0
Shopping cart
0
Cart is Empty

How long do tubes last?

A lot, lot longer than you might think. The picture above shows a letter written by the BBC (British Broadcasting Company) back in 1962. They were so blown away by the longevity of a Thorn (Mazda/Brimar) tube they took pen (well, ‘Remington’ typewriter) to paper to thank Thorn for their superlative workmanship—the tube had operated reliably and continuously for over 26 years! Like the Thorn tube above, the lifespan of the tubes in Effectrode pedals are measured in tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of hours.

Moreover, the vintage Sylvania tubes utilised in our smaller effects, such as the PC-2A compressor and Fire Bottle were built to exacting military specifications. These fantastic thermionic marvels can operate at altitudes of 80,000 feet, withstand 1000G acceleration, temperatures of over 200°C and high radiation levels; conditions that would rapidly destroy transistorised electronic equipment. Sylvania’s aerospace grade tubes are extraordinarily resilient; tough enough to operate in extreme environments, such as hypersonic jet aircraft, guided missiles and the vacuum of space; they can even withstand gigging and touring; even teenagers jamming at home.

So why does the belief persist that tubes should be replaced regularly or that they’re somehow less reliable than other electronic components like capacitors, resistors, potentiometers, switches, etc? Well, the vacuum tube is a close cousin of the electric light bulb (a.k.a. the incandescent or filament lamp). In fact, the first tubes were essentially modified light bulbs made by the electric lamp companies. The tube almost certainly gets a bad rap because of its kinship and physical resemblance to the short-lived light bulb. Light bulbs are notoriously unreliable; most last a pitiful few months, or just weeks before burning out. A bulb’s rated life was often printed on the outside of its packaging. Just a 1000 hours: a terribly brief time to shine.

This short lifespan begs the question: couldn’t the electrical engineers of the day have done better? Well, they did. However, a dubious deal between several big American and European corporations put paid to all their wonderful technological progress. On January 15, 1925 General Electric, Philips, and others founded the “Phoebus Cartel“. The cartel sought to gain control of the incandescent lamp market so they could to increase prices and decrease the life expectancy of light bulbs in order to maximise their profits. The Phoebus cartel were crooks of the worst kind. Worse than those shrewd, soulless shysters, the BVA (British Valve Association), who conspired to fix European tube prices in an attempt to outcompete imported American tubes. As bad, even, as the self-serving Etonian riffraff that profess to ‘govern’ our fair shores today.

The enduring legacy of the Phoebus cartel was to engineer a shorter lifespan into the fabric of countless billions of filament light bulbs—great job guys. Fortunately this kind of “planned obsolescence” never found its way into the vacuum tube manufacturing process. All available evidence (technical literature, vintage electronics books, magazines and periodicals) indicates only forward progress, that is continuous development of vacuum tube technology to improve performance. Tubes utilised in laboratory instrumentation, computers and military communication systems had to be reliable; people’s lives depended on it. It’s too bad this ethos didn’t permeate the domestic light bulb market: the world would have been a brighter place for it.

You must be logged in to post a comment.

1 COMMENTS

Jon Green February 15, 2021 at 05:30:11 Log in to Reply

Don’t get me started. Led is terrible in applications like car headlights and task lighting. Quality incandescent lighting is increasingly expensive and hard to find.

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