In March, the United States imposed economic sanctions on Russian companies and oligarchs to punish the country for invading Ukraine. Russia then responded with sanctions of its own. As the war between Russia and Ukraine continues, those sanctions have had an unintended outcome for musicians.
There is now a shortage of vacuum tubes used in high quality audio amplifiers because one of the two factories that produce the tubes is in Russia. WPLN’s Paige Pfleger recently reported on the “worldwide tube panic,” and she joined This Is Nashville host Khalil Ekulona to discuss what’s next for guitar players in search of clean sound.