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Vintage threads from the first ten years

Re: EI factory---gone 4 good, or no?

4/15/2000 3:14 PM
Steve A.	Re: EI factory---gone 4 good, or no? Dale: i've had trouble with them doing unscrupulous thing for years, and finally decided a while ago never to buy anything from them again. FWIW I had been buying the GT 12AX7A's as they were the only source of NOS/JAN GE 12AX7WA tubes that I could find locally. When those tubes were no longer available locally they started selling Russian (Sovtek?) tubes labeled "12AX7A-R". But I appreciate your warning! (I do always look at the tubes to make sure that they are what I expect them to be- at the prices they charge they better be the right tubes!) --Thanks! Steve Ahola P.S. It could be argued that they continued the EL34LS designation because the tubes were from the same factory; thanks for letting us know that the new versions do sound different!

4/15/2000 3:14 PM

Steve A.

Re: EI factory---gone 4 good, or no?

Dale:

i've had trouble with them doing unscrupulous thing for years, and finally decided a while ago never to buy anything from them again.

FWIW I had been buying the GT 12AX7A's as they were the only source of NOS/JAN GE 12AX7WA tubes that I could find locally. When those tubes were no longer available locally they started selling Russian (Sovtek?) tubes labeled "12AX7A-R".

But I appreciate your warning! (I do always look at the tubes to make sure that they are what I expect them to be- at the prices they charge they better be the right tubes!)

--Thanks!

Steve Ahola

P.S. It could be argued that they continued the EL34LS designation because the tubes were from the same factory; thanks for letting us know that the new versions do sound different!

4/15/2000 3:59 PM
ED	Hi Dale, I also had a bad experience or two with those guys too. Not to bitch to just bitch, but I had purchased a bias probe from them back in the 80's and just a couple years ago I bought a GT Soulo 75 from Guitar Center, and got it home and ran it in the class a mode, and the tubes turned cherry red (I realize in class a it will run a bit hotter) and checked out the bias with my bias probe, it was 80-90 ma. ea. so I called them up on it and told them what was happening, and the guy on the phone said that sounds a little high, he was also talking to the man.... Aspen in the background, and I heard him with my own ears say..... "Those fucking people with those god dammed bias probes... ought to shove them up thier asses" At that moment I decided to hang up and run the amp back to GC. and get my $ back! Also a friend of mine bought a GT speaker emulator, and it did not work (was making strange noises and distorting badly) so we took the top cover off to see if it was a loose wire........ to my unsurprise ;^( they had assembled the unit's power supply filter caps backwards, which had blown them, so we put it back together and he took it back.;^(( I really dont appreciate it when people try to screw people over just to make a $ so my bitching rests! :^)So I tell you people be ware! of The unbias-probed anal extractorhahaha > )) ;^/ ED

4/15/2000 3:59 PM

Hi Dale, I also had a bad experience or two with those guys too. Not to bitch to just bitch, but I had purchased a bias probe from them back in the 80's and just a couple years ago I bought a GT Soulo 75 from Guitar Center, and got it home and ran it in the class a mode, and the tubes turned cherry red (I realize in class a it will run a bit hotter) and checked out the bias with my bias probe, it was 80-90 ma. ea. so I called them up on it and told them what was happening, and the guy on the phone said that sounds a little high, he was also talking to the man.... Aspen in the background, and I heard him with my own ears say..... "Those fucking people with those god dammed bias probes... ought to shove them up thier asses" At that moment I decided to hang up and run the amp back to GC. and get my $ back! Also a friend of mine bought a GT speaker emulator, and it did not work (was making strange noises and distorting badly) so we took the top cover off to see if it was a loose wire........ to my unsurprise ;^( they had assembled the unit's power supply filter caps backwards, which had blown them, so we put it back together and he took it back.;^(( I really dont appreciate it when people try to screw people over just to make a $ so my bitching rests! :^)So I tell you people be ware! of The unbias-probed anal extractorhahaha > )) ;^/
ED

4/15/2000 4:44 PM
dale	good for you !! i had a solo 75 too, and it must have been a hard call to take it back like that, they do sound really good, tho not my cup of tea as far as "type" of tone. but i have had numerous problems with them. the last one was where i bought a pair of 34's at a time when we weren't giging. so i never used them, i just put them in my amp and biased them and the amp sat there for a few months unused. then we started giging again and i got the amp out of mothballs and fired it up. it sounded ok, but seemed not quite right. the gig was a horror story as the amp wouldn't even go to stage volume. one of the tubes was bad. so even tho i knew they were out of warranty, i called them and explained the situation. i told them that the paint on the tubes hadn't even slightly changed in color, and he admitted that the paint is specially made for them to change color to designate amount of usage, and that since the paint hadn't changed at all he admitted they could be shure i was telling the truth about this. however, i didn't even expect them to give me a new set. all i wanted was for them to sell me one new tube of a matching rating at thier cost. they wouldn't do it. they wouldn't even sell one to me at any cost!!! the guy on the phone was a decent guy, but he kept turning away from the phone to ask someone [i assume aspen] what they could do for me. when all was said and done, they did nothing for me. so i paid $40 for absolutly nothin. they essentially sold me defective tubes and ADMITTED it, yet told me in so many words i was shit out of luck. great customer relations, eh? !!!! that was the last straw in a long line of problems with them. i consider them the worse company i have ever done business with. abd to top it off, since then i've bought tubes from many other sources and haven't had near as many bad tubes and always end up paying less. i highly recommend anyone who uses groove tubes to consider finding other sources. you'll pay less and get less duds, which is really amazing considering that thier "claim to fame" is selling tubes that have been tested to assure stability !!! out of the the first 4 sets of 34LS i bought from them, 3 sets had a bad tube !!!! one of those being the set in the senario i described above. the other 2 bad set they did take back as they were within the warranty period. at least they did something right. dale

4/15/2000 4:44 PM

dale

good for you !! i had a solo 75 too, and it must have been a hard call to take it back like that, they do sound really good, tho not my cup of tea as far as "type" of tone. but i have had numerous problems with them. the last one was where i bought a pair of 34's at a time when we weren't giging. so i never used them, i just put them in my amp and biased them and the amp sat there for a few months unused. then we started giging again and i got the amp out of mothballs and fired it up. it sounded ok, but seemed not quite right. the gig was a horror story as the amp wouldn't even go to stage volume. one of the tubes was bad.
so even tho i knew they were out of warranty, i called them and explained the situation. i told them that the paint on the tubes hadn't even slightly changed in color, and he admitted that the paint is specially made for them to change color to designate amount of usage, and that since the paint hadn't changed at all he admitted they could be shure i was telling the truth about this. however, i didn't even expect them to give me a new set. all i wanted was for them to sell me one new tube of a matching rating at thier cost. they wouldn't do it. they wouldn't even sell one to me at any cost!!! the guy on the phone was a decent guy, but he kept turning away from the phone to ask someone [i assume aspen] what they could do for me. when all was said and done, they did nothing for me. so i paid $40 for absolutly nothin. they essentially sold me defective tubes and ADMITTED it, yet told me in so many words i was shit out of luck. great customer relations, eh? !!!! that was the last straw in a long line of problems with them. i consider them the worse company i have ever done business with. abd to top it off, since then i've bought tubes from many other sources and haven't had near as many bad tubes and always end up paying less. i highly recommend anyone who uses groove tubes to consider finding other sources. you'll pay less and get less duds, which is really amazing considering that thier "claim to fame" is selling tubes that have been tested to assure stability !!! out of the the first 4 sets of 34LS i bought from them, 3 sets had a bad tube !!!! one of those being the set in the senario i described above. the other 2 bad set they did take back as they were within the warranty period. at least they did something right.

dale

4/15/2000 7:44 PM
John Stokes	Wow, interesting expose' on Boob Toobz and the Head Boob himself. You should post this over on AGA. Roy Blankenship, a tech in the LA area, is really jumping on anyone's ass who says anything negative about GT or Pittman. He seems to be a hard-core GT supporter. I personally think GT products are WAY the hell overpriced for what they are, I believe their super secret magic mystery mojo matching process is a crock, and I think the Head Boob is so fulla bull he's about to explode.

4/15/2000 7:44 PM

John Stokes

Wow, interesting expose' on Boob Toobz and the Head Boob himself. You should post this over on AGA. Roy Blankenship, a tech in the LA area, is really jumping on anyone's ass who says anything negative about GT or Pittman. He seems to be a hard-core GT supporter.

I personally think GT products are WAY the hell overpriced for what they are, I believe their super secret magic mystery mojo matching process is a crock, and I think the Head Boob is so fulla bull he's about to explode.

4/15/2000 7:51 PM
dale	john, you got that right. and by the way, i know roy blankenship and know of his feelings about GT. they obvoiously had him brainwashed.and about the overpriced thing---i was paying $40 a pair for 34LS when they were carrying them, and my last pair of the same exact tube from another place cost me $25, burned in and matched. GT is a friggin joke that unfortunatly many people don't get.

4/16/2000 6:49 AM
John Stokes	"Had" Roy brainwashed? I think "have" is more correct. On the other hand, there's customers out there with more money than brains, who are also totally brainwashed, and insist on Boob Toobz. If I had a customer who insisted on GT, hell, I'd use them, in that instance. You have to give the Head Boob credit. His marketing and hype machine are very effective!!!

4/16/2000 10:47 AM
Steve A.	John: What you have to say about GT is right on the money. But unfortuneately the remaining stock of their 7025's seems to be the last EI 12AX7's left in this country... It would be very unscrupulous of them to take advantage of that situation and start selling other tubes labeled as 7025's. Which just means that they will probably do it! < grin > Any word on Ruby Tubes and the factory that they bought in China? What this country needs is a nice clean 12AX7 tube like their old 7025STR's! The supply of NOS/JAN 12AX7's from GE seems to be gone and I don't like the Phillips as much as the GE's... Steve Ahola

4/16/2000 10:47 AM

Steve A.

John:

    What you have to say about GT is right on the money. But unfortuneately the remaining stock of their 7025's seems to be the last EI 12AX7's left in this country...

    It would be very unscrupulous of them to take advantage of that situation and start selling other tubes labeled as 7025's. Which just means that they will probably do it! < grin >

    Any word on Ruby Tubes and the factory that they bought in China? What this country needs is a nice clean 12AX7 tube like their old 7025STR's! The supply of NOS/JAN 12AX7's from GE seems to be gone and I don't like the Phillips as much as the GE's...

Steve Ahola

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