TEH INSIDE OF THE COUGAR1000
Posted: Wed Jul 29, 2009 5:39 pm








yeah, i was wondering about that myself...but look at how blackened the top part of the tube is...weird?Mike wrote:Rubber Shield = tube is never getting hot enough to actually affect the sound.
yeah, i've seen plenty of new tewbs with some blackening/coloring around a bit of the top, but that seemed like a bit much...either way i def-o think raw-roez should take that rubber gasket bullshit off.Mike wrote:I think that can be an after effect of the manufacturing process which involves a whole bunch of heat.
It's Barium on the glass. Inside all vacuum tubes there's a little dish (a "getter") that's filled with barium during assembly. After the vacuum is pulled, a microwave is used to vaporize the barium. It absorbs any residual gas or air and then solidifies on the inside of the tube. Should any air leak in during use, the barium will absorb it to prevent burnouts. If the tube cracks, the barium will turn from black to bright white to make the tube failure easy to see.St. Jimmy wrote:yeah, i've seen plenty of new tewbs with some blackening/coloring around a bit of the top, but that seemed like a bit much...either way i def-o think raw-roez should take that rubber gasket bullshit off.Mike wrote:I think that can be an after effect of the manufacturing process which involves a whole bunch of heat.
i've experienced this with every single Ei 12ax7 that came in my super reverb. i have no idea how every one of them managed to crack.DuoSonicBoy wrote:If the tube cracks, the barium will turn from black to bright white to make the tube failure easy to see.