The Tubes

Well, one thing led to another and I mentioned we had the same thing where a repairman (or repair person) sometimes made “house calls” like a TV repairman and then, this got me thinking later after class as I walked home about the times a TV repairman came to our home to fix our TV and more often than not had to change some of the tubes in the TV.

I can still remember the TV repairman showing up with this huge toolbox, which sort of resembled a tackle box. When he opened it there were these trays filled with all sorts of tubes in different sizes and shapes. He would take off the back of the TV and then start testing the tubes to see which one(s) had burned out and needed to be replaced. Most of times that’s what it was-just a burned out tube. Of course, once the picture tube went, well that’s when it was time for a new TV.

Sometimes if the TV went on the blink, Mom would tell us to turn it off for a few minutes and let the tubes cool down and turn it back on. This worked temporarily-about as well as a couple of aspirin for a toothache-but sooner or later, like having that tooth looked at, you were going to have to take a look at those tubes, if that’s all it took to get that TV working again.

Of course, if you were a DIY-er and wanted to save a few bucks and having to wait around all day for the TV repairman to show up, I do recall a “tube-tester” at Woolworth’s as well as Sear’s and if I am not mistaken K-Mart where you would bring in your tubes to test. First, you had to buy these tiny stickers with numbers/letters on them; next you would stick a “number” or “letter” on the tube and a corresponding number/letter in the receptacle-so you wouldn’t get confused with where which tube went where when you put them back later. Then, it was off to have your tubes tested to see if any of them needed to replaced.

Hopefully, that would be the only thing wrong with your TV and after you figured out which tubes were bad, you could buy the new ones there. Once back home you’d put them back in (making sure to match the tubes with the right receptacle) and if you had done everything right, you’d have TV again.

My grandfather was a good one for doing this-testing the TV tubes himself-but when it came to radios he had another way. One of his hobbies and passions (at one time he wanted to be a radio repairman, but then World War II came along) was tinkering around with old radios he salvaged from his refuse route in LaSalle, Illinois. He would cannibalize the tubes from one radio and put them in another. I don’t think he ever bought a new radio or a radio tube in his life.

His workbenches in the basement and in his warehouse-cum-garage were a literal treasure trove of Philco, RCA Victor, Emerson and Zenith radios along with their guts and tubes that went inside. Even the short wave radio in the basement was one that he had salvaged and restored with tubes found in other radios.

What I remember most about some of those radios, and especially the Philco on top of the refrigerator or the one my grandfather had above his workbench (the one he used to listen to ballgames from another time zone) was how those tubes hummed when the radio was turned on and the tubes heated up. Aside from the usual static and other pops and crackles, that humming sound always seemed so warm and glowing.

Years later, when I was a roadying for The Jerks, a band from the Illinois Valley (two of the band’s founding members, Dick Verucchi and Alan Thacker had been in another popular Illinois Valley band Buckacre before forming The Jerks in 1979) the band used these vintage Marshall and Peavey amplifiers which were powered by various vacuum tubes. The sound from those amps was always so full-bodied with deep, rich resonating, reverberating, and resounding tones.

And that’s how I ended up thinking about and waxing nostalgic about tubes today.

You know, life might be simpler in this digital, semi-conductor, micro-chip age but it would be nice to have some of those old tubes around again and make life less cold and antiseptic. Just as much as I miss listening to some of my favorite songs on vinyl, I miss hear the humming of an amplifier or a radio. Hopefully, one day I will be able to hear those warm, comforting sounds again.