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Murph

By Murph
in The Gibson Lounge


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Murph

Murph

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As long as they are not Chinese. Nothing against the Chinese people. It's their corrupt' date=' regional governments and sub standard sweat shop manufacturing that I'll never get behind. [/quote']

 

Yea, I'm against Commies and Socialism, too.......

 

[biggrin]

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Thundergod

Thundergod

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Posted

I was talking to a guy who is probably the best player in the whole country and knows a lot about a lot of giutar stuff yesterday and he told me all tubes are made in russia by sovtek, and that all brands are actually sovteks disguised as EH, GT, JJ or whatever. He also said there was no such thing as an amp that didn't need to be rebiased when changing tubes.

 

He is a pothead. FACT.

I own an amp that doesn't need to be rebiased. FACT.

I think he was full of it when he said all tubes are made by the same brand at the same factory. WILD GUESS.

His bite might not be as strong as his bark.

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doublecutjr

doublecutjr

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Some pretty good tubes come out of Yugoslavia, Ei, actually a part of the Philips Co. I have a set of 12AX7A that is use now and then in my pre amp ENGL, they are pretty good although I have to say that they are a tad weaker than the JJ's which I really like a lot. I know I read some stuff here on Chinese tubes but I have a few sets of older 12AX7A's from the 80's and they are really hot........... don't know how their newer ones are though. My favorite of all time is the Mullard from the Blackburn Factory. Obviously destroyed in WWII if I remember correctly. I was lucky enough to get a set many years ago for my Marshall MK II 50 w and they are superb. I recently bought a set of Mesa tubes with the rubber shock absorber on the tip. Have not tried them yet but this is a good reminder to try em.

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cwness

cwness

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Ya you got me there Duane. I went back looked to see what I read and

It stated there are a lot of tubes made there now, it didn't say all. Boy

I didn't remember that to well. I stand corrected. Thank you gentlemen.

 

Edit: Duane is wrong there are no tubes made in the US due to the EPA.

 

CW

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cdntac

cdntac

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GT has Russian, Slovakian and Chinese tubes. They list where they are from on their products page (I was looking at their power tubes).

 

I recently put a quad-matched set of Groove Tubes (rated 6) in my Peavey Classic 50.

 

Love the sound of them! Great crunch with clarity!

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L5Larry

L5Larry

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The last time I went through this discussion (many years ago), with people in the know, such as Aspen Pittman, owner of Groove Tubes, there were currently NO American tube manufacturers. The machinery and stuff from the original GE plant does survive somewhere, and I have heard a rumor that Groove Tubes has acquired and setup the machinery. IF that machinery is now in the hands of Groove Tubes and making tubes again, my hat's off to Aspen Pittman, and I would strongly recommend everyone buy new Groove Tubes.

 

The reason that Soviet block countries, and China, still have tube manufacturing facilities, is that their technology never evolved past tubes during the cold war years. All tubes today, regardless of what name they have printed on the bottle, come from one of less than a half dozen manufacturing plants in the world. Let's face it folk, guitar amps (and other "audiophile equipment) are the ONLY market for vacuum tubes any more. In the late eighties/early nineties I was afraid that ther might cease to be ANY supplier of tubes for amps.

 

Gibson, Fender, Mesa, or any other tube amp makers NEVER made tubes, even though the tubes in their amps may have had their name on them. They buy tubes from the same manufacturers as everyone else and have their name printed on them.

 

As for the Russians. There are TWO Russian tube plants, Sovtek AND Svetlana. The quality and sound of the tubes from these two plants is similar to Epiphone and Gibson respectively. The Yugoslavian plant's brand was Tesla, great tubes, but it is my understanding that this plant was bombed years ago during the military destuction of Yugoslavia. The facilities of the American tube manufacturers such as Sylvania and RCA are long gone. The British made tubes were branded Mullard, and still sought after today for the "KT"'s.

 

Groove Tubes got their start re-branding tubes from overseas manufacturers, and made no secret about it. They purchased bulk tubes from foreign makers and then tested them for quality control. The ones that passed the testing were branded "GT" and given two rating numbers for comparison and matching. I had my amps biased for GT S-7 tubes, and buy tubes with that rating when I retube, with no need to have the bias adjusted, that's why they rated them. As for the Chinese tubes, GT ALWAYS put "C" on the end of these tubes.

 

Tube origin can also (somewhat) be determined by the designation. There are three different number designations for any single tube specification, American, Military, and European. The preamp tube we're all familiar with and know as a 12AX7, had the military designation of 7025, and the European code of ECC83. The 6L6 power tube we know was a 5881 to the military and a KT66 in Europe.

 

A good reference for infomation on tubes, and tube amps, is Aspen Pittman's book "The Tube Amp Book".

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80LPC

80LPC

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Let's face it folk' date=' guitar amps (and other "audiophile equipment) are the ONLY market for vacuum tubes any more. [/quote']

 

Don't forget Satellite transponders - all those GPS gadgets depend on vacuum tubes [-(

 

Also, radar and high powered radio and TV transmitters.

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Thundergod

Thundergod

Posted
Posted

Larry, thanks a lot for taking the time to write that post. It explained a lot, I am sort of a tube-ignorant and hate it when people talk about stuff like they do know about it just because they are counting on the audience's ignorance (like the guy I mentioned). Now I know for sure he was full of it.

 

Your post made most of it clear, I'll check the book you recomended.

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RichCI

RichCI

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Groove tubes are made in the USA

 

No they're not. EPA regulations make it almost impossible to make tubes in the US for mass consumption. Groove Tubes does not build tubes, they buy them, sort them and rate them. They're like a screener which is a service worth paying for.

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