Is This The Most Important Vacuum Tube Ever Made?

In September 1947, RCA registered a small glass tube with two amplifiers inside, the 12AX7. Three months later, Bell Labs demonstrated the transistor, the invention that would make vacuum tubes obsolete. Almost eighty years later, the 12AX7 is still being made by hand. This is the story of RCA's tube factories, the guitar amps of Leo Fender and Jim Marshall, the 1976 auction that ended RCA's tube business, a Soviet fighter jet full of tubes, a New York pedal company that ended up owning a tube factory in Russia, and the 2022 export ban that panicked guitar players around the world. Watch the 2N3055 story, another RCA part that's still made today: https://youtu.be/ojcTmYA_7-k?si=zgGY5PkuopJxBSco Have you ever swapped a 12AX7 in an amp? Did you hear a difference? Tell me in the comments. And if I got a date, a number or a name wrong, tell me there too. I read every comment and I pin corrections. Parts That Changed History tells the stories behind the chips, machines and parts that shaped the modern world, and the people who built them. Subscribe for a new story every day. #12AX7 #VacuumTube #ECC83 #RCA #TubeAmp #GuitarAmp #Electronics #ElectronicsHistory #Fender #Marshall #ElectroHarmonix #TechHistory #Documentary #PartsThatChangedHistory