ORIG OR JAFAKES

Psssttt, text mo ako kung may bugle boy ha... mweheheheh

Sus! Pa beythday mo na lang sa akin yun.... hehehe

AMPEREX 12AX7
Amperex tubes were originally produced in Holland (The Netherlands) and are very high quality tubes. Many prefer these to the Telefunken and are probably the second most sought after brand of 12AX7. There are many versions of this tube. The earliest versions from the 1950's have a "treble clef" logo or just the name Amperex (looks like the lettering above).. 1960's versions have the famous "bugleboy" logo. 1970's versions have the "world" logo in orange printing. All sound very good and will last a long time. Be careful of the orange printed ones. Some of them say "Made in Holland" and in fact are Japanese. The easisest way to tell the difference is to look at the side of the plate in the center. There will be a half circular hole on one side of the plate and not on the other if the tube was made in Holland. If there two holes forming a complete circle, then the tube was made by Matsunutsa Japan. The Japanese made tubes will also have a dark colored getter. Actually, the Japanese made tubes are nice tubes, too as the Matsunutsa plant was set up by Mullard.. They just aren't Amperex Holland. Amperex tubes made in Holland have a curious characteristic. When the filament is first energized, it flashes very bright for a second and then dulls down to the normal soft orange glow. Other tubes do this as well such as Mullard, Matsunutsa and Ei Yugosolvia.

TELEFUNKEN 12AX7
Telefunken produced some of the best tubes that have ever been made anywhere at anytime. They are remarkably devoid of any microphonic problems and tend to last a very long time. It is fairly rare to see a weak or bad Telefunken tube. The sound is characterized by many to be "mellow" or "dark" but really if you want to know how a tube sounds, you need to try it for yourself in your own equipment because it may sound totally different to your ears than someone else's. There are basically 2 different kinds of Telefunken 12AX7's. The "smooth" plate version has as large totally smooth plate surface. I believe that these are the earlier version. The later version has ribbed plates that look much like RCA plates. I really couldn't tell you the difference in the sound quality....like I said, buy one of each and try them both. There are allot of "fake" Telefunken tubes out there, you need to be careful. Any tube produced in the Telefunken factory should have a "diamond" molded into the glass in the base of the tube inside the circle of pins. If you don't see this diamond, then the tube wasn't produced by Telefunken. There are many Telefunken tubes out there that don't have the Telefunken name on them, but instead an OEM brand like Fisher, H.H. Scott,etc. These are true Telefunken tubes as they have the characteristic diamond in the base. This is true for other brand names of tubes like Amperex, etc. It has also come to my attention that there are some perfect "fake" copies produced in China which are difficult to tell from the genuine ones. The only way I could tell is by looking at the writing on the tube. Original Telefunken printing is very poor and will wipe off easily with your fingers or just a little moisture. For that reason, allot of Telefunken tubes are devoid of most of their writing. These fakes have very nice writing and the printing will not rub off with your fingers or water. So if the tubes you see have really indelible printing, suspect that they are fakes. While these fakes look good, they apparently sound horrible (as I have been told). Buyer Beware! As with all tubes, we offer a 10 day evaluation period in which you may return an unsatisfactory tube.

MULLARD 12AX7
Mullard tubes made in the U.K are also very well thought of tubes for good reasons. They sound great and last long. What more could you ask for? The early versions had long narrow ribbed plates. Later versions had wider shorter plates that looked mre like RCA plates. These also flash brightly when first energized. They normally have the 4 ridges or seams at the top of the tube and have 6 small black letters/symbols near the bottom of the tube. IEC Servicemaster bought the rights to market Mullard tubes during the 1960's and 70's, so many Mullard tubes are dual marked "IEC Mullard". These are still genuine Mullard tubes. Mullard also marketed a special version called their 10M series. The 10M series was rated for 10,000 hours and guaranteed for 2 years. They were also were supposed to have been selected for low noise/microphonics. These are usually IEC/Mullards.


pics and more articles to come.

mullard 12ax7 / ecc83 (long plate)


mullard 12ax7 / ecc83 (short plate)


mullard 12au7/ ecc82


mullard 12au7/ ecc82 (later production)

telefunken ecc83 / 12ax7 (smooth plates)


telefunken ecc83 / 12ax7 (ribbed plates)

yun tele may diamond logo sa "wetpu" at may numero na naka-sulat (serial number), i think, since i never seen tubes sporting the same number/s. Japeks din siguro yun pag parepareho numbers lalo na pag di nabubura yung print ng telefunken. ;D

Tsalap tsalap yun sound niyan wander. Ganda ng mids at detalye lalo na at torotot yun instrument na i play mo. Benta ko na preamp ko pero i keep ko pa rin yun tubes. Ganyan ka importante yan bugle boy sa kin.

Jack,

Ganyan yung ibinenta ko kay sebman na Bugle Boy na 12AU7 may torotot kaya ngayon palagay ko nagtotorotan sila ngayon! ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

Heres a decent resource for the the mullard tube codes, including some others.

www.audiotubes.com/mullcode.htm

Mullard quality peaked from the mid fifties on to the late sixties.