I just received a set of Takatsuki 300B tubes I bought in case there was an increase in price. $1K is plenty per tube. I read the instructions prior to swapping them in to make sure they worked. The instructions specifically say and show they should be handled with white gloves.
On the other hand, they are tubes made in Japan. I lived there for a long time. As a people, they are incredibly fastidious and formal. I mean, the cab drivers wear white gloves. I am sure the idea of seeing a fingerprint on the tube would be considered horrible. So, it may more a cultural comment than strictly necessary for the life of the tube. But I wear white gloves when I handle them.
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I always touch the tubes using a soft clean tissue.
Even while powering on and off the gear, if there is a clean tissue at hand I prefer to use it.
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Me I will wear finger condoms.
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I was at SWAF And was in the ARC room. I noticed those guys weren’t using gloves and ask one of them about it. He said it was unnecessary and I would say those guys are experts
+1, @limomangus , I think that's a safe bet.
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They say it's the oil on your fingers.But years ago they sold tube's for your tvs and radios in all the drug stores .There were no gloves...used then.
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I was at SWAF And was in the ARC room. I noticed those guys weren’t using gloves and ask one of them about it. He said it was unnecessary and I would say those guys are experts
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Handling anything with fingers always adds oil artifacts; why would you want oil on tubes, light bulbs, etc. Oil attracts dust......I no longer use tube gear, but when I did, I used latex medical gloves....I still use these gloves when I open gear to do my mods.
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Just a tip:
Don't use pliers...
Right--because vice-grips will work much better.
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Just a tip:
Don't use pliers...
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Some folks have more grease than others.
Excess grease was gold back when film photography was alive and well. Got a scratch on a prized negative? Just swipe a finger across your nose, and rub that nose grease into the scratch. Grease fills the void perfectly, and closely matches the refractive index of acetate - hence the white scratch lines disappear from your enlargement prints, like magic :) Of course if the scratch went through the emulsion side (showing as black lines in enlargements) you’re still screwed.
Nitrile gloves should be good for handling tubes. Nice grip. But I am totally against use of cotton gloves!
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Some folks have more grease than others. I always wear a glove, nitrile or cotton.
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I use nitrile gloves. They're thin so dexterity is maintained, they offer excellent grip which reduces the likelihood of being dropped. As an added benefit, no body oil gets on the tubes, so they stay clean longer.
I use vintage tubes almost exclusively, and they almost always need to be cleaned gently with a soft, lightly moistened towel.
When I'm ready to insert the tube into the socket, on go the nitrile gloves!!!
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I use a folded paper towel which is much easier find and quicker than searching for them and putting gloves on and off.
Mostly because the tubes are too hot to the touch.
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I never ever used to, and I kind of wondered whether I should, and then I read a blurbs by tube dealers that said it wasn't required so I felt vindicated . . . but then I bought a preamp from Cary and it came with a single glove that they recommended for handling tubes so I started to wonder again . . . but the glove is way too small so now I just keep some "lens wipes" that I use for cleaning my glasses and after I've finished handling the tubes if I think about it I wipe them down.
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@larryi Then the best thing to do is occasionally use a microfibre towel to dust and/or remove detris/oils on a tube, new and used. I'm just not into that and my custom listening room is filtered from most dust-maybe once annual cleaning.
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@wownflutter +1 same here, don't tube roll and just test tubes every few years.
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I wear nitrile medical grade gloves, powder free, good grip and no oil from fingers.
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I think back to my first tube amp and how naive and ignorant I was. I was afraid to touch them from the halogen era as well. I quickly gained confidence and have never used gloves. I still love my halogen pendant lights in the kitchen. I have a set of 3 that I installed in my old house and when I moved, I took them with me. I never turn them off and the OEM bulbs lasted about 13 years!
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I don’t use gloves but I touch the tubes once in their entire lifespan, when installing them I have no reason to I don’t much if any tube rolling so once they are in, that’s it
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I do not use gloves, but I do wipe the tubes off after installation before powering on.
enjoy the music
Michael.
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tube condoms 
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The only times I wear gloves is when it's wood (not mine....Lumber....) or the 10' pole I carry around Here. 😏
John Harvey Kellog....wade into this morass.... and there's a whole lot of it... ;)
Other times...heavy, oily, caustic... I'm fond of the skin on my digits, 'cuz they allow me to 'do other things'....
@hilde45 ....more 'lubricious', right? *L*
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Interesting responses. Thanks
I'll keep doing what I've done, which is mostly using cloth gloves. If I don't, I wipe them down with soft cotton cloth. I don't normally handle them when hot/warm but if I do, I have used the gloves. They don't seem to be terribly hot, certainly not like a halogen bulb which would cause severe burns, would even burn your cloth glove.
Thanks for all the input.
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I know a number of old timers who have used everything, including high power transmitter tubes that get very hot, to tungar tubes, and mercury vapor tubes, and they all handle the tubes without gloves. Tubes are nothing like halogen or metsl halide bulbs. These fail because their high heat carbonizes oils from skin to form a dark spot on the glass. That spot then absorbs light instead of letting the light pass through and that spot then heats up to a much higher temperature than the surrounding glass and this creates a weak spot that fails and causes the bulb to explodes. Also, the internal gas in these bulbs develop extreme pressure (it is not a vacuum). Even if a tube had a dark spot on it, it doesn’t emit enough light to heat up and fail. People write on tubes with marker pens to no ill effects.
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@faustuss ,
You are correct!
I’m totally disputing this. Since the ideal material for storing acids is glass, and highly corrosive hydrofluoric acid is about the only acid that etches glass, this is pegging my Poppycock meter to the point I had to unplug it and take an aspirin. Some manufactures literally acid etched their date codes on their tubes without stressing the integrity of the glass after decades. 🤔
They also store caustic acids in polyethylene, its not the end of the world and its not 400 degrees fahrenheit plus!
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Yep, literally just swapped tubes in my DAC 5 minutes ago. The ones supplied with my DAC have little sticky nylon or silicone dots for grip.
I would not used the white slippery ones that came with my TT though.
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I never used gloves, even when I removed my 3b22 rectifier tubes, which run hotter than most power tubes, and have a 6amp filament current. I sometimes leave them on 24/7 and have had no problems for over 6 years.
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@texasblues1959 ,
It's all right, they're baby aspirin. I'm Quite delicate...
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@thecarpathian I can see where it could be confusing. I am disagreeing that the oils in our skin would cause hot spots on the surface of a vacuum tube.
Easy on the aspirin they will burn a hole in your stomach.
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@texasblues1959 ,
I'm confused by your response, which is not unusual for me. Are you agreeing? Disagreeing? While you decide, I'm going to take another aspirin.
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@thecarpathian I do not think this is the case with Vacuum Tubes. This is very much so true when handling Halogen Light Bulbs as they run very hot and would could burn the oils deposited on the bulb from your hands. KT88 not so much.
I still am cautious and do wear gloves when rolling tubes.
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I’m sure someone is going to dispute this, live and learn!
@faustuss ,
You are correct!
I’m totally disputing this. Since the ideal material for storing acids is glass, and highly corrosive hydrofluoric acid is about the only acid that etches glass, this is pegging my Poppycock meter to the point I had to unplug it and take an aspirin. Some manufactures literally acid etched their date codes on their tubes without stressing the integrity of the glass after decades. 🤔
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Whoever first spread the rumor years ago that skin oil damages tubes was an absolute fool, but washing your hands before handling them is a good idea.
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Make sure they're cool and use cotton gloves, finger cots or surgical gloves. The acids from your skin on hot glass can over time etch the surface making it porous causing the tube to lose vacuum. I'm sure someone is going to dispute this, live and learn!
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@vuch I use special hand stitched, exotic leather, custom made
Would that be fine Corinthian leather?
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I use special hand stitched, exotic leather, custom made "Audiophile Hand Enclosures - Explicitly designed for handling vacuum tubes and touching high end audio gear." I got ’em from the emperor’s tailor.
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Bare hands give better grip, wipe clean with dry microfiber cloth after.
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Do you remove teeth first or leave them in your mouth?
Those tubes like a little bite along with the pressure, so I leave the teeth in.
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I believe it was John Harvey Kellogg.
@thecarpathian
Close, it was Roger Modjeski:
When asked to comment on the subject of NOS verses current production I demur. On cryo treatments I chuckle and on the white gloves I say. "Skip the silly gloves, these are not quartz lamps, just wash the peanut butter off your hands first, that gets kinda messy." BTW, Who started this silly notion that you can’t touch the glass?
https://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=58144.msg519785#msg519785
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@mclinnguy ,
I believe it was John Harvey Kellogg.
Yeah, no matter how you pop tubes in and out, be careful of smearing the printing.
I grab it at the top, gentle wiggle back and forth, then pull it up by the bottom.
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If you wear gloves your fingerprints can't be found and you have plausible deniability.
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Who was it who said:
"You can use your bare fingers to handle tubes, just make sure you wipe off the peanut butter first."
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Used to. Not so much any more. The reason it was recommended years ago was a myth.
As for the oils on your fingers, the oil won't in soak, penetrate, through the glass envelope of the tube, therein the myth, But it will smear the fragile labeling, printing on old vacuum tubes. Especially those made in the 1950s and 1960s.
When handling old tubes I am very careful to not touch the printing on the tubes with my fingers. Even wearing gloves. Any accidental wiping on the fragile printing can destroy the printing. YMMV.
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