage sale with some choice vintage piece for $15. From the amount of tubed gear I've happened upon locally, I'd surmise they must not have gotten electricity around here until about 1970 or so...

Dave

[diamondsouled]

Hello Dave,

I used to live in the southern interior of BC in the Kootenays and pickings were OK. Had a few favorite places to do tube equipment lurking at, lol.

When my favorite second hand-auction house closed I was almost in tears like the owner Joe Snopek was at the final auction, but for a different reason, he, he.

I actually purchased a Revox B739 linear tracking turntable from him for $5. Joe told me: "don't know if it works, or even if it has a cartridge." The fact that it was still in it's original shipping box made me a bit more optimistic than Joe. I took it home plugged her in, one channel was out so I did the wiggle the wire trouble shoot technique and sure enough the channel comes back in. Clip and solder on a new jack and as good as new; well as good as almost new anywho. I go back to Snopek's auction the next day and tell Joe how I fixed the $5 turntable and that it was fine otherwise and worth $900 in 1984 and it was the first time ever I saw Joe drop his business poker face, he he. I could just see the wheels turning!!! He was thinking: "damn I could have got $50 bucks for that turntable!!!", lol.

Cheers

Lar