Hi Guys,
Apologies if this question has already been answered - if so, please do point me in the right direction.
I am looking at a little project and I am looking for some information on guitar amplifier values and tubes such as:
1. How often should they be replaced?
2. Do newer amps have a set up which warrants a replacement value/tube or are they slowly being discontinued?
3. Where seems to be the best place to go to buy them
Sorry if these questions seem a little cryptic, I have been asked to invest in a company which supplies them and thought why not start with the direct customers (you know best & it seems very hard to get any objective data), if you can think of anything more that would be great and of course, most importantly, as a customer of these products what more would you like to see?
Thanks in advance guys.
Comments
2 - not 100% sure I understand the question - new valves are produced in China, Russia and eastern Europe - new production does not come close to the quality of the hey day of US production when they were needed for military and computing needs, but are more that satisfactory for audio requirements.
3 - there are many stockists:
Watford valves
Hot Rox UK
(there is also a member on here who does but I've fogotton his site at the moment!)
Valve Queen (US)
Euro Valves (US)
Hope that helps!
The other good UK seller who's on here is http://www.karltone.co.uk which will give you a good idea of brands & prices.
^ This - the only experiance I have of this is Diezel, who do indeed warrent the valvles for 90 days
If you want the technical answer - some datasheets will give the 'Life Performance' figures, so someone with a correctly calibrated valve tester can measure certain performance characteristics and decide whether it warrants replacement
As long as guitarists want valve amplifiers, then mnfrs will still offer them. Replacement valves form part of that. It's classic S&D.
In my opinion, the market demand for audio valves with remain at its current state for easily the next 50 years. I can't say it will increase unless the HiFi market really steps up a gear again.
Either direct from the mnfr, or one of many resellers.
I buy direct, spending £400-£1000 per month on valve stock.
OK, I am on good terms with a few of the UK based resellers.
The market is high volume, low margin. Essentially, you need to be shifting a lot of boxes to be profitable, with a huge investment in stock - if you don't have it, you can't sell it.
Rift Amplification
Brackley, Northamptonshire
www.riftamps.co.uk
How much investment and what do you expect to get out of your investment?
What does said company bring to the table that others don't, why will people choose to buy from said company and not from others.
I sell a small range of valves too, I mostly stock them for supplying with amp kits, having looked into it the margins were not big enough to warrant the significant capital expenditure at the time, the guys that do well with it offer the upselling of testing and matching etc
1: Depends on the amp and valve type. When I had a Peavey Classic 30, I was replacing 4 EL84 power valves at least once a year. With the amp I have now, I'm only on my second set of 6L6s in 10 years.
2: All valve amps will eventually need new valves.
3: Best place is online retailers like Karltone and Watford Valves.
I would say that the market for valves for guitar amps is likely to decline as digital modeling/profiling eats up market share. I spend more of my time playing through a digital device now than I do a real amp. That means I'm putting less wear on my valves and replacing them less often. There are some people who have ditched valves entirely and gone completely digital. They are a minority at the moment, but it's a growing minority
With the ongoing improvements in technology and reductions in price for the digital stuff, I suspect the valve market (for guitar amps) will shrink significantly over the next 15 to 20 years. It won't completely die out, but it will be smaller. I suspect valves will become like vinyl for music. There will be an ongoing niche market, but the mainstream will be digital.
The thought had occurred to me that the main use for valves (market volume wise) is actually in guitar amplifiers, and sales of valves to guitar amp makers must be propping up the supply to the hifi amp makers. Things may become more difficult for hifi if guitarists forsake valves in droves because then there won't be the incentive to make so many valves and the hifi people will find them harder to get. I hope I'm wrong ...
Seriously: If you value it, take/fetch it yourself
It's happened before with at least two technologies I can think of, as well as vinyl - CRT monitors, which until only about 15 years ago, were accepted as being the only serious choice by graphics professionals because flat screens didn't look quite right, and have now gone completely - and film photography, which hasn't died out completely but is now only a tiny niche market. In both cases it was when digital reached the same perceived quality as analogue at the same time as becoming cheaper.
Exactly, which will kill off the market for lower-priced valve amps even faster.
I know I've thought this before and been wrong! But it does seem different this time, with many more pro guitar players using digital both in the studio and live, and a definite drop in the prevalence of 'rock' guitar sounds in popular music.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
In which case there are plenty of companies already doing this (of the top of my head there are at least 7 companies in the UK doing this already), so the only way to expand will be to take business of other sellers, which means you will either need to be cheaper, or get reputation for giving better service.
A couple of the existing companies don't have the best reputation on customer service. One of them also has a very creaky website. You can look at old threads on this forum for details.
I must say I've never heard a bad word about Karltone though.