beginners tube tester direction needed


the tubes are mounting up and the need for a tester is in the future.
please suggest a unit that will cover a variety of tubes and be a "dick and jane" user friendly tester. kurt
rcreations
Depending on how far you want to go, you probably can't go too wrong with B&K 700 or 747. A high end model would be Hickok 539B or C or other 5XX-series.

Make a note you must have the lookup table/manual otherwise the tester is essentially useless. However, it is normally not difficult to obtain a carbon copy.

However, none of those vintages can test the more recent tubes such the TV horizontal tubes and those Russian tubes that became more popular these days. Meanwhile, they don't test the single ended tubes such as the 300B, 211, 845, 2A3, and etc...

However, if you just want to test those 12AX7, EL34, KT88... these work horse will do an adequate job as long as they are properly calibrated.