getting started

When I was starting to learn about electronics, finding good introductory tube circuit material was no small task itself. There were plenty of old EE texts but that's a tough place to start if advanced math is not you idea of a relaxing Saturday morning. There were also a smattering of "guru" sorts of books but they were more collections of tips and trivia than solid technical introductions. Nowadays tube info on the web is so ubiquitous that the veteran RCA Tube Manual seems awkward and incomplete and many of the old gurus serve as punching bags for website FAQ's. Actually learning the ropes isn't all that much easier though. First there's sorting out the bogus information. That's a bit of catch 22. You need a certain level of understanding to work through it and if you have that understanding then chances are you already have that information. Then there's struggling with the fundamentals of electronics and the peculiarities of vacuum tubes. That's a study that never ends but it can be particularly difficult to get rolling. This blog'll be sort of an offhand collection of work that passes over my bench along with bits of "tube amp basics" for people trying to get through the fundamentals and onto the fun stuff. Hope you enjoy it.