[R-390] General R390 Help

[Bill Hawkins]

Lee,

You do not need a tune tester. The R-390 was the finest tube
tester ever made. If it doesn't work in an R-390, it won't work
anywhere.

Now, you might want to measure filament continuity, because the
390 has series heaters. And you might want to measure shorts,
but they are rare. Far better to do stage by stage gain checks,
per the manual. A manual will not cost you anywhere near as much
as a TV-2. Tube tester prices have been driven sky-high by the
audiophools, who wouldn't know a bad tube from a good tube, unless
some marketing vapor-head told them so.

Why would you ever want one of those cheapened 390A sets when you
have the ultimate in vacuum tube technology - the R-390?

Yes, module cables are useful for service, but I haven't needed
one in ten years of watching my R-390 class sets grow older.

I also wish you well for the Easter, and for the next one and the next
one and the next one and so on, as long as the Moon circles the Earth.
(Although Easter will die with the last human being, about two doublings
of population from now.)

Cheers,
Bill Hawkins