Recommendations for a vacum tube tester

BALANCE Controls, especially using tube equipment! Remote Balance a wonderful thing. A very small balance tweak can make a surprising amount of difference.

The tester just proved it’s usefulness. Bought a pair of new, nos, matched tubes from Viva Tubes. Visually did not appear new? So I tested them. One tested replace and second one tested just barely good. Also, the tubes were 25% different and were nowhere near matched. Contacted seller and they said their tubes were fine and that old testers are unreliable and can’t compare to modern ones they used. Told me to try them and they will play fine. The boxes had results (different scale) written on them with gm results 30% apart. Their results even confirmed the tubes were not matched. Blame the buyer anyway. Returned them and Viva Tubes is a do not buy from seller.

tksteingraber

exactly one of the reasons I suggest EVERYONE with tubes should get a basic tester.

Basic confidence from a basic tester takes you out of the dark, that’s all I’m saying.

Test new purchases, of course! Annual testing, of course. Some problem, find or verify it is or is not the tubes, then work up the line until source of problem is found. No tester, how the bejesus can you have confidence in your tubes?

Happily when I have bought matched sets, they have measured matched, and I KNOW that, not HOPE it’s true. You would have been in a mess without your tester, as you say, it saved you!

My past comparisons of my big tester to my little one gives me the convenience of using the small lightweight one, easily transported to a friend’s home to test their tubes.

The reason I asked is that the number listed on the Hickok chart does not appear to be the min and I read it was what an average new tube should test at and I wanted to verify that with experienced Hickok testers. An example…the 12at7 is listed at 4000 on the chart which is in the middle of good on the meter and replace begins at 2600 (65%) on the meter, 12au7 is listed at 2200 and replace begins at 1300 (60%). 12ax7 is listed at 1250 and is too low to follow the gm meter good/replace readings and needs to use the good-bad test by adjusting the english down.

@tksteingraber I would go with what the chart says. I've never seen a tester that showed a range. I own several and have had about 20 in my time; never seen a tester that showed results as you describe. But I've seen plenty of testers that had meters with 'replace' and '?'... by your description, it sounds as if someone replaced the meter on your tester. By 'english' do you mean 'bias'?

@atmasphere thanks again for input.  The tester is stock orig meter.  English (sometimes referred to as shunt) is a setting in addition to bias.  See picture link below.
 

https://imgpile.com/i/hA5mJ8