Tube equipment questions for Steve or Sckott

[Ian]

Hopefully either one of you guys could help me with this one.
I have a Pacemaker 2221 B integrated amp and matching 2222 tuner that I would guess are around 40 years old.
The amp has a tube compliment of (from left to right):
1) 6CA4
4) 6V6GT (2 Sylvania's and 2 RCA's)
1) 12AU7
4) 12AX7 (1 Philips, 1 Telefunken and 2 Sylvania's)
This puppy hasn't been retubed in almost 30 years (my guess) and it's been handed down from my Brother, who bought it in '77 for $30 bucks.
I read in another post where the Telefunken 12AX7 is THE tube for stereo gear (also does well in a Marshall), I had a tube catalogue a few years ago that said that the Sovtek 12AX7WXT+ was a knock off of the Telefunken.
What brands would work well for the others? RCA? Sylvania? GE? Mullard? Tung Sol?
It also has a Mallory FP 376.8 electrolytic capacitor free floating in the chassis. Never seen a cap quite like that (then again the only tube eguipment I've ripped into are my Marshall and Fender amps and that was only a DIY bias).
The workmanship is rather cheap and a little on the shoddy side with tube sockets and transformers riveted to the chassis rather than bolted. Also the various ceramic disc caps and resistors are soldered to the sockets themselves :eek: . Other than needing the socket reseated this unit doesn't sound half bad as it is but obviously would benifit from a retube. The output is listed on the back panel as "20 watts". I'm unsure whether it's per channel or combined where it doesn't specify.

The tuner (aka the continental drifter) has a tube compliment of:
1) 6AQ8
1) 6AB4
2) 6AU6
1) 6AL5
2) 6AV6
1) 6BA6
1) 6BE6
1) EZ30/6V4 rectifier (replaced by a diode)
What would be the best tube brands for those models? It also has the same construction quality. Also has a CDE 200 MFD electrolytic cap (never heard of the brand). Any modern equivelent?
They are made by "Bell Sound Division" (Bell Labs perhaps?)
Where would be the best parts source for these pups. Also would like to find the schematics for them.
The big question, though, is: Would it be worth it to fix these two up?

Your thoughts?

Thank you very much.

[Sckott]

Like anything else, one has to leave a bit of a line of where one will pay and get his money worth, or when it seems like a money pit. This seems like the latter.

Some of those tubes mentioned (especially the tuner) are kinda hard to find occasionally. You could easilly dump $150 for each of those units in tubes, and we haven't even mentioned if the cans or trannys are okay, as we know you won't charge yourself very much for resoldering and rewiring. Now, on tubes, I'm talking about some NOS *IF* someone has many of the 6-types available. The 12AX7's are somewhat hard to find, and replacing them are sorta expensive. Even if you went with Russian equivls, I could safely say that your $300 could go better against a Dynaco in worse shape, or even some MAcs and Scotts. Most of the electronics should be ok, since 90% of all fix-its I've done are crappy tube here, ****** tube there. But I'll add and say some caps are very hard to find for vintage equipment, which is why a lot of the Dynaco stuff, if you had to fix, will only take complete "mod" boards to facilitate cap and can replacements, for instance. They can be expensive unless you know your electronics well, and have sources in your own tool box. Hunting and grabbing on the net is expensive, and nickels and dimes can make you rich or poor.

You *do* have better things to do AND then to spend $300 into a pair of units that potentially may need more work than they seem. I say back off. You can bank sometimes less money into a ST70, then get a cheap SS tuner to compliment stereo and better station pull in. That Knight I have isn't a peach with grabbing stations in FM. You can find most SS tuners for cheap under $40 on Ebay with almost no competition.

You're better off pulling the tubes and moving on....I'm assuming you say they work, so Let It Be.... But I'd pull tubes from it, caps, tranys....I'd gut it like a fish....But that's just me.

[ October 29, 2001: Message edited by: Sckott ]