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Groove Tubes factory closes

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Dave W:
Somehow I missed this one -- Fender bought out Groove Tubes in June. They've now moved all operations to Fender facilities, and last week the factory and warehouse in San Fernando held a liquidation sale. Here's the story.

I don't think they manufactured much there anymore. AFAIK most of their tubes are Chinese, they were tested and matched in California.

Psycho Bass Guy:
Groove Tubes NEVER made tubes, regardless of what they may have claimed through implication. All this amounts to is a sell off of matching equipment and inventory.

rahock:

--- Quote from: Psycho Bass Guy on November 19, 2008, 01:45:27 PM ---Groove Tubes NEVER made tubes, regardless of what they may have claimed through implication. All this amounts to is a sell off of matching equipment and inventory.

--- End quote ---

This is what I have heard from many sources over the years. I just didn't want to be the one who said it, because everytime I open my mouth about this, someone gets all pissed off about it. So, thanks Psycho Bass Guy, now they can get pissed off at both of us ;D

Rick

Dave W:
Yeah, that's what I've heard for years. If they were actually producing vaccum tubes from raw material  in-house, with American labor costs and California pollution control costs, their tubes would be a lot more expensive.

Still, you can't brand something as assembled in USA unless it is. If they were deceiving anyone, you would think the FTC would have caught them long ago.

Psycho Bass Guy:

--- Quote from: Dave W on November 19, 2008, 04:45:25 PM ---If they were actually producing vaccum tubes from raw material  in-house, with American labor costs and California pollution control costs, their tubes would be a lot more expensive.
--- End quote ---

Tube manufacture is nowhere near the level of toxicity to the environment that transistor manufacture is, and the world's largest transistor manufacturers are in California. Tube-making being environmentally disastrous is just another oft-repeated myth.


--- Quote ---Still, you can't brand something as assembled in USA unless it is.
--- End quote ---

They never claimed the tubes were assembled in the US, just that the company was out of Slymar, CA. Most people mistook that for a US-made claim, and they never corrected it on purpose, even going so far as to claim their last line of Chinese 6L6's and 6CA7's were "over 90% US content" because they bought the plate material from Richardson Electronics' liquidation of the old GE/Ken-Rad plant in Owensboro, KY, never mentioning the tubes were actually made in China.


--- Quote --- If they were deceiving anyone, you would think the FTC would have caught them long ago.

--- End quote ---

What they did was not exactly legal, but they're so small potatoes that the FTC didn't care.

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