"Why do these vintage 45 year old tubes look old???"
NOS tubes: a phrase which will live in infamy. A phrase which has become nearly as meaningless as "world class", "high fidelity" and "factory fresh". There seems to be a mystique about tubes to begin with, as we now have nearly two generations of audiophiles who grew up knowing nothing about tubes. These children of the solid-state revolution perhaps are just now becoming acquainted with these strange glowing glass bottles---heck, not even real glass bottles are glass anymore! To fill one with a light bulb filament, some wire mesh, a little can of metal, and then suck out all the air, and expect it to make sound is like some strange throwback to Victorian times when people were recording sounds on wax and tinfoil. But the retro-cool fascination is there as tube radios and hi-fi systems are making a roaring comeback. Dusty old tube lore is being reprinted, and tube amp schematics from the 1940s are being sought out, built exactly to specification, and sanctified by tube gurus worldwide. With this rebirth comes the hoary holy grail of every tube aficionado: the NOS tube.

Enter the murky, half forgotten world of the NOS tube. Except for CRTs and some industrial/military tubes, vacuum tubes by and large were no longer being produced anywhere on earth. No one really cared, since virtually no consumer products used them anymore. Radio, TV, and Hi-Fi shop owners cussed about the huge racks of tubes they bought (against their better judgment when the latest product flyers showed all solid state components) and shuffled them to the back room, then to the basement, then to the garage or barn. There they joined the ranks of the even older "NOS" army: the octals, locktals, and "globe" tubes, some of which have been holding down shelves since the 1920s.
I can't help but launch into a NOS tube buying "experience" I had recently, so please bear with me. I was at a garage sale recently, which was actually in a large barn with more than a few leaks in the roof. Under piles of glass jars full of screws I found box after damp box of globe shape tubes, mostly RCA and Silvertone 4-pin base types. A number of these were UX245 and UX226, both sought after antique tubes today, which audiophiles are building amps around. Some of the boxes fell apart at the touch. I bought those and left my card with the seller, who indicated he had more at home. I later examined these tubes and found them all to be intact, and all tested as NOS--in other words the emission pinned the meter of an emission tester and read as high as any similar NOS tube on my transconductance tester. However, some of the boxes had been partially chewed on my mice, mice chewings were everywhere, and others were water damaged. In addition, mouse feces were found in some of the boxes. Needless to say, these tubes did not look shiny and new, and the pins on most had darkened. I had a cleaning job to do. Some of these were destined to be sold as "New Old Stock White Box" because in their unclean state they were truly "Nasty Old Stuff".
The guy called me about two weeks later, and offered me the rest of the tubes he had dug up. I went over and found the last remains of what, he said, had once been a proud radio repair shop in Chicago over 50 years ago. There were glass coffee jars full of wax capacitors (remember when coffee--and I don't mean instant coffee--came ground in glass jars? I don't!) more globe tubes, a Western Electric "tennis ball" tube (now in my collection) and a number of 1940s vintage tubes in kind of ratty boxes. I bought the whole works, and again found that the mouse turds were included free of charge. Again, I have a bunch of great NOS tubes that don't look, well, very NOSey. The preceding is a true story, only the names have been changed to protect those who became "unclean" by touching "Nasty Old Stuff".
So let's talk some straight talk here about tubes. First off, many people freak when they see real NOS tubes that were not stored in some audio fanatics closet. I mean boxes missing flaps, tube numbers crossed off and other types written on top, rodent gnaw holes, insect damage, and the above mentioned mouse trail blazers. The tubes inside probably have darkened or green pins, and if the boxes got wet, the labels may be smeared or partially missing. We're talking 50 years hard knocks for a box that was designed to have a shelf life of the typical cereal box: about six months. Then there are the tubes that were packed in "jobber's boxes", which were cardboard (later styrofoam) egg-carton like affairs which held about 100 tubes, intended to be sold to repair shops for stocking the tube caddies. These tubes, delivered en masse like worker ant pupae in the nest, never had a box to call home. Job boxes that got left in the dust of the transistor revolution literally "got left in the dust" and the tubes look like artifacts out of a tomb. Cleaning them usually is a muddy job, and the label on the tube usually does not survive unscathed.

Real NOS tubes have labels that don't wipe off, right? WRONG!! Please don't be taken in by big dealers who sell "NOS Mullard and Telefunken" tubes by the dozens with incredibly clear, perfect labels. What do these poor sucker buyers think when they plug in the tubes and they sound like CRAP? "I must have gotten a bad one, but it looks perfectly new and clean, so it must be a fluke". WRONG AGAIN!! Some people who claim to sell NOS tubes by these vintage European makers are actually selling counterfeit tubes! Hey, if there is big money to be made, making bogus Telefunken tubes is less likely to attract the FBI than making fake $20 bills. I have personally gotten taken in by some of the 6DJ8 Telefunken fakes. They look just like the real thing, complete with the diamond mark (fuzzy and indistinct, but it was there) on the bottom glass. The labels on these were perfect. They were also baked on enamel paint which would not wash or scratch off. The tubes are actually made in China, and deliberate copies of Telefunken tubes. The Mullard fakes are usually late vintage Brimar made tubes that have been relabeled as early shield logo or BVA logo Mullards. The GENUINE Nasty Old Stuff Telefunken and Mullards usually have some of the label smudged, smeared, missing or blotchy. Very rare are those tubes still sealed in their boxes with even the cellophane wrap intact! These real labels used a chalky flat white paint, never shiny like baked enamel. Just rubbing in the box can wipe off some of the label. RCA and Amperex used the same paint, and not until the late 1970s did both of these companies switch to the shiny orange baked enamel label which was harder to wipe off. RCA used it on their new logo, and Amperex used it on later versions of the world logo. So how do these big time tube dudes come upon dozens of perfect labelled NOS tubes? The secret is: they don't find them any more often than I do! I rarely find perfect label NOS tubes, and when I do I brag it up and down the webpage! These dudes have either unwittingly (or knowingly!) purchased a bunch of these perfect looking fakes---which in this case are truly Nasty Old Stuff---or maybe they should be Nasty New Stuff.

So what is a NOS? New Old Stock or Nasty Old Stuff? Sometimes both. The secret is to either get to know what is available, and what to expect from most of the NOS tubes you can dig up these days, and then go out and find your treasure, or find a tube guru you can trust and purchase your NOS tubes from them. If digging through boxes of dusty tubes at a hamfest is part of the fun, then you will quickly get to know just how nasty some of these vintage tubes can be. You will also find some vintage rarities here that you will find nowhere else, but you have to get down and dirty to dig them up. If scrounging is not your bag, then get a tube guru who sells the real things and does the scrounging for you. Whomever you choose, make sure they have a solid guarantee, and make sure they can make honest judgments about your system and what tubes may be best for you. Above all, enjoy the music! Finding great NOS tubes is the doorway to great music. Don't worry so much about how they look, rather pay attention to how they sound. If it sounds good, then it IS good!
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