Thought you guys would like this...

[Icetech]

Was just looking through ads, and found this kinda funny....

http://detroit.craigslist.org/msg/232823078.html

"I got these tubes some time ago from an original Leslie cabinet that hadent been used for many many years. I sold the leslie but managed to keep these for an amp setup that never happened. These test as NEW NOS."

I am having issues with this whole "NOS" thing.. mainly when its used by guys like this... he got the tubes from a leslie.. with no idea if it was ran 24/7 for 10 years before he got it.... then they TEST as new.... how do you test a tube to see if it has never been in something?

They need to change the N in NOS to Newish...

[Darkbluemurder]

I still have a pair of NOS GE 6V6s. Maybe I should sell them through Ebay? Seriously they sounded good in my Deluxe and good in my JTM 45 but I did not like them better than any current production tube. IMHO there is a lot of hype around NOS.

[tonelab2]

Never trust tube tester readings in the 'real' world.
I've owned and restored dozens of testers, spent many hours calibrating Avo's, Hickoks, TV2s ect. I usually resell on evilbay for a good profit.
Have yet to find a real need for a tester apart from sorting 'shorted,faulty' tubes. Most testers test a tube at way below 'real' voltages, ex. hickoks between 100-150v.
I have a pair of old EL34s that have many 1000s of hours on them, sound passable, pulled from amp during service. Guess what, they test at 95% on some of my testers. I know they've had the guts played out of them and I wouldn't consider reinstalling in an amp but keep them as an example to others. There's only one real test for a tube, having it's 'guts pumped on a gig'. That shows faults better than any tester. So when they say 'tests NOS on my tester' they mean,
NOS= Not Original cond. Stupid..... NOS=No Original Sound.....
NOS= New Online Scam....... Or in this case, NOS= Just bought new set that sound much better than these Nauseating Old toneSuckers which I'll sell to you for 10x what I paid.

[Normster]

NOS= Just bought new set that sound much better than these

[Noel Grassy]

Thanks for this! I just saw one ad for a "NOS" quad of MUllard EL-34's that the seller tested.Three were hovering at 35% over the passable rating and one had a short. These had a starting bid of $300 bux or something equally absurd. Sometimes I'm tempted to ask them WTF! I won't even get started on the friggen "mint" condition thing folks selling instruments and amps blithely use.