Quote:
Originally Posted by tvdude1
Tube are missing in one set. Want to buy a new set of tubes which will be kind of cheap because uses lots of metal tubes. What brand would have Andrea used in these sets so it will look right
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What leads you to the deduction that (I guess you mean) Andrea uses lots of metal tubes? Just by reading the other posts in this thread I am going to guess that since Andrea used several suppliers, one being RCA Victor, that you have seen pictures showing the metal envelope tubes that RCA was producing in the years around those date codes.
I used to have a great Life magazine article from I think the early 40s on some of the state of the art designs going on in electronics and metal envelope tubes were explained as far as why they were ever made. I want to say that military purposes played a really big part in it all. It makes sense as metal would definitely be more rugged for field use taking WAY more punishment. Same goes for Philco's loctal base tubes. Again, the military and the need for tubes that could be mounted any way needed without gravity and vibration being factors working against their remaining securely plugged in, They can indeed be tricky to pull out; that's for sure.
Anyway, I would say that wartime production caused surpluses of metal tubes to hold strong numbers for many years after they stopped making them. I will take a leap and say that it really wont matter whether you use glass or metal from the standpoint of the correct look. You said something about them being kind of cheap, so I guess you mean that you want to keep your costs down. If that is the case, I would think that you will want to go with standard glass envelope tubes as they are going to be more plentiful and much easier to locate the entire compliment needed for your set.
This is an interesting topic that I have never seen discussed before. Glad you brought it up; and good luck getting the set going.