A new power tube alternative

[PinkMohawk]

Some of you may remember Verellen Amplifiers, the guy who made the Meatsmoke, and other such good and tasty valve amps. Well, seems like he's not been idle since shuttering Verellen Amps and has formed Verellen Devices, which just popped up on my Instagram feed with this post: 

 

Quote

Introducing a creation called Octal by new company, Verellen Devices.

For the last two years I’ve been banging my head against this idea partnered with some heavyweight electrical engineers.

Octal is a reliable and readily available alternative to the power vacuum tube, delivering a cleaner tone and a boost to the available output power of your tube amplifier.

Please see website link in bio for more info and to sign up to be amongst the first to try out this technology.

Patent pending. All rights reserved. Suckers get served. 👊💥

 

Given his past work, I'm inclined to think this might actually be quite an interesting item, at least for those of us who are still running valve heads and feeling the sting of the constantly shrinking availability of said valves. 

[VTypeV4]

Very interesting..

[Dood]

I remember solid-state plug-and-play valve alternatives advertised in guitar magazines back in the 80's. For the life of me I can't remember the brands behind them. BK Butler, or Seymour Duncan or someone! I wonder if this new product is a variation like those by AMZ or Soundsmith? 

 

**EDIT - Yellow Jackets! Such as a 6L6 / EL34 alternative, my brain cell came up with the goods today!

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

Those are tube conversion sockets, allowing the use of a tube other than the original. https://www.tubedepot.com/t/other-stuff/yellow-jackets?srsltid=AfmBOorm7EPnxQenwo22TciGXI6p0wev-H5TymKMmUU23zzT-vgP2Z51

 

I vaguely recall a SS tube replacement existed back in the day, but if it had been successful it would still exist. There was a big scramble for a SS tube replacement when most tube sources went out of business in the 70s-80s. Nothing much ever came of it.

[Dood]

1 minute ago, Bill Fitzmaurice said:

Those are tube conversion sockets, allowing the use of a tube other than the original. https://www.tubedepot.com/t/other-stuff/yellow-jackets?srsltid=AfmBOorm7EPnxQenwo22TciGXI6p0wev-H5TymKMmUU23zzT-vgP2Z51

 

I vaguely recall a SS tube replacement existed back in the day, but if it had been successful it would still exist. There was a big scramble for a SS tube replacement when most tube sources went out of business in the 70s-80s. Nothing much ever came of it.

 

Ok, cool, mistaken I am, there was as you say, definitely a "tube replacement" or two out there for the guitar market though. It willl come to me.. in time! I don't have the old pile of magazines to refer to anymore. ha ha!

Brands like Sovtek and the like did dabble with creating SS tubes for drop in replacements maybe for milspec/health devices, but I suspect as the cost of manufacure of solidstate hardware in general came down, there was little point in pursuing them.

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

Here's the deal on Sovtek and Chinese tubes: In the West military devices, like radar and communications, converted to SS early on, being much lighter than those powered by tubes. The USSR didn't have the SS tech that the West did, so they stayed with tubes much longer. Tubes also had the advantage of being immune to electromagnetic pulse, which fries SS devices. That was a concern during the Cold War. Without the demand for tubes for the military and civilian devices other than musical instrument amps, and because making tubes is environmentally a problem, Western tube sources disappeared. Since Soviet gear still used them, and they didn't care about environmental issues, tube suppliers in the Soviet bloc remained. Musical instrument amps remain as the #1 users of tubes, most of which still come from Russia, China and Slovakia. Those that are still made in the West are much more expensive, as their manufacturers have to adhere to environmental regulations that pretty much don't exist in Russia et al.

[Hellzero]

I think you are talking about the rectifier tube that could be replaced by a diodes bridge put in a plug-in device.

 

 

 

There is one of the brand you mentioned @Dood .

Edited 4 hours ago by Hellzero

[stevie]

The Seymour Duncan Convertible combo had the option of a solid state or tube rectifier, which may be what you remember, @Dood

[Hellzero]

Just like some Mesa Boogie's, called Dual Rectifier for a reason. 😉

[Dood]

31 minutes ago, stevie said:

The Seymour Duncan Convertible combo had the option of a solid state or tube rectifier, which may be what you remember, @Dood

 

I do remember that one too yes!

[Beedster]

An idea that seems all too obvious after someone else has had it  

 

But very interesting 👍

[Dan Dare]

Is this a one-size-fits-all device? If so, I don't see how it can work. Valves need varying voltages, circuits, biasing, etc. You can't usually just substitute one type for another.