Pleased to report a successful score on NOS tubes from Turkey

NOS Tube Store link >http://www.nostubestore.com which is based in Turkey of all places, I am pleased to report, delivered as promised on a pair of Mullard GZ-37 rectifiers, brand-new, not so much as a speckle on the getter flashing and at a very reasonable price.
Their website is a bit challenging to navigate but they do have a very nice selection of signal tubes, octals, novals, etc., and quick responses to emails. Downside is shipping takes about the same amount of time as it does from China, so by the time they show up you've forgotten you bought 'em. However, worth a look, and if you see something you fancy, send an email to Koray Kural (sales@nostubestore.com) and he'll dig up what you want. I haven't asked him his source but my guess is they found a nice stash of 2nd- and cold-war bottles and are dribbling them out.
Not on commish or payroll here, but a good deed deserves a good turn.

Wondering if Cuba is sitting on a boatload of NOS ...

sKiZo wrote:Wondering if Cuba is sitting on a boatload of NOS ...

I want all their '57 Chevvies first. But no doubt there's a redoubt on that little island stuffed full of US-made tubeage. Ready, set, Go.

what I can't figure out is that I've sold amps and preamps to almost every country in the entire world, except Mexico and Cuba (and Jamaica, guess it's warm enough there already)
Cuba I understand, and maybe now it will open up, but why no tube gear in Mexico?

tubes4hifi wrote:what I can't figure out is that I've sold amps and preamps to almost every country in the entire world, except Mexico and Cuba (and Jamaica, guess it's warm enough there already)
Cuba I understand, and maybe now it will open up, but why no tube gear in Mexico?

I will ask my good friend, Hugo Salinas-Price, this very question, when I see him in February. He has forgotten more about electronics than you and I have ever learned and is now Mexico's second-wealthiest individual. He and his father built a fortune out of restoring in-warranty Motorala and Delco car radios. Then came autre department stores, then banks. In his 80s, his sole mission is to restore Mexico's money to the silver standard and be done with the U.S. Fed.
I think, Roy, in the end it is all about marketing. If you don't invite your friends over for a listen, how else might they know about the pleasure of toobs? I bet bill-boards are cheap down there.

Been to Cuba and seen the standard of living. I guess that the average Cuban cannot afford tube gear. They have a fantastic "no waste" way of life. Petrol engines that had very poor gas mileage were replaced with anything that they had to hand. Would you really want a 57 Chevy with an Isuzu Diesel engine and manual transmission?

It appeared to me that items we would consider a basic necessity are a luxury there. A no thrills existence. So you may be right in that there is a stock of NOS tubes in a back yard somewhere. Once trade opens up there might be a very rich Cuban sitting on a Gold mine.

cuba is probably a model of "reduce, reuse, recycle". It will be ashamed if that is lost. Look how they've enabled 1950's cars to live on and on and on like a 1970's pop song!

(C'mon, you remember the tune I'm invoking!)

Roy, you gotta get to work on these mexicans. Let them know that tube amps are more musical. Maybe suggest the older technology somehow better honors the dearly departed... That it better reproduces acoustic instruments at the heart of Mexican musical traditions, by contrast with american electronic fake sounds of electric guitars, synthesizers, e-organs, electric drum kits etc...

Suggest the added heat from tubes reflects the heat of Latino passion, by contrast with cold-running transistor technology, more suited to tne temperament of the White walkers from north of the wall (inGame of thrones), lifeless, soul less, passionless, etc.

It's no coincidence,after all, that a fellow named "Latino" is so deep into this vapproach to reproducing music!

What a sad thing to hear Jose Felicianos reproduced by transistorized electronics. I've heard him BOTH ways, and I've lived to tell you, his soul ands spirit are better conveyed via the vacuum!

Because in a vacuum, nothing gets between you and the musical experience. Especially geraniums!