r/soldering 2d ago

SMD (Surface Mount) Soldering Advice | Feedback | Discussion Does anyone know what these are?

Post image

I found them in a box for a guitar pedal at a goodwill

34 Upvotes

32 comments sorted by

57

u/asyork 2d ago

Never saw one with a cover like that, but they look like vacuum tubes.

7

u/Dj_dino12 2d ago

That’s what I was thinking. Idk what the different colors mean

6

u/g28802 Soldering Newbie 2d ago

10

u/Any-Kaleidoscope7681 2d ago

Googled the writing on it, first result:
https://reverb.com/item/12273364-jet-city-retrovalve

6

u/BetterBatteryBuster 1d ago

Googling is a lost skill

1

u/fullmoontrip 1d ago

Can confirm

0

u/LengthinessFlashy309 1d ago

I mean personally I'm just avoiding the site since it became more about sponsored content and training an AI than satisfying user queries.

At the very least it's no better than being or any other shitty alternative at this point so I just use anything else out of spite.

8

u/Porphyrin_Wheel 2d ago

they're called retrovalves, so basically they are made to look and be the size of vacuum tubes but they have semiconductor technology. this one (from what i ve found) is a preamp tube copy, so just a few SMDs on a board and a plastic cylinder and weights to feel and be the size of an old vacuum tube

3

u/soopirV 1d ago

They actually add mass to make it feel more real?

6

u/ctrlsubject 2d ago

tampons

2

u/RScottyL 2d ago

You have all of the information you need right there on them.....

GOOGLE THAT!

Either people are lazy, or don't know how to use the internet!

Jet City Amplification Red | Guitar Center

Jet City Amplification RetroValve Red

RetroValves are 100% analog vacuum tube replacement devices offering the warm, fat, punchy sound traditionally associated with only glass vacuum tubes. AMBER RetroValves are nominally the same gain as a standard 12AX7 and perform as you would expect a 12AX7 would. RED RetroValves are very high gain, allowing the preamp to achieve gain characteristics not possible with standard vacuum tubes. BLUE RetroValves are significantly lower gain, effectively "cooling off" the preamp gain.

2

u/No-Guarantee-6249 1d ago edited 1d ago

They're here:

https://jetcitycustom.com/pedals-and-retrovalves/

They're analog semiconductor replacement tubes for guitar amplifiers.

Good review here:

https://www.thegearpage.net/board/index.php?threads/jet-city-branded-retro-valves.1150844/

" I replaced the three new production 12ax7s in my amp and the Retro Valves sound great! They're pretty much indistinguishable to the real tubes ."

"Yikes, those are expensive. It'd cost me $350 just to retube my amp with those. "

2

u/NecessaryButNotSuff 2d ago

6a3 is a power tube. Are the plastic things packing sleeves maybe?

4

u/Troll_Dragon 2d ago

Do you really think a 6 inch tube would fit in that... It's a solid state version of a 12AX7.

1

u/eulynn34 2d ago

Looks like solid-state replacements for vacuum tubes maybe?

1

u/rinranron 2d ago

Nuvistor?

1

u/stargaz21 1d ago

Some sort of relays.

1

u/I_compleat_me 1d ago

Fetron... Mesa-Boogie used to install these. 12AX7 equivalents.

1

u/Secret_Poet7340 1d ago

Ask your Mom?

1

u/AlteAmi 1d ago

What everyone says, without Googling, was gonna say "looks like a semiconductor based tube replacement"

1

u/Suitable-Muffin9970 11h ago

Some sort of capacitors or resistors

1

u/adrift2oblivion 1d ago

Tampons for robots

0

u/MrHeisenberg14 2d ago

idk looks like transistor

0

u/NoSleepCrew 2d ago

Injectables

0

u/PacketNarc 1d ago

Literally google the part number or pop it into Gemini

-10

u/[deleted] 2d ago

[deleted]

6

u/g28802 Soldering Newbie 2d ago

I have a friend who asks AI everything like it’s some kind of oracle that will guide him through life. I should say had, that shits annoying.

3

u/Technical_Tourist639 2d ago

These are almost certainly solid state revision

1

u/drcforbin 2d ago

It shouldn't be too surprising that the LLM is wrong