by Shannon Parks » Thu Jan 10, 2013 7:21 pm
I've always really liked the Chinese ceramic 9-pins with the 23/32" tops (3/4" hole). But when I mated them with a modern Chinese tube shield, I had a hard time inserting fatter 9-pin tubes, namely the EH 6922. I've had three die because of this difficulty. I then switched to the Beltron micalex since their 'bevel' looks exactly like old stock phenolic sockets, whereas the ceramic sockets don't have as much of a flare. That helped a lot, but ultimately, I soured on the continued difficulty of fat tubes with the modern shield. So I've ditched using shields and have gone back to the standard 23/32" Chinese ceramic. Not a problem w/o the shield - I think - since I'm not making guitar amps.
Shannon