Tube tester?

@elliottbnewcombjr

Good point to get a tube tester, when:

.you have a lot of tubes, meaning selling, buying or your equipment uses many and requires frequent tube change. Yes in the long run it would be more economical too.

.have learnt a lot about your tubes or tubes in general and know what you want to measure.

.can maintain your tube tester, especially when vintage

.if you want to buy a tube tester, whether vintage or new, do not get a cheap one, a different research is needed for what kind of tube tester you need.

Otherwise a good and reputable vendor can mostly provide what is requested and with valid measurements.

My Opinion

ANYONE with tube equipment needs his own tester to have confidence in their tubes when problems/suspicions occur, when checking periodically, when checking/confirming new purchases, ’matched’ ....

You don’t need an expensive pro version to get simple and relative answers. Smaller, lighter, makes it easy to bring upstairs, take to a friend’s house .... that’s why I like the Accurate Models, 157, 257, I have both.

I have a big expensive heavy one, the little Accurate testers ALWAYS gave the same answers as the big one. It’s downstairs somewhere, I haven’t seen it in so long, I forget if it a Jackson or a Hickok

Agree with carlsbad…Unless you are buying and selling tubes or are bored and want to dig into tubes and tinker with testers just locate a repair shop that tests tubes or testing service like the one on the link below. I was considering buying one until I researched it and talked to experts. The affordable testers in good working order only tell you if a tube is good meeting the standard. If you buy a one that has the capability to measure GM, match etc. ,which are expensive, they have to maintained and calibrated regularly.
Tube testing service example: https://www.western-glow.com/vaccum-tube-testing-matching/

@carlsbad 

+1

I am not in the geek camp. I have all tube gear. My equipment has tube time counters. Even if they didn’t it isn’t that hard to generally estimate the tube time. I have about 40 tubes in my system. I have swapped 3 tubes in the last 3,000 hours of play… they are recommended to be replaces every 2,000 hours.

I just buy tube sets either from the equipment manufacturer or Upscale or the Tube Company. I keep an extra set for each unit. If you get a whistle or strange effect. Swap to new tube set a couple at a time to ID bad tube. This has only happened to me twice in ten years. Really simple.

I'll add that you can get a lot of info about a tube from your amp, especially is it has manual bias adjust.  Not everything, but a lot.

you have to understand the electronics though.

Jerry