Who makes the best octal sockets?

[JazzGuitarGimp]

Hi All,

In my recent build (still in the works), I bought five of these from CE Distribution: https://www.cedist.com/products/P-ST8-250MB

I've been playing the amp with just the clean channel preamp for a month or so. and took a chance at a gig. Two songs in BLAMO! It turns out two of the four 6V6's fried. As I was diagnosing the amp, I discovered one of the 6V6 sockets made audible noises when I gently rocked the tube in its socket. I'd like to think this is the cause of the failing tubes, but I can't say with any certainty.

But I have to wonder about sockets and their ability to keep tension over time (these sockets were new).

I _think_ I don't like ceramic sockets because ceramic is so hard that they tend to be microphonic (please correct me if I am wrong). So I bought plastic sockets for this build, thinking I would be better off. But it looks like I made a bad choice.

What octal sockets should I use - does anyone make a quality socket that stands the test of time?

Thanks,
Lou

[strelok]

Those look an awful lot like the sockets we used to use at the place I work at. We refer to them as the melty sockets due to the plastics tendency to melt and get loose rather soon after heat is applied to a lug. However we haven't ever had any problems with them shorting out. I'd put tubes back in the sockets that failed and use a pair of pliers to see if the pins are loose and might come close enough to cause an arc.

Ceramic seems unecessairy unless your using a tube that gets insanely hot like the 6336 or 6C33. Something we don't really ever have to worry about with guitar amps. I have used ceramic sockets in plenty of of power tube and preamp slots though and haven't had any problems with them. Certainly in the poweramp stages I can't see them being a problem with respect to microphonics. I'll see if I can find out who makes the sockets we use now. They're quite good and have four ground lugs on the rim of the tube. The only thing is you can't get too much solder on them or leave the heat on for too long or it will flow down into the pins and cause a plug...

[gktamps]

I've had good experiences with Belton. I had previously used Chinese-made ceramic sockets and had problems in two amps because of poor quality of those sockets, and had to rip 'em out; I replaced them with Beltons and have used them ever since for octal and noval.
Cheers,
Greg

[David Root]

+1 on the Belton Micalex octal sockets. I've used them for several years with no problems at all. Best price is at www.apexjr.com and Steve's are genuine--yes there are Chinese knockoffs on Ebay, be careful.

[cbass]

Those sockets suck I had a 9 pin one that was conductive it would put voltage on the grids now matter how much I cleaned and scraped it was still conductive. Beltons are good

[rp]

Only modern choices are Beltons and QQQ which seem as nice as anything from the glorious tube past. The Beltons are 30mm which is annoying. QQQ is 1 1/8" but in one direction they are a touch fat and you need to hit the knock out with a round file for a few seconds work - pretty annoying if you're building a 5C8 in a stainless steel chassis. Beats me, the Japanese are usually more on the ball - oh, yeh, there was that Fukushima thing...

I tried to buy some cheaper plastic ones from CE a couple years ago to save some money, ordering two dozen Beltons or QQQs is a bit of a hit, and I had to replace them straight away. Changing sockets is a royal PITA, scrimp somewhere else.

I've had better luck with the fork contacts like on McMurdos than the wrap around types, Belton is the fork. Ceramics aren't for me even old Cinch or Amphenol, too easy to break a key pin, and with the modern ones there's no way to tell which are the oddball ex-commie pin fitting or not till you get them. I've also had ceramics molded so bad the key pin would go in in any orientation - nice!

[David Root]

I tried the QQQ octal sockets and having to ream out eight holes was a PITA. Nice sockets but too much trouble to fit right.

[Structo]

What, no Teflon sockets?

[JazzGuitarGimp]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the advice. CE Distribution has the Belton's, but they didn't put "Belton" in the description, so I skipped right over them.

And yes, it's going to be a bear to replace five of these buggered sockets!

Thanks again,
Lou