We’re going to go through a period of panic, hoarding, and price gouging on power tubes. We’ll probably have to wait a while to see how things look after the dust settles. Personally I won’t be running my Apollo Darks on a "hot" bias setting anymore lol. They’re actually pretty easy on tubes at the normal setting, but of course they use a dozen KT120 at a time :( My VAC 200iQs use an octet, but actually seem to eat through those side getters faster than the Rogues do.
For those who didn’t see the news today, Russia announced a retaliatory export ban on goods including all the New Sensor tubes. It’s set to last until end of 2022, but of course no guarantees things will go back to normal after that. China and JJ tube production is also still a big question mark at this point, for different reasons.
This is a big moment in our hobby. And not a good one :(
Will people panic and ditch their tube amps? The issue is owning an expensive amp with power tubes that are increasingly hard to replace. Maybe that makes for some good opportunities to buy. And how much will this hurt our boutique tube amp makers? If they have a large tube stash, they may have to provide tube replacement guarantees in order to convince wary new buyers.