Tube amp users, how concerned are you guys about the potential tube shortage?

The title says it all. We hoped that the worst wouldn't happen, but as of recent, EHX announced that they wouldn't be able to ship any more tubes, and the alternative brand, JJ, which is located in Slovakia, is dealing with mass backorders.

Myself, I'm really worried that even after the end of the calendar year, the situation won't simply "blow over." I feel like the current situation is going to hurt a lot of tube amp users, myself included. (In fact, as we speak I am doing my best to save up as much money as possible so that within the next 2 weeks when I get my next paycheque, that's all going towards securing as much of the 12AX7 tubes as possible. Keep in mind that had the situation not come to this, the original plan would've been to go for reactive loads first.)

And because KT88's are even harder to find than 6L6's or EL34's, I am also concerned that Fryette 2902's could potentially end up becoming antiques that are no longer usable for professional applications within a year's worth of regular use after the stock KT88's wear out.

I was also hoping to secure a backup tube power amp for my rack rig as well...looks like I may have to seriously look into solid-state power amps as backup, or even seriously consider ditching the 2902 for solid-state power amps...

If there's any saving grace to my situation, at least thank god I managed to secure a backup SYN-2 with identical preamp modules...this way I won't have to worry too much about eating through the preamp tube reserves all too quickly...

But, what do you guys think? Are my concerns justified in a way, or is it all out of proportion? Do you guys still see that tube amps will have a future, or are you guys also starting to see the beginning of the end of tube amps?

I really hadn't even considered this until now... wow....

I hope this madness can't continue long, and I don't think Russia will want to be isolated forever.

I do think in the long term tube amps are on the decline as modeling improves. Mainly for cost and environmental reasons in tube manufacturing.

But I have no idea.

I've talked to others regarding this issue and the opinions among the majority seem to be really divided - some say that they cannot live without tube power amp saturation, others say that solid-state or modeling amps are on the rise...

I really hate to see my hard-earned investments towards the Fryette 2902 go to waste due to KT88 tubes becoming harder to secure due to the supply chain disruptions...

I am praying to every saint I know that 2 weeks won't be too late for me to secure spare tubes for my rig. I know Long and McQuade still has plenty of KT88's stocked in their warehouses but I doubt the stock will last long...

Rhett Shull just posted this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CATfmQTa-Cc

Yeah, I saw that video too. I made a video on this subject actually...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Wpc9Yse8t4

UPDATE: The 5 Tung-Sol 12AX7's I ordered from Long and McQuade just arrived today. I've also put 4 Genalex Gold Lion KT88's and 5 Sovtek 12AX7's on hold so that I can hopefully pick them up next week.

That makes it a total of 10 spare 12AX7's and 4 KT88's, in addition to the stock tubes that are in my Synergy preamps and the Fryette 2902 power amp. That's enough for me to last 18 years with the preamp's and 10 years with the Fryette power amp, more than enough time for amp manufacturing companies to figure out how to move forward with the tube amps given the sanctions that we have to deal with.

There will always be a market for tube amps. It will diminish with inflation being a thing, but most of the guitar players, myself included, had the option to go with modeling and we stuck with tube amps, mainly because digital emulation still can't perfectly recreate the room feel and power tube saturation that the real tube power amps create.

Myself, well...I've sacrificed a lot to build the modernized Bradshaw rig. Went through a lot of stressful financial situations as well as a couple health-related collapses caused by stress (no thanks to Rocktron who completely screwed me over with a defective MIDI Raider and horrendous customer service...). I feel like the only thing that would push me to go back to modelling amps would be if I experienced another health collapse, and even then, Kemper sucks in so many ways, Helix's effects have caught up but their amp models suck and the parallel FX routings are extremely limited, and Fractal's running low on stock due to the semi-conductor shortage...

At this point, all I can do is hope that at least my tube preamp's survive, even if it means having to resort to solid-state power amps...but then again, I've yet to see solid-state amplifiers catch up to what tubes can do in terms of power tube saturation.

I don't know, what do you guys think?

Just buy jj. I honestly have so many tubes I may never need to buy them again... although I tend to go through 84s pretty fast so who knows

Well... I'm considering retubing my power-amp. Need a EL84 octet. Let's see...

They aren't manufactured anywhere but Russia and china anymore. The only exception to that is JJ with manufacturing in Slovakia if I recall correctly... and last I checked fender under groove tubes owned the old GE factory in California and makes small batches of 6L6 tubes... which are superb tubes but very expensive.

Also the rare earth metals used for the anode and cathode are also in high demand for smart phone components.

I did hear from the folks at Western Electric that they're considering ramping up tube production for guitar players, but we've yet to see if that'll actually become a thing down in the US, and if it does, we'll have to see if they can even export the tubes to Canada as well.

Just buy jj. I honestly have so many tubes I may never need to buy them again... although I tend to go through 84s pretty fast so who knows

Bingo. They're made in Slovakia, they're a damn good tube, and yeah, outside of potential supplyline disruptions, shouldn't be too hard to get hold of other than everyone else swapping to them.

Bingo. They're made in Slovakia, they're a damn good tube, and yeah, outside of potential supplyline disruptions, shouldn't be too hard to get hold of other than everyone else swapping to them.

I don't actually know anyone in real life who uses Russian and Chinese tubes. All of my friends use NOS preamp tubes and JJ power tubes if only because of the superior durability. I do like the Russian tung sol branded 12ax7 but I can go back to NOS, I have quite a few GEs, bugle boys and those funky french RFT ecc83s stashed away... probably some pre-JJ teslas too.

People who are worried need to buy up lots of old untested small signal tubes from estate sales and flea markets. You get a lot of throwaways but there's typically some guitar stuff new in the box or used but testing brand new. For a fender amp th er y neverbettered the RCA grey plate and GEs 12ax7s are a close second. They last forever and they made millions of them. For british sounds and high gain I feel that Amperex bugle boys, similar Phillip's tubes, Mullard and RFT are really the gold standard in the euro ecc83 designation. Sadly Mullard and Amperex have become thin on the ground, they just made less than the US giants. But you still get lucky once in awhile and I encourage guitarists to go junk sale surfing... there's tungsten in them there basements!

Don't really like this guy, but I thought this was interesting enough to post being on how we all seemed to just forget about the whole shortage thing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=og3OI4DI3Oc

A heads up to people reading about the availability of cheap 6n2p Russian dual triodes; any qualified tech should be able to rewire tube sockets with flying leads to utilize these Russian tubes. I'm pretty sure you can buy adapters to try them out before committing to a modification or if you are in the unfortunate position of playing an amp with PCB mounted sockets. The heaters run on 6v AC. As I recall It's just the wiring of the plates, grida and cothides that's substantially different.

FWIW I would be cautious about buying these tubes from dealers that didn't acquire them prior to Putin's invasion of Ukraine. And I wouldn't ever purchaee them directly from Russia or a sympathetic nation. I wouldn't want to be indirectly funding the war effort. I'm not being jingoistic, I don't want to knowingly fund any war of agression if I can help it. Certainly not over a luxury item like a tube amp. These are Russian military surplus parts. If you're buying them the Russian military may have seen a few rubles for at some point. It's for you to decide how that squares with your ethics.

But you can try them out as a cheap alternative to the 12ax7 and ecc83 hi mu dual triode we all use with adapters or better practice us the minor, reversible mod I mentioned first.

Another option is the 6eu7 high mu dual triode which is a 60s 12ax7 internally with a different pin out. Same process to try them. The pinout never really caught on and the only amp manufacturer to use them was Gibson. You can obtain the sound of coveted NOS preamp tubes by purchasing some of these. RCAs go for about 40 bucks retail versus 100s for an RCA 12ax7 from the same year that has the same plate and grid construction. They also last FOREVER just like their usa made 12ax7 cousins. People are catching on already hence why the prices have quadrupled in the past 20 years. Buy bulk now and hit your tech. Make sure you're getting NOS and not what they now call ANOS which is a used tube that tests good. 40 bucks is too much for a used part.

But I'm frightened of a world without new production tubes. I have a lot of studio gear that will be unusable in that world abs my beloved #1 ac30 will eventually be a paperweight... classic solid state circuits keep improving though. Quilter is doing cool stuff. Digital keeps improving. There are other options. I'm being cautious about how much I use my legit amps. I'm not firing them up just to noodle around. When it's time to record a take that's one thing, but im not burning up tubes and sucking up electricity like I used to. It's not responsible in the modern world.

EDIT: And Drake, regarding your power tube situation, the 5881 and all its relatives are just a 50s version 6L6. Like the kt66 they are a lower max plate voltage, lower dissipation version of the 6L6gc. If biased properly a JJ 6L6gc can be used at high and low plate voltages and can sub for any 6L6 family member including and uLtra-robust 7027a in ampeg v series amps running on a good 600v in the 2 power tube models. The tibe us not the most toneful when pushed but it has a suitably bold beam tetrode sound and lasts forever at typical fender voltages.

I'm not too worried about it right now because I'm not really gigging, and somehow the tubes in my Bugera 333XL are lasting a long time despite me having played. I do have 4 spare EL34s to use if it comes down to it. But since the Pandemic, I've not been playing out and I've been using my Line6 HD500 and BandLab's amp modeling more.

In some ways, I kind of wish to try playing in a band with just amp modeling direct to board. I did this a few times playing open jams and got a LOT of compliments on my sound (probably in part due to the full stereo chorus I use - I was using a Digitech RP250 at the time), yet I joined a Seattle area band about 7 years ago and when I suggested this for the smaller clubs the Mennonite on Rhythm guitar said "no man, those things sound like shit" - even though I had just brought in a demo of my own music a few days before and everyone mentioned how it sounded like a "studio album" - yeah, that was the Digitech into a SoundBlaster card on an old PC. With the Line6 HD500 I'm using now, I'd be taking up 1/3rd of what I do on stage with the full live setup with analog pedals and a tube halfstack, and be able to do actually quite a bit more. Sometimes limitation bolsters innovation. And with the dwindling sizes of stages in clubs these days, I'd much rather walk down the street with 2 guitars and a Line6 board in my back, than need to schlep a friggin 120 watt halfstack, 50LBs of stompboxes, and at least 2 guitars to a show, and then find a parking spot, and spend about $10 in gasoline to get there and back due to all the driving around for a parking spot.

Well, it doesn't currently affect me, as I have only solid state amps. However, I'm considering upgrading to a tube amp at some point (not anytime soon though, well it depends on how my finances go). I'm wondering whether I should still do this, or stick with solid state?

Additionally, I saw earlier in this thread that some Slovakian company makes tubes, which is pretty good as I live in Hungary, so shipping should be fairly cheap, especially as I often order guitar accessories from Slovakia or Czech Republic if I can't find them locally!

Just a tube/valve update: western electric has stated in the press they are tooling up for guitar tubes in the USA but nothing in production yet. While we were arguing about covid, china quietly stopped tube production. Obviously there's russian militarism and embargoes. So JJ in Slovakia is the only game in town apart from the expensive groove tubes 6L6 GE if you're a 40 to 100 watt fender player.

I was designing another tube amp but I'm not planning on building it any time soon. It's a pretty unique idea with a 6bm8 triode/pentode and small transformer in the high gain channel like a little vox ac4 as a preamp followed by active tone controls into a big, mean hiwatt inspired power amp (like my last amp build) but only ehx offers a 6bm8 now and its Russian. Oh well. The design is going back on the shelf. Switching relays are a pain anyway, I never had the whole switching system bulletproof. I usually do 1 channels or non-switching. Maybe I should design a 400 watt tube bass amp with my 3 band baxandall tone controls1 bassists could use all tube studio grade eq right?

There's a lot of interesting solid state and hybrid amps on the market that aren't your dad's solid state amps.

Additionally, I saw earlier in this thread that some Slovakian company makes tubes

JJ tubes, formerly Tesla... no Elon musk connection lol