Just bought some NOS Yugoslavian EI Elites Gold 12ax7's

[War_in_D]

Been looking for some 12ax7's to buy to have on hand, mainly because of the talk of tube shortages and what not. Found some NOS Yugoslavian EI 12ax7's that a guy was selling in 8 tube lots for $79.99. Supposedly made on the old Telefunken machinery and based off the same design. I ended up buying the 2 lots he had left of the original 8 lots (total of 16 tubes). I think one Ebayer bought all the rest, so I'm thinking maybe they know something I don't about these tubes... LOL

Did a little looking online about them, and there is some talk of them going microphonic not long after people started using them.. but they also said that when they worked they were very impressive and as good as any Telefunken tube out there. Not super familiar with these "Elite Golds" but I've used some of the white silkscreened EI 12ax7's in the past, and they were always super sweet sounding in every amp I've tried them in. Those white silkscreened EI's have been selling around $50/each so I figured these might be worth a shot. Even if only half of them are good, I figured it's probably worth it given the current prices of tubes and could always use the microphonic ones (if any) in phase inverter slots.

 

[War_in_D]

Ok, so apparently this was not the deal I was thinking it was. The deal seemed in the "too good to be true" territory, so I sent a message to the seller asking if these were lots of 8 tubes each, or if he was selling individual tubes? The response I got:

Hello. The description title indicates this was a lot of 8 tubes, sold INDIVIDUALLY. There were only TWO INDIVIDUAL tubes left. These are very scarce and rare tubes, nowadays, and with considerably inferior quality new production russian and chinese tubes selling for $20ea, of course, a lot of 8 new old stock rare tubes selling for $10 each would be an unbelievable bargain.......

I guess I can understand, but am I crazy for thinking these were being sold in lots of 8 tubes?

Anyway, seller was cool about it and accepted my cancellation request. But, man was I excited for a little bit.. LOL

 

[311boogieman]

Sorry this happened Warren.
I'm not a tube expert but,
I've never heard of these before.
It does say 'sold individually' but using the word 'Lot' is confusing.
Glad the seller made it right.

 

[War_in_D]

Yeah, the seller was a little frustrated (understandibly) but using the word "lot" usually means they are selling multiples for one price, so that's where my mind went.

I had never heard of EI either, until some of the white silkscreened logoed tubes showed up in an old Marshall JMP-1 that I had bought. I took them out and tried some other tubes, but nothing sounded as good as that tube in that preamp. When I sold the preamp later, I kept them and used them in other tube amps. Sounded great in everything I tried it in. Not sure where they ended up going though. I went through a phase where I sold most everything I had and kinda quit playing, I'm sure they were in one of the amps I sold.