Stay Gold.... Tubes that is.

[NegativeEase]

So when I was young, my dad used to love to get me brand new old stock American and English tubes for my guitar amps and bias the amps etc -his buddy runs one of the largest NOS tube businesses in the US -so he was always getting great stuff -plus he had a basement full of tubes to rummage through.

Anyways, fast forward to tonight, when I'm talking to my much older Dad via phone who's retired and discussing electronics and amps. He asks if I want some gold pinned pre-amp tubes his company used to have GE and RCA make special for them -of which I was shocked, as nobody's offered me gold pinned tubes before (including my Dad whos been offering me tubes for 30 years -nor even made me aware of them) and nor did I know my Dad's company had branded gold pinned preamp tubes from the 50s,60s, and 70s that are high end and sought after due to the specification and application they were intended for.

So then I look online and I see all of the usual suspects offering Gold Pinned tubes -it's still a thing.

I don't know why I've never used them or tried them but it makes sense, as the anti corrosive properties, plus the conductive advantages to the tinned metal coating they use on standard sockets. I'm not expecting to tell you I can tell much if any difference in them from others, but still curious because the original use for Gold Pinned tubes was for high end scientific and medical diagnostic equipment -where the tube specification, tolerances and construction are tighter -I am not sure this is a benefit to an audio amp but it does make me curious.


Anybody used them or know much about them?

apparently I've got a box full of gold 12AX7, 12AU7, and EC88 tubes headed my way from Pops -I'll report back.

 

[Little Pigbacon]

Re: Stay Gold.... Tubes that is.

I’ve heard conflicting things about gold-pin tubes. I’ve never tried them, but I would probably pay the upcharge sometimes if I thought it would get me a cooler, shinier tube.

 

[NegativeEase]

Re: Stay Gold.... Tubes that is.

I’ve heard conflicting things about gold-pin tubes. I’ve never tried them, but I would probably pay the upcharge sometimes if I thought it would get me a cooler, shinier tube.

They are sexy as hell -that's got to count for something -Gold is definitely a "ToneMetal" . haha

 

[Mincer]

Re: Stay Gold.... Tubes that is.

So what is different about them? I've heard about them, but have no experience.

 

[Sun King]

Re: Stay Gold.... Tubes that is.

So what is different about them? I've heard about them, but have no experience.

The price! ;D

 

[Ascension]

Re: Stay Gold.... Tubes that is.

Would love to know what they are keep us posted.

 

[Ascension]

Re: Stay Gold.... Tubes that is.

So what is different about them? I've heard about them, but have no experience.

Normally the Gold pins for less corosion and the real NOS stuff was to more exacting tolerances . Saw them mostly in really high end Stereo stuff on the audio side. Some sound great in guitar rigs some don't depends on what they are. The hi fi guys want low noise quiet and clean so--.

 

[GoldenVulture]

Re: Stay Gold.... Tubes that is.

They are sexy as hell -that's got to count for something -Gold is definitely a "ToneMetal" . haha

View attachment 95993

That Logo on the tube looks like the GE Gold Lion Logo. I see you say the tubes were from GE and RCA. I'm guessing that's one of the GE ones.

 

[Gtrjunior]

Re: Stay Gold.... Tubes that is.

I have used a gold pin tube in the past. I bought it because I thought it was somehow special or better than non gold pins.
While I’m sure it has anti-corrosive properties, tone wise I couldn’t hear any difference.
For guitar amps, IMO.....snake oil.

But since you already have them, use them!!! They certainly won’t hurt anything.

 

[JMP/HBE]

Re: Stay Gold.... Tubes that is.

Marketing ...

 

[Little Pigbacon]

Re: Stay Gold.... Tubes that is.

I’ve heard they can accelerate corrosion of tube sockets. I don’t know if this is true. I do know that a gold-plated pin by itself shouldn’t corrode, but I’m not a chemist or even an amp tech.

 

[NegativeEase]

Re: Stay Gold.... Tubes that is.

Marketing ...

That may be the case today. but not originally at all. They were originally sold in the very high end scientific instrument market -where tolerances for spectral analyzers, spectrophotometers, all kinds of equipment needing extremely tight performance tolerances when amplifying imagery/data.

 

[NegativeEase]

Re: Stay Gold.... Tubes that is.

That Logo on the tube looks like the GE Gold Lion Logo. I see you say the tubes were from GE and RCA. I'm guessing that's one of the GE ones.

Yes, that appears to be NOS GE tube available from Sweetwater from a test and rebadge company called Genalex -one new preamp 12AX7 tube is $40

 

[GoldenVulture]

Re: Stay Gold.... Tubes that is.

Yes, that appears to be NOS GE tube available from Sweetwater from a test and rebadge company called Genalex -one new preamp 12AX7 tube is $40

I missed the sweetwater logo. I was thinking you were showing one you were getting/had got ...not !

There's re-issue Genalex branded valves [ Not Nos ] available these days. I have a quad of their KT88's in an amp I hacked together from the Kerry King 2203 circuit. I also have an amp that runs a pair of Nos Ge KT88's.

 

[Gtrjunior]

Re: Stay Gold.... Tubes that is.

I missed the sweetwater logo. I was thinking you were showing one you were getting/had got ...not !

There's re-issue Genalex branded valves [ Not Nos ] available these days. I have a quad of their KT88's in an amp I hacked together from the Kerry King 2203 circuit. I also have an amp that runs a pair of Nos Ge KT88's.

What do you think of the Genelex compared to the other new production valves?
I’ve been curious about them but haven’t pulled the trigger since they are more expensive.

 

[NegativeEase]

Re: Stay Gold.... Tubes that is.

So what is different about them? I've heard about them, but have no experience.

first the anti-corrosive properties of the bases sockets pin -regular tubes have a tinned treated coating or a anti corrosive metal that is a blend with Nickel or similar for strength and longevity but the overall conductivity is less than if pure Silver, Copper, Gold or Auminum or coating were used.

Silver tarnishes (a kind of oxidation), and Copper coating or solid copper pin can't be used because of oxidation nor Aluminum because Aluminum socket connections have a low cycle rate (that's why aluminum is illegal to use inside household electrical connections these days). So of the highest conductive materials that are corrosive resistant AND can be tinned onto copper based alloys leaves GOLD as the best option.

Second, companies that had GE and RCA make Gold pinned tubes manufactured were specified with much much tighter tolerances for everything inside as well this is because these tubes were sold inside $100,000 pieces of scientific equipment and had to have an extremely consistent tube to have accurate diagnostic performance. SO the components inside were often of better materials, the leads better, the seal was higher etc

But I want to qualify all this with the statement that tighter tolerances don't necessarily have a positive effect on audio tone -just a much more predictable, consistent result -so I guess if you found the right version for your tone -you could swap it out with more exacting tone matching results

but nobody should feel that Gold are necessarily better for the caveman like technical requirements for tight range Guitar amp....

View attachment 95998

 

[GoldenVulture]

Re: Stay Gold.... Tubes that is.

What do you think of the Genelex compared to the other new production valves?
I’ve been curious about them but haven’t pulled the trigger since they are more expensive.

They seem to have very similar performance qualities to the originals. I tried a pair of the re-issues in the amp I have the Nos's in.
There didn't seem to be much of a difference , if any. I'm quite pleased by them. I've some of their 12AX7's too. I can't think what I did with them at the mo. I think they're in one of the amps. I can't say anything about their life span as I haven't used the re-issues for long [ a year or so ] and the amp doesn't get a lot of use. They're very like the originals in that cranked they're very loud and clean.

 

[NegativeEase]

Re: Stay Gold.... Tubes that is.

They seem to have very similar performance qualities to the originals. I tried a pair of the re-issues in the amp I have the Nos's in.
There didn't seem to be much of a difference , if any. I'm quite pleased by them. I've some of their 12AX7's too. I can't think what I did with them at the mo. I think they're in one of the amps. I can't say anything about their life span as I haven't used the re-issues for long [ a year or so ] and the amp doesn't get a lot of use. They're very like the originals in that cranked they're very loud and clean.

I think consistency is the real advantage. However, for their original purpose (super high end scientific equipment) they would have been changed out very often -so I wonder if they actually wear out faster -however, we are not talking Power tubes so the wear curve is so much slower anyways.

 

[FuseG4]

Re: Stay Gold.... Tubes that is.

I had heard more than once that they try to pick out the good tubes from the duds of the production line or at least test them in some way before gold plating, giving you the best chance at having a well made example of whatever design you go with.
I have nothing to substantiate this with though. At least in general I haven't heard many people say their gold pin tube sounded like crap so it's possible they do filter out some lemons first. Or maybe everyone who buys gold pins and reviews them gets em from good, tube-testing retailers.
Tube retailers always say when they get a case of new production tubes that many (sometimes more than half the case) fail their tests right away. So they are weeding out some bad ones. If you had to get tubes from somebody who does not test them (guitar center, Amazon lol) then maybe going gold pin would give you a greater chance at getting a tube that works on arrival i.e. full gain specs and no excessive noise or vibrations. *Maybe*.

Sent from my SM-G930U using Tapatalk

 

[Darg1911]

Re: Stay Gold.... Tubes that is.

There were some new production gold pin tubes with the "gold plating" so poor that it increased the size of the pins such that they wouldn't seat into the sockets without so much force that one would have to be a fool to force them in. I had a couple gold pin EI 12AX7's that fit this bill. The regular EI's were otherwise nice tubes IF IF IF you got good ones. I still have some, somewhere. The plating was so bad that it wasn't smooth, it had a texture. I highly doubt there was much gold content.

Personally, I'm not buying into the marketing hype of current production gold pinned tubes being something extra special. I have a decent supply of old stock favorites for my guitar and home audio stuff anyway.

Never seen gold pin GE or RCA pre-amp tubes. Never even heard of them. Very cool. If they're NOS or close I'd bet they'd sell for a good chunk of change if they could be authenticated.