Relief may be in sight for Nashville’s amp makers after ‘worldwide panic’ wipes out supply of vacuum tubes

There are only two factories in the world that make vacuum tubes for guitar amps. None of them are in America — but that may be about to change.

Cobi Boykin works at Western Electric, a factory near the Tennessee-Georgia border. They make a different type of vacuum tube, but he says the company plans to revamp their production of guitar amp tubes.

“People want to see a return to quality and availability,” Boykin says. “And the Made in America thing is very, very important as well to these people. They’re tired of relying on some other cheaper made tubes.”

Boykin says after the Russian factory had to stop shipping, musicians and amp makers started reaching out to Western Electric, encouraging them to bring production of these sought-after tubes to U.S. soil.

It may take about a year to get up and running.

In the meantime, the owner of the Russian tube factory says they were given approval by the Russian government to start shipping again, with tubes slated to be delivered to the U.S. sometime next week.