0
Shopping cart
0
Cart is Empty

Black dogs and black plates

During a recent stock check of the Effectrode component stores (a.k.a. ‘Warehouse 13’) I came across the curious old artifact shown in the photo above. The picture shows two Philips 6111 subminiature tubes that were manufactured in Sylvania’s Emporium plant, Pennsylvania in the first quarter of 1987. Now, the odd thing is that both these tubes are from the same batch, but the plates appear to be fabricated from different types of material: one of the tubes has grey plates, which is typical of tubes made during this period, whereas the other has black plates. What possible explanation could there be for this throwback from Sylvania’s earlier manufacturing days?

Well, given that the Emporium plant ceased production of receiving tubes just a few months later after turning out these 6111s my best, and only, guess is that Philips were using up their old stocks of plate sheet. After all, these were the last 6111 tubes to roll off a production line that had been in continuous operation since the mid twentieth century—they were the end of the line. I must admit to having a bit of the ‘black dog’ in me as this marks the end of a glorious era in American tube manufacturing and perhaps the employees at the Emporium plant felt the same way too. This isn’t just conjecture or sentimentality on my part, my opinion’s based on a working experience of handling and testing tens of thousands of these tubes. These little glass devices have their own story to tell and I believe they can provide some insight into the working conditions behind those red brick factory walls at the time they were made.

Sylvania 6111 (and 6112) subminiature tubes are utilised in Effectrode’s smaller effects pedals, such as the PC-2A compressor (and Mercury fuzz). In our ongoing pursuit of knowledge concerning what actually makes a good tube (and hence good tone) we began keeping records of the tubes we tested but didn’t quite make the grade, that is, tubes that were rejected because they were considered unacceptably noisy or microphonic. As more and more test data steadily accumulated it became apparent that these ‘end of the line’ tubes, which are invariably printed with blue lettering, did not exhibit the same stellar characteristics as tubes bearing Sylvania’s green livery from earlier years. To be more exact, microphony and noise of blue print tubes is statistically higher than green print tubes, and for that reason we now only use Sylvania tubes manufactured prior to 1986 in our effects pedals.

Now, the microphony and noise in a tube are directly related to the tolerances and processing of materials utilised in the construction of its internal electrodes and, in large, depends on the care and attention taken during its manufacture. Tube manufacture is an exceedingly labour intensive process requiring a great deal of human involvement by skilled workers and it’s reasonable to speculate about what effect the looming closure of the Emporium plant might have had on the motivation of workers. One can imagine that as the factory wound-down in its twilight months the workers becoming more and more concerned about their jobs and what the future might hold. Surely this would have affected moral and motivation on the factory floor to some extent, and hence the quality of the tubes.

You may have heard the expression “Friday afternoon job” used at some time. What this turn of phrase essentially means is that workers on a Friday afternoon are thinking and looking forward to the weekend rather than keeping their mind on the job they are supposed to be doing, which results in poor quality work. We’ve all been there and, with all due respect to the workers at Emporium, the quality of blue print 6111 tubes that came off the line during the last couple of years tells a tale that there was something of the ‘black dog’ about the place, that all was not as well in the factory as it used to be in Sylvania’s halcyon days. But I don’t want to end my short story about Sylvania on such a downbeat note—they deserve better than that—so let me just finish by saying those folks at Sylvania really knew their stuff and you’ll be hard pushed to find a better subminiature tube than those made in the Emporium plant back in the day.

You must be logged in to post a comment.

2 COMMENTS

ROBERT HOWARD July 4, 2018 at 12:31:19 Log in to Reply

Really enjoy reading your articles on tubes, the article on black plates is very interesting. Would love to see one about long vs. short plates. Comments on the net are all over the place. Thanks

Phil July 4, 2018 at 06:46:26 Log in to Reply

Thank you for your kind words Robert. All the best, Phil

Cookie	Duration	Description
_GRECAPTCHA	5 months 27 days	This cookie is set by Google. In addition to certain standard Google cookies, reCAPTCHA sets a necessary cookie (_GRECAPTCHA) when executed for the purpose of providing its risk analysis.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-advertisement	1 year	Set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin, this cookie is used to record the user consent for the cookies in the "Advertisement" category .
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional	11 months	The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
JSESSIONID		Cookie used to allow the Worldpay payment gateway on the website to function.
machine		Cookie used to allow the Worldpay payment gateway on the website to function.
viewed_cookie_policy	11 months	The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
wordpress_logged_in_		Users are those people who have registered an account with the WordPress site. On login, WordPress uses the wordpress_[hash] cookie to store your authentication details. Its use is limited to the Administration Screen area, /wp-admin/ After login, WordPress sets the wordpress_logged_in_[hash] cookie, which indicates when you’re logged in, and who you are, for most interface use. WordPress also sets a few wp-settings-{time}-[UID] cookies. The number on the end is your individual user ID from the users database table. This is used to customize your view of admin interface, and possibly also the main site interface.
wordpress_sec_	1 year	Provide protection against hackers, store account details.
wordpress_test_cookie		Test to see if cookies are enabled.
wp-settings-	1 year	WordPress also sets a few wp-settings-{time}-[UID] cookies. The number on the end is your individual user ID from the users database table. This is used to customize your view of admin interface, and possibly also the main site interface.

Cookie	Duration	Description
_ga	2 years	The _ga cookie, installed by Google Analytics, calculates visitor, session and campaign data and also keeps track of site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookie stores information anonymously and assigns a randomly generated number to recognize unique visitors.
_gid	1 day	Installed by Google Analytics, _gid cookie stores information on how visitors use a website, while also creating an analytics report of the website's performance. Some of the data that are collected include the number of visitors, their source, and the pages they visit anonymously.

Cookie	Duration	Description
mailchimp_landing_site	1 month	This cookie is used to keep track of newsletter sign ups and client emails at checkout, Mailchimp utilises cookies to store information captured from user input for remarketing purposes.
mailchimp_user_email	1 month	This cookie is used to keep track of newsletter sign ups and client emails at checkout, Mailchimp utilises cookies to store information captured from user input for remarketing purposes.
mailchimp_user_previous_email	1 month	This cookie is used to keep track of newsletter sign ups and client emails at checkout, Mailchimp utilises cookies to store information captured from user input for remarketing purposes.
mailchimp.cart.current_email		This cookie is used to keep track of newsletter sign ups and client emails at checkout, Mailchimp utilises cookies to store information captured from user input for remarketing purposes.
mailchimp.cart.previous_email		This cookie is used to keep track of newsletter sign ups and client emails at checkout, Mailchimp utilises cookies to store information captured from user input for remarketing purposes.

Shopping cart