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Amused

Elite Member
Apr 14, 2001
57,386
19,667
146
Originally posted by: Maiora
You could go to the corner drug store and test your tubes?

I used to go with my dad for both his stereo and the TV tubes back in the 70s. But they were on their way out even then as "solid state" was the big new thing.
 

jadinolf

Lifer
Oct 12, 1999
20,952
3
81
Originally posted by: Maiora
You could go to the corner drug store and test your tubes?

I'm, old enough to remember everything, Ross.:D

I owned a Radio Shack store and we had one of those tube testers in plain view for our customers to use.
 

DarkThinker

Platinum Member
Mar 17, 2007
2,822
0
0
Originally posted by: NightDarker
I need some new tubes for my guitar amp.

I need a pair of new tubes for my Korg Electribe EMX-1 I go through them like hot butter!
 

olds

Elite Member
Mar 3, 2000
50,124
779
126
We used to test them at the grocery store where we returned our glass soda bottles.
 

RiverDog

Senior member
Mar 15, 2007
409
0
0
Originally posted by: dennilfloss
Originally posted by: Mo0o
Was this before they invented steam engines and talkies? :D

We had to walk to school in snowstorms uphill both ways! :p

(I'm 50.)

I'm nearly 57. We had to RUN to school in snowstorms uphill both ways.:)
 

markgm

Diamond Member
Aug 23, 2001
3,291
2
81
Originally posted by: RiverDog
Originally posted by: dennilfloss
Originally posted by: Mo0o
Was this before they invented steam engines and talkies? :D

We had to walk to school in snowstorms uphill both ways! :p

(I'm 50.)

I'm nearly 57. We had to RUN to school in snowstorms uphill both ways.:)

Lucky you, we didn't have running when I was a kid.
 

Amused

Elite Member
Apr 14, 2001
57,386
19,667
146
Originally posted by: ShadowOfMyself
:shocked:

Wow, this thread is a breath of fresh air... Oh wait its the other way around :p

This breath of fresh air is a thread?
 

BoomerD

No Lifer
Feb 26, 2006
66,287
14,705
146
Oh hell yes. Drug stores, grocery stores, hardware stores ALL had tube testers, and the BETTER ones had a decent supply of replacement tubes. Occasionally, you'd have to go to a real TV repair shop to get some "special tube", but not often.


/me is so old, I can remember when the air was clean, and sex was dirty...;)
 

Linflas

Lifer
Jan 30, 2001
15,395
78
91
Originally posted by: Maiora
You could go to the corner drug store and test your tubes?

I remember the last time I tried to do that in 1985 and received a really odd look from the 16 year old girl behind the counter when I asked where the tube tester was located. :eek:
 

nutxo

Diamond Member
May 20, 2001
6,824
503
126
Originally posted by: BoomerD
Oh hell yes. Drug stores, grocery stores, hardware stores ALL had tube testers, and the BETTER ones had a decent supply of replacement tubes. Occasionally, you'd have to go to a real TV repair shop to get some "special tube", but not often.


/me is so old, I can remember when the air was clean, and sex was dirty...;)

Grocery store.

Our TV broke and my dad ran up to Tom Thumb and got a set of stickers. There were like 50 stickers on a sheet and 2 of each number. He came home and put one sticker on each tube and the matching sticker on the socket it came from. He pulled all the tubes and took em up to the store and tested em till he found a bad tube and then got a replacement from the bottom cabinet of the test machine.

He came home and popped all the tubes back in, including the new tube and the TV was fixed.

Im 42.



 

hanoverphist

Diamond Member
Dec 7, 2006
9,867
23
76
Originally posted by: So
I don't, but I know what you're talking about. That's what I get from listening to the old guys who I pay to teach me about electronics. ;)

same here, i always get those speeches when im fixing the computer for an old geez... err i mean older person. :p



(and im 37)
 

Anghang

Platinum Member
Apr 30, 2001
2,853
0
71
:thumbsup: for the contents of this thread...i got 2.5 hrs of sleep last night and was about to pass out at my desk, strangely this thread has woken me up :)
 

Brutuskend

Lifer
Apr 2, 2001
26,558
4
0
I've done that many many times.

Now it's DAMN hard to find a tube tester ANYWHERE.

But then, it's DAMN hard to find anything that still uses tubes for that matter. ;)