How do you decide if you should cannibalize old radios for the tubes?

[S.Filpansick]

Hey guys, I'm a part-time antique dealer, so I come across old radios all the time. How do you suppose I should determine what should be kept complete (and possibly even repaired) and sold, and what should be cannibalized for the tubes?

Just recently, I found a 1964 Grundig console radio/turntable in the trash... I replaced the power cord, and she fired right up; the FM tuner doesn't work (string is broken), but the turntable sounds great!

When I pulled the cover off of the back to see what was up with the tuner, I realized that she's full of German tubes from 1964, including a few 12AX7's!

The gearslut in me says "Fvck the radio; Grab the tubes and throw 'em in some of your gear!".

The antique dealer in me says "fix it and sell it".

The geek in me got thinking about turning it into a guitar amp (although it's much too large to be practical for that).

What do you guys think?

[drbob1]

It depends. There are very cool, useful and valuable console amplifiers (for an extreme example, say, a McIntosh from the 60s). It'd be a crime to cannibalize something like that. OTOH, the simple6 or 10 tube, all in one stereos with nasty heavy turntable arms are not going to be missed by anyone. Scott, Fischer, Marantz, even Panasonic and Sony built some pretty nice tube gear. Most other stuff I'd tear apart for tubes and speakers in a second. Same with organs, if it's not a Hammond Tonewheel, it's fair game...

[tkr]

Originally Posted by Randall

check the prices on ebay.. Telefunken 12AX7 sell for an average of 40 - 50 bucks.. some tubes, caps and trannies are quite rare and valuable.. best part is if you gotta have one you gotta have one and somebody is going to pay the price

Actually, I don`t think that used tubes fetch that kind of money....NOS (New Old Stock) tubes do.
All tubes degrade with use, and have a lifespan from 1000 to <10000 hours depending on make and how hard they are driven.
yours tkr

[pan60]

NOS is what is worth the money.
if it has cool tube that might be worth a buck, or want for yourself, save the tubes, put some modern tubes in it and offer it up for sell. or you could do like others and sell it with out tubes?
i don't like cannibalizing old gear endless it is beyond repair, or far to costly to repair do to neglect or damage.

[tampa]

Keep the old tubes, put new ones in.

[DarkSky Media]

The tubes in a radio you find on the trash heap have most likely been well used - possibly beyond their MTBF rating. If so, they probably won't sound their best, and they probably won't have much (if any) life left in them. Very hard to say what they are truly worth. If they work, they might as well not be on the scrap heap, but they're not all that precious either.

[BeK$]

Buy a tube tester

[TurboJets]

Originally Posted by BeK$

Buy a tube tester

agree 1000%

and tubes that test high you can then roll in to your favorites pre's, comp's, guitar amps, or any other hybrid gear you've got so you can have a listen for yourself as to the quality. Some you might keep, some you'll sell, some you might just plug back in to the original unit for salvage and repair.

Old paper caps that measure out fairly are good to save and sell, I've pulled a lot of wire out of antique electronics just to have for other projects. I rewired a strat once with antique wire from an old open reel deck and loved the new tone. Old tranny's can be a fantastic find too if the unit isn't worth repairing as a whole. I was hooked on antique stuff for a while but checked into a 12-step program that helped me out. Feeling better now. It's a sickness.

[Shiny Beast]

Years ago I had a Leak Stereo 50 and matching Point One Stereo preamp given to me.

A while back I decided to ebay them... the Stereo 50 had the original Mullard ECC83's, 3 of them (power tubes were gone). All tested very good. The preamp had 4 (!) original Mullard EF86, also tested almost new.

So I had to decide... replace the tubes with cheap new stuff, or leave the originals in.

I did the latter. I might have gotten a lot of money selling the tubes separately but I felt better leaving the gear as original as possible.

Got a bunch of money for the units, BTW!

[S.Filpansick]

Yeah, I definitely need a tube tester, but they seem to go for stupid money on Ebay!

I have a bunch of Chinese 12AX7's around, so I can at least swap those for the vintage ones if I decide to sell it.

I found a schematic folded up in the bottom of the unit; if I posted a pic of the schematic as well as the unit itself, do you think it would be possible to determine if any of the other parts would be desirable?

Thanks for all of the info!
Steve

[vernier]

You could audition the old tubes in your amp and keep the best.

Btw, I'd use a variac on the old gear that might not have been turned on for years.