Vacuum Tube Shortage

While no one seems to want to comment on the industry we think it's important to be transparent and set expectations.

As many of you already know, New Sensor / Electro-Harmonix recently announced that their Russian made tubes can no longer be exported. As the largest manufacturer of tubes in the world it means times are a changing. There is a strong demand for tubes and we expect to see new factories popping up and hope that New Sensor will eventually resume operations.

In the meantime we are left with JJ of Slovakia, Psvane of China and Linlai of China. Unfortunately there was already a shortage from the after effects of covid and also from Shuguang temporarily shutting down years ago. Shuguang plans to come back within the next few years and I can't see better motivation for them to step it up. We expect extreme shortages among these brands and are already seeing it.

Psvane is a relatively new and small company so they remain fairly unknown. They were once the flagship brand of Shuguang. However, today's Psvane is not the Psvane of days past. They spun off from Shuguang some years ago and are a separate company. When that happened quality skyrocketed and they started producing more types of tubes. We are encourage you to give them a shot. Doing so will also help ease demand on the other brands which helps everyone. Psvane makes great sounding and reliable tubes. So reliable in fact that we offer a 1 year warranty on them which is better than any other new production tube brand ever. 

Linlai is yet another spinoff, this time from Psvane. They have a very limited selection of tubes and have only been around for a few years. However, the tubes that they do make are top notch and unique such as a Globe style 6SN7. We will be brining them in very soon as well.

We have been working tirelessly day and night to do whatever we can to keep the more popular tubes such as 12AX7, KT88, EL34 and 6L6GC stocked in at least one brand/model.

Despite all of this we ask that our customers respect our order limits. Panic buying is a contributing factor to the shortage.

Certainly tough times are ahead for the industry but demand like this breeds opportunity. Opportunity which we are wading through. I do not see the industry drying up and in fact, I believe we will come out of this on the other side with even better options than previously available. 

Hang in there for now. We aren't going anywhere and hope to continue serving our customers for many years to come. 

Dave Mell

Founder

VIVA TUBES