Good source for tubes?

[lassoharp]

re the PIO caps - they were cheap until guitar amp suppliers in the USA decided to monopolize the market and bought out nearly all suppliers stock.  You can guess what happened next.  They can be found in their online catalogs beside pics of hot babes curling up around guitars and the usual assortment of silly adjectives trumpeting their tonal virtues . . . . . at double or triple the price you could originally get them from the Soviet suppliers.  (For those responsible who might come here from time to time to read - Thanks a lot for the ruination!)  Don't know if that happened with tubes yet or not but probably just a matter of time.

I got worried there for a second and had to check some of the stores I've used in the past. But no, the prices haven't changed much in the last five years I've known these things. They are still roughly the same price as an equivalent spec Wima polyprop for example, which is perfectly fine since these are in a very literal sense bombproof.

So I'm not quite sure what you are talking about or what price-hike. It's not like you are somehow forced to order from those state-side guitar parts stores. Knowing some of the background of CCCP military industry these caps and tubes are as abundant as the AK47. They probably find a warehouse or two filled with them on monthly basis still!

Ah!  This is good news then.  I was getting many supplies from Soviet sources for a few years and then the PIOs just seemed to disappear overnight and I saw them pop up in US sources.  I was buying from about 3 or 4 different suppliers and all were out of stock on common values.  I kept checking back for a few months and it seemed like the well had run dry.  This was maybe a year and a half ago.  I'll check back again.

 

[Kingston]

Ah!  This is good news then.  I was getting many supplies from Soviet sources for a few years and then the PIOs just seemed to disappear overnight and I saw them pop up in US sources.  I was buying from about 3 or 4 different suppliers and all were out of stock on common values.  I kept checking back for a few months and it seemed like the well had run dry.  This was maybe a year and a half ago.  I'll check back again.

From the stores I've ordered I've noticed some values disappear for a while and then reappear. Might be as simple as forgetting to manually relist the part. In case you are worried that the prices go through the roof like all the famous US and European tubes you can put your mind at ease. These old CCCP parts never did and never will have a famous pop application/applicator like fender/hendrix/marshall/neumann etc. that caused the price hike in the first place. It's just us and maybe a bunch of boutique stores that will never be able to exhaust the supply.