Jim, are you sure that “plain old” belong in the same sentence as Schrade?
Nice 881.
If I wore flip flaps, I wouldn’t want a bottle opener on them, for sure.
You’re right. Those of us who don’t drink might need a bottle opener in the kitchen drawer, but not on our pocket knives.
Yes, a sad day when the racks of GE, Westinghouse, Sylvania, Mullard, etc tubes and the testers disappeared from every drug and hardware store. If only I could turn back time, and buy up a lifetime supply.
The new production tubes from China just can’t march the quality of the old ones.
So we have to pay a premium for NOS.
The EL 84s are for my little Mesa Boogie ~ a Subway Rocket. It’s the perfect size for our venue, small enough to turn up some, but not too much, because it can get loud, and is much more portable than my Pro Reverb. Between the preamp tubes I’m using, and how I set it, I’m getting a real nice clean/edge of breakup sound with it. I also use a couple of preamp and boost pedals to push it harder when needed, leave them on, and control it with the volume knob on my Teles.
The Pro Reverb takes a pair or 6L6s. It is a fantastic sounding amp but heavy!
I also have a little ‘65 Champ, which uses one 6V6 and makes 5 watts. Great sounding amp, but too small for playing live unmiked.
Fortunately, tubes last a long time for me!
Thanks for asking, Ed!
