[Wardpike]

11 out of my 13 amps are tube amps. One of them even uses EF86s !! Those are getting harder and harder to find, so a few months back I bought a 12-pack of them and have a couple of NOS ones as well. Most of my amps use EL84s (6BQ5s) and I have a few of those now... but I plan on stocking up on about 320 of them. I have one amp using 6V6s, '65 Bandmaster so I'll need spare tubes for that one also.

I would respectfully recommend to anyone buying a tube amp that you buy 5 years' supply of tubes for it MINIMUM. That means, a complete set of tubes/valves for it for each year for the next 5 years. 10 years, if you're able to!! Consider it a companion purchase to the amplifier.

So buy your Dr. Z stangray for the ultimate early Vox tone, and have 10 spare EF86s, 10 spare 12AX7s and 40 spare EL84s. You'll spend about $1000 in spare bottles for a $1700 amplifier but you can consider that a wise investment.

If we all did the same with every tube amplifier we purchase, then perhaps the demand for tubes would also increase and we could concentrate that into a viable market for 20 years from now when it might be an even GREATER concern.

In the meanwhile, perhaps we should buy and sell our archaic designed and beautiful sounding amplifiers with a 5 to 10 year supply of spares!

Other opinions may vary.

Ward