# Tube Tester- Precise 116



## vadsy (Dec 2, 2010)

I was loaned this little beauty by a Forum member and managed to track down a poorly scanned manual for it online. It seems to fire up and using the tube chart settings I can get a good or bad reading on all my 12A(xx)7 tubes, regardless of the age or use difference per tube everything was reading the same amount. What I'm trying to say is everything was scaling the same, red or green, and the tubes that were in the red I was actually still getting good use out of in an amp, they just rattle a bit, but many actually have a bit of rattle in the tube drawer. The thing is I'm not sure if this little guy is up to the task of properly diagnosing tubes at this point in it's life. The manual mentions calibration but I have no idea on any of that. Does anyone know or have experience with this type of unit? Here are some pictures.
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## keto (May 23, 2006)

Ironic? The tube tester is itself tube driven. I doubt they've seen a hard life, but is it possible that just due to age alone they themselves may be in need of replacement?


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## 4345567 (Jun 26, 2008)

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## vadsy (Dec 2, 2010)

I got the idea tubes were in it when I came across a writeup that mentioned this series of units were a pain to operate because they needed "calibration tubes". After opening it up and seeing everything I considered the testing might not be as accurate as I'd like it to be. I'll have to go see Chuck with a bag of tubes and a twenty in hand as I need to outfit a head so knowing what's good/bad would be nice.

As per nkjanssen's earlier offer to pass this unit around, I hope I'm not stepping out too far here, would you like to try this thing out keto?


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## 4345567 (Jun 26, 2008)

________________


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## keto (May 23, 2006)

I'm taking possession of a new house tomorrow and facing a full summer of landscaping and yada yada, no way I have time to tinker or troubleshoot it unfortunately. Had it been 100% functional, I would have liked to have a turn with it.


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## LydianGuitars (Apr 18, 2013)

I could fix this up. I've dealt with many tube testers and resurrected them. I have two other testers to compare readings with too so that helps.


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## WCGill (Mar 27, 2009)

If you have known good tubes, tested by another accurate and calibrated tester, then you'd know. Those would be your "calibration tubes", but I think you already knew that. It's a basic emissions tester, not so sophisticated, only capable of weeding out the real stinkers.


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## Davestp1 (Apr 25, 2006)

I've got a Hickok 6000, it has a 5Y3 and an 83 tube, most of the older tube testers have tubes in them. Be sure to let the tester warm up for 5 minutes before you test any tubes and let each preamp tube warm up for at least a couple of minutes, power tubes for 3 or 4 before you test so that they are stablized.


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## Wild Bill (May 3, 2006)

I wouldn't worry too much about calibration. As long as the tubes internal to the tube tester are good, you will get readings "close enough for rock and roll".

I must have at least 6 tube testers around my shop. Some are more convenient to use than others. You have to understand that there is a difference between a lab tube tester that gives very accurate readings of all sorts of nit-picking parameters and a tester for the serviceman, who would often come to your house to get your radio or TV back up and running.

Most of those "nitpicking parameters" are useful only for fussy machines. In the Golden Years, tubes were used for ALL electronics! There was nothing else! No transistors invented yet!

So if you had a critical controller machine or a lab measurement device for heavy duty science and engineering stuff, you might need to have a sophisticated tube tester.

If you were fixing a home tv or a guitar amp, that was MASSIVE overkill of galactic proportions! The sort of thing where an old guy watching you might turn his head so you wouldn't see his smile. He wouldn't want to hurt your feelings!

Your tube tester is one of the serviceman models. For all practical purposes, it is a "good - bad" device. It will show you if a tube is dead. It will show you if it has weak emission, which will translate to poor gain. It will show you if it has gone gassy, which simply means "BAD". 

It will also show you any internal shorts. This is worth knowing! Most times a shorted tube will simply blow the fuse but once in a while, depending on WHICH internal elements are shorted, it can give a clue as to what areas of the circuit might have been damaged and should be checked out first during a repair.

You should also be aware that a serviceman's tester tended to show tubes as closer to the "red" than the "green". Imagine the serviceman in wifey's living room. She is no doubt looking over his shoulder. Maybe a few precocious, smart ass kids as well. They may not be technicians but they would get the idea of "GOOD - BAD" very quickly. No doubt before wifey pays for new tubes she would want to peek herself at what the tester is saying.

So a tester that is loaded a bit on the bad side would have sold more tubes! That's why sometimes you get a 12AX7 that tests on the low side for emission but still sounds fine! Also, in a guitar amp there is so much gain in each stage that is multiplied along the signal chain that one tube being a bit weak just can't be noticed. I wouldn't use it for the tremolo, though. The trem might not fire up quick and reliably when the footswitch was kicked, or not work at all.

What tester do I use? A serviceman's convenient tester! For amp repairs, its all you need and it is quick and easy to use.

Your Hickok is a fine serviceman's tester. It is more than you will ever need. If you need a better print of the settings, EBay has all kinds of vendors.

Hopefully, this will end some confusion.

Wild Bill/Busen Amps


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

Wild Bill said:


> ......looking over his shoulder. Maybe a few precocious, smart ass kids as well.


That would have been me in about 1957-58

We loved to watch the TV serviceman while he worked. The thing I remember clearly is that he would prop a small mirror in front of the TV so that he could watch what was happening on the screen while he made adjustments from the back of the TV (the wooden TV cabinets were quite large in those days). 

It was especially great when he "cured" a horizontal or vertical hold problem. It gets really hard to enjoy TV when you have to constantly move your head from side to side or up and down...LOL

Cheers

Dave


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## Davestp1 (Apr 25, 2006)

I had a small Mercury 1100A emissions tester I used for years that I sold when I got the Hickok 3 or so months ago. I have a tube caddy full of NOS/ANOS guitar amp tubes that I'm going to sell in the near future and lots of people put more faith in a barrage of measurements that the Hickok is capable of that the Mercury isn't. The Precision the OP has is plenty decent for testing tubes he is going to use/keep.


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## Wild Bill (May 3, 2006)

Davestp1 said:


> I had a small Mercury 1100A emissions tester I used for years that I sold when I got the Hickok 3 or so months ago. I have a tube caddy full of NOS/ANOS guitar amp tubes that I'm going to sell in the near future and lots of people put more faith in a barrage of measurements that the Hickok is capable of that the Mercury isn't. The Precision the OP has is plenty decent for testing tubes he is going to use/keep.


Sorry Dave, I got confused. I was referring to the OP with his Precise tester.

That being said, although in the real world I sincerely doubt if those "nitpicking parameters" are applicable to an audio application I am well aware that they are good selling tools on EBay. 

When you have an uneducated customer you can't rely on how electronics REALLY works! Mother Nature's Laws of Physics go right out the window in favour of astrology, the Tarot and the I Ching.

Instead, you need parameters that sound impressive even though they can't understand them. A high price helps too, since of course it must be good if it costs so much!

I still remember an audiophile supplier in Oakville that would sell 12AX7s with an impressive certificate for 50 U$D. The buyer could post the certificate behind his hifi setup, to impress all his friends.

Of course, if you actually UNDERSTOOD the testing parameters that were on the certificate you instantly realized that the tube was merely a perfectly good but ordinary tube that you could have bought for less than 1/4 of that price!

Yet that certificate sold a LOT of tubes for a LOT more money!

As always, "BBB - Bullshit Baffles Brains"

Wild Bill/Busen Amps


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## jb welder (Sep 14, 2010)

I think tube testers work best for comparing tubes to known good tubes. Rather than going through the whole calibration procedure, you can make notes of what numbers a known good tube of a particular type measures. For example, a good 12AX7 will measure "30" or some such number. Or the pointer will be "above the letter B in bad" or something.
Aside from comparing relative merit, a tube tester will not find intermittent type faults like an intermittent short in a power tube. Generally, the tube testers use much lower voltages than a typical amplifier uses, so it will not find problems that occur from higher voltages being applied.
Aside from comparing, I don't find them all that useful. They can tell you a tube is ok when it is not, or confirm that a tube you already know is bad, is indeed bad.
As far as the testers being deliberately calibrated to show tubes being weak, many tube testers (especially the big stand up units) were placed in drug stores or places that sold the replacement tubes. People who's radio's or TV's had problems would take the tubes to the store, test them, and replace as required. If a tube was borderline between "good" and "bad", they would be more likely to buy a new one. I don't think a person would then check the new replacement in the tester. If they did, they would probably see that it was not much different. So, as Wild Bill said, it was a good way to increase tube sales.
Probably, a lot of the TV's and radio's got fixed by having the tubes pulled in and out of their sockets, which cleaned/deoxidized bad or intermittent socket connections.


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## Davestp1 (Apr 25, 2006)

jb welder said:


> Generally, the tube testers use much lower voltages than a typical amplifier uses, so it will not find problems that occur from higher voltages being applied.Aside from comparing, I don't find them all that useful. They can tell you a tube is ok when it is not, or confirm that a tube you already know is bad, is indeed bad.


I agree, the voltages are nothing like the tube will see in a guitar amp so in some respects they do little. However, some people won't buy tubes without proper measurements, just like some people won't consider certain types of stereo/guitar gear unless it has gotten positive reviews in the press. 

FWIW, I also have a GZ34 GE rectifier that both sides measured fine on my Mercury tester but when I tried it out in my 62 tremolux kept blowing fuses. I would turn it on, play for about a minute and then the amp shuts down. I went through a couple of fuses until I figured out the only change I had made was the rectifier my tester told me was good......


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## nonreverb (Sep 19, 2006)

There is merit to your claim Dave. In the past, I've sold some pretty valuable tubes which have been tested on my Hickok 539C. Usually, if you've tested them on that, people tend to trust your statements. Is it worth testing everything on it? No, probably not. That's what my Eico 667 is for but when you need exacting specs the Hickok does the job in spades...



Davestp1 said:


> I agree, the voltages are nothing like the tube will see in a guitar amp so in some respects they do little. However, some people won't buy tubes without proper measurements, just like some people won't consider certain types of stereo/guitar gear unless it has gotten positive reviews in the press.
> 
> FWIW, I also have a GZ34 GE rectifier that both sides measured fine on my Mercury tester but when I tried it out in my 62 tremolux kept blowing fuses. I would turn it on, play for about a minute and then the amp shut down. I went through a couple of fuses until I figured out the only change I had made was the rectifier my tester told me was good......


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## WCGill (Mar 27, 2009)

When you just have to know:

View attachment 3384


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## vadsy (Dec 2, 2010)

Is that a prop from a Steven Seagal movie? Kinda makes me think something used to punch in codes to launch a nuclear missile. Alpha Tango Zero Niner.... BOOM!!


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## bzrkrage (Mar 20, 2011)

WCGill said:


> When you just have to know:
> 
> View attachment 3384


Ooooooooooooh, Ahhhhhhhhhhhh. Tube porn.:bow:


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## Davestp1 (Apr 25, 2006)

nonreverb said:


> In the past, I've sold some pretty valuable tubes which have been tested on my Hickok 539C. Usually, if you've tested them on that, people tend to trust your statements. Is it worth testing everything on it? No, probably not.


All my tubes have been tested on the Mercury, which I no longer have since I picked up the Hickok 6000. However, I have and am going to sell off at some point down the road about 200 NOS/NIB RCA/Mullard/JAN GE/JAN Phillips 12AX7's, about 100 ANOS Mullards/Brimars and Telefunkens 12AX7's, 25 various NOS/NIB 6V6's/5Y3's, 20 Mullard GZ34's NOS and used and probably around 30 NOS/NIB 6L6GC/WGB's and 5881's.... I will probably want decent money on them so I will probably have to have Hickok test results for each and every one.....Guess I better get started since it will take a while.....I've been hoarding tubes for way too long a time....


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

bzrkrage said:


> Ooooooooooooh, Ahhhhhhhhhhhh. Tube porn.:bow:


Here it is in action...a tube porn flick !

[video=youtube;RLOZIy95a88]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLOZIy95a88[/video]

Cheers

Dave


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## nonreverb (Sep 19, 2006)

Tell me about it...I'm in the process of voiding myself of all my Genalex (GEC) KT88's. Pain in the ass to test them but the financial reward is worth the trouble.



Davestp1 said:


> All my tubes have been tested on the Mercury, which I no longer have since I picked up the Hickok 6000. However, I have and am going to sell off at some point down the road about 200 NOS/NIB RCA/Mullard/JAN GE/JAN Phillips 12AX7's, about 100 ANOS Mullards/Brimars and Telefunkens 12AX7's, 25 various NOS/NIB 6V6's/5Y3's, 20 Mullard GZ34's NOS and used and probably around 30 NOS/NIB 6L6GC/WGB's and 5881's.... I will probably want decent money on them so I will probably have to have Hickok test results for each and every one.....Guess I better get started since it will take a while.....I've been hoarding tubes for way too long a time....


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## WCGill (Mar 27, 2009)

greco said:


> Here it is in action...a tube porn flick !
> 
> [video=youtube;RLOZIy95a88]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLOZIy95a88[/video]
> 
> ...


That music reminded me of a few other, um, questionable flicks I've seen. Not that I watched or anything.


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