Do you remember those TV tube testers in drug stores?

Sawfish

Sawfish

Member
Location
The bottom of the sea.
My family indulged me in this, I think. I used to like to dive into things--motors, appliances, etc. When I discovered those tube testers at Thrifty Drugs, I pulled ours out and tested them way, way, way too often.
 

As a musician who has played electric guitar since the 60's, I have tested many a "tube" on those testers. Amplifiers were made with tubes back then, not the solid state kind they became. Once your amp started sounding odd, or it just stopped working it was get to a tube tester, and when they were bad it was such a joy to buy a new one. Back then they could be quite expensive for a teenager. :)
 
Oh, yes. TV would start to act up and it was time to head for Teeter's Drug Store to test the tubes.

Remember when your dad would have to get up on the roof and adjust the antenna? He'd be yelling down "NOW IS IT OK?" and your mom would yell "NO, STILL FUZZY!" Dad: "HOW ABOUT NOW?" Mom: "STILL FUZZY!" Dad: <bad words>

Aluminum foil on the ends of the rabbit ears? Making sure the set was "warmed up" because Ed Sullivan was on in five minutes? Promptly at midnight there was the National Anthem and maybe a prayer and then nothing but the test pattern until the next morning? Three channels, one of which was always "snowy".
 
Last edited:
Oh yes, many times. On our old fifties set the verticle would start to roll and we couldn’t watch the picture. (I couldn’t Bob my head up and down fast enough to keep up with the picture)
After a few times of this, we knew exactly what tube was causing the problem, so we always had a spare on hand.
 
Sawfish said:
My family indulged me in this, I think. I used to like to dive into things--motors, appliances, etc. When I discovered those tube testers at Thrifty Drugs, I pulled ours out and tested them way, way, way too often.
Click to expand...
Yes, our Safeway had a similar tester. Once our TV went out, mom was worried about repair. So we tried the bulb tester, found two were dead. Bought two new tubes, I'm thinking $2-$4 each.

TV worked great afterward. Then we got rid of it and bought a color tv from Sears. And got ripped off. Bastards.
 
We had a TV repairman across the street named Chuck so my mother always called Chuck as did the neighbors. Later, when transistors took over and I worked in a place that manufactured them, Chuck asked if I could get hold of a certain type he used repairing TVs. I got him a dozen rejects from a scrap barrel the failed some tests but were still good for his use.
 
Alligatorob said:
Yep, a yellow fin ~150 lbs. I envy you, fishing here is impossible in winter, unless you are into ice fishing.
Click to expand...
Mighty fine sashimi.

My wife, being of Japanese descent, for every New Year's Day there's certain "lucky foods" to eat, and raw tuna and hamachi (amberjack) are some of them. This year we had bluefin and yellowfin side by side. Certainly individual batches vary, but damn, the yellowfin was better!!!
 
1950s, Manhattan a TV, repair shop, was nearby on Broadway, hung around the shop and learned a lot.

My start as an engineer!

Many tube testers, different types for the TV repairs guys vs, public.

I still have in my l;ab tube equipment, and both Hickock portable and a Triplett. Big heavy suitcases!

These go for big $ on epay nowadays.

A lot of tube aficionados test their tubes and match, for guitar amps and high-end hi-fi.

Just a walk down memory lane!

Jon
 

Attachments

  • TRIP.jpg
    TRIP.jpg
    133.2 KB · Views: 0
  • HICK0.jpg
    HICK0.jpg
    129.3 KB · Views: 0
I can remember those tube testers, and the TV repairman being a frequent visitor to the family house when I was a kid. I lived in fear of the repairman saying that he’d have to take the set “to the shop,” which meant no TV for the better part of a week… 😩
 
I remember my dad taking all the tubes out of our TV and I went along with him to a store called Western Auto and they had a tube tester and he let me plug them in and then showed me how to push the button to make the needle on the tester register "good" or "bad." On that particular day, all the tubes showed good and my dad said I must not have been doing it right, so he did it and got the same results. He said we were going to have to go buy a new TV. My dad had to watch his westerns on Sunday night.
 
"Tubes" are called "Valves" in the UK and there was a TV / electrical goods shop in town that had a valve tester. Our neighbour's son was a genius with electronics and fixed our TV on a number of occasions. I went on to study electrical & electronic engineering and supplemented my income by working at an musical instrument shop at the weekends. I changed plenty of valves in my time there, but transistors were taking over and I tested plenty of them too.
 
Yep, I remember them. Then we had transistor testers. Now we don't fix things anymore and throw them away!
 


Back
Top