Tone Tubes

Suppliers of Amplifier Vacuum Tubes, and other Music Electronics and Stompbox Components

21/03/2024

Testing new stock so it's ready to go when ordered. All tubes are tested vs spec before they are put into stock

16/10/2023

1975 Marshall JMP Superbass 100W in need of a lot of tlc. Very low headroom and distorted output. HT voltages were very low due to failing filter capacitors, and also an incorrect replacement power transformer fitted at some stage. Replacement transformer installed, full recap, and some wiring errors corrected. HT supply restored to specification, and various other components replaced due to ageing. Client also requested the bright channel to be revoiced for lead. Amp now firing on all cylinders and sounds amazing.

18/06/2023

Something special on the bench over the past few days. A mostly unmolested 1967 Marshall JTM 50W "Black Flag" model. A genuine barn find by the client. It stopped working and lay untouched in a storeroom for many years until he uncovered it. This is an extremely scarce model from Marshall, and in the brief history of Black Flag JTM 50W'rs was only produced for about 6 months during 1967. EL34 model, with GZ34 rectifier tube and Drake iron.

It initially had a power tube HT short that damaged the standby switch, and the rectifier tube, but due to its age, it also needed a full recap. Lots of TLC, and it's working perfectly again.

27/03/2023

Please note that we will be closed from 4th to 14th April. Any orders received during that time will be sent out on Monday 17th April.

08/03/2023

Professional setup done on one of my Strats by Lallies Guitar & Amplification Repairs. Awesome workmanship, and to be recommended. Also nice to pop into Tempo Music in PE and catch-up with Deon Mattheus.
If you're in the area and need repairs or musical gear, then Lallies and Tempo are the places to go.

Of course Tone Tubes still the premium supplier of Valves and Amp-related electronic goodies 🙂

23/12/2022

Wishing all of you a festive and merry holiday season. Thanks for the continued support during this year, and let's do it all again in 2023!! 🥳

01/12/2022

Hi All

Inevitably the ever-climbing fuel and wage bills are taking their toll on the local couriers. Please be advised that effective today, Postnet have increased the basic price of their Postnet to Postnet service to R109.00 (was R99.00)

This is unfortunately out of our control and we will continue to pass their costs thru without any mark-up. Remember, we also offer free shipping on all orders over R1600.00

As always thanks for your ongoing support!

27/10/2022

Whilst the global shortage of vacuum tubes, caused mainly by Shuguang's demise during 2021 and then the Ukraine - Russia conflict, (and resulting sanctions) plus the general global electronics supply shortages due to Covid lockdowns has eased a bit since Q1/2022, popular brands and tube types are still in short supply with some still impossible to find in volume. JJ Electronic (Slovakia) has seen unprecedented demand, and many of their popular tube types are still in serious backlog, including 12A*7 and KT ranges.

Good news is that Tube Amp Doctor's Redbase, and also Psvane's Classic and HiFi Series tube product lines continue to expand and are becoming more freely available, with more new tube types being added to their line-ups on a regular basis.

Pricing as predicted has escalated, and the sad reality is that in USD prices most modern tubes have increased by 60% to 110% over the past 12 months, and some continue to increase as supply remains thin. USD Courier costs to SA have increased by about 10% as well.
At the same time for South Africa we also then have the double-whammy of a weakening local currency, with a decline of about 24% against the USD during the same period.

We continue to seek out more cost-effective sources for the tubes we supply, and also ensure coverage of the popular types, but inevitably tubes have increased substantially in price during the past year, and until the supply constraints are normalised it is highly likely prices will continue to rise.

This is the new "normal" for vacuum tubes unfortunately, and very unlikely they will return to prior pricing levels even if supply normalises again.

Thanks for your ongoing support.

02/10/2022

Worked an a classic amp this week. Sound City L100W Mk.3 Custom Built model from about 1969. Amp required a full recap, and also replaced the power tube grid stopper resistors as they had been cooked and drifted badly at some stage. This amp is fairly similar to the legendary Hi-Watt 100W DR103, (both Dave Reeves designed) and the owner asked me to revoice the preamp to DR103 specs as well. Also installed the DR103 master volume circuit to round it off. Another beauty back to full health.

19/09/2022

Marshall JMP 100W Superbass in for repairs. HT fuse was blown, caused by a failed power tube. All tubes in bad shape so replaced the entire set, pre and power amp. Also found V1a plate resistor badly drifted from 100K spec to over 250k, so replaced that as well. However a nasty surprise when powered up, unable to set idle bias and very low and badly distorted output. Power tube plate voltage was sagging badly, dropping from 450V down to below 200V under load. (Measured ok without Tubes installed) Heart attack as faulty output transformer suspected (primary winding failing and pulling HT down) but a lot of checking later and finally found a very bad dry joint on the B+ wire from rectifier to first filter capacitor. Poorly soldered at some point, and joint resistance increased over time, causing B+ to collapse when loaded by power tubes. Another beast back to rocking again!!

17/08/2022

We're going on a short holiday!

Tone Tubes will be closed from 24th August until 1st September. Any orders placed during that period will be shipped on 2nd September.

Thanks for the ongoing support!!

15/08/2022

A really nice vintage 1963 Blackface Bassman in for service and repair. But check out the grid bias capacitor fitted to the amp 😵 Also had polarity backwards, no wonder tubes were red plating badly. 🔥 New correct cap installed, now to finalise health checks and testing.

Address

Jeffrey's Bay
6330

Website

https://www.tonetubes.co.za/

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