Blatent Product Recomendation

[MisterM]

This product recommendation is not about Bottlehead gear even tho it deserves the highest praise. I have built ten Bottlehead kits that worked perfectly when completed and still work perfectly after many years thanks to great design and high-quality construction (praise for the assembler – me). B B (before Bottlehead) I bought a George Wright AG Phono section which has been idle for a few years and recently reactivated. I had a problem with one channel getting weak or cutting out altogether. Swapping tubes (12AX7) made no difference but jiggling the offending tube would temporarily fix the problem. I got tired of tube jiggling three or more times while listening to an album, so something had to be done. Socket replacement looked to be a nightmare with difficult to reach socket pins and no schematic to refer to. I then found this: https://caig.com/product/deoxit-gold-vacuum-tube-survival-kit/. After cleaning the socket pins per instructions my problem is gone. I have since listened to several albums with no problems. The key to cleaning the 9-pin socket is the provided tiny stiff bristle brush. If you have the Caig DeoxIT contact cleaner and can find the tiny brush you can avoid the cost of the complete kit. I don’t know where to get such a tiny brush, but the kit is available at Parts Express for less than list price.

 

[Doc B]

At one time I tracked down a set of brushes to fit various size socket contacts. Perhaps I'll see if I can find them again.

 

[Jameson]

That's interesting. When I cleaned my tube pins last I put some simichrome polish on the end of a Q-tip and put the shaft of the Q-tip into the chuck of my Dremel. That worked pretty well. I think I got that tip from this forum.

 

[Doc B]

George Wright...and no schematic to refer to

I am chuckling. Spent hours at his place looking for schematics after he passed. I recall I found only one partial map for an FM tuner he never completed.

Yup, Jameson, the half a Q-tip in a Dremel trick I learned from my Elmer, John Buddha Camille. Getting the pins clean is just as important as getting the socket clean. Probably time for my annual lecture on cleaning every connector, switch and pot in your system then sitting back and marveling at how much better it sounds.

 

[2wo]

People buy new cables and such and marvel at the improvement. Maybe if they had just cleaned the old ones  8)...John