[Olorin67]

The hickocks are nice, but expensive. mutual conductance is nice, but not essential, if youre mainly trying to find shorts and determine if tubes are tired or still have good life left. The Eico testers are better then the cheap emissions testers, and generally affordable, and will get you by until you can score a deal on a better one. I used a model 667 for years before i found a Hickock 600 in an antique store for 40. And another (model 6000)i got from a coworkers uncles estate. another one I like is the Jackson 658, but they seem uncommon. I found one at a surplus dealer for $10. Other overlooked units are the better heathkits, which are true mutual conductance. An emissions tester wont catch all tube issues, but the money you save could be used for a stock of known good tubes to test by substitution, which is more reliable than any tube tester anyway.