Siemens EL34s

[reverymike]

What do you guys think of the Siemens EL34s for amps like Bogner and Marshall?

I have the chance to buy a quad for a pretty decent price, and was wondering if they'd be better than the SED Wing C EL34s.

 

[RedB4Black]

Whether they are worth the cost is subjective, I put them in my 20th Anniv. XTC and was very happy with the results. I also have the RFT ecc83 in v1. I think they are the best power tubes I've tried. I like SEDs alot too. These are better to me. The difference is subtle, but they do improve the tone - at least to me. Thicker, warmer and tighter.

 

[reverymike]

A quad of SEDs will run me about $120 -- the Siemens will be $200. Not a major difference, but these days $80 is $80 you know?

 

[Wizard of Ozz]

I have a set of NOS Siemens EL34 coming today for my Mesa MKV, so I'll let you know in a few hours.

They are supposedly the shiznit.

 

[RedB4Black]

A quad of SEDs will run me about $120 -- the Siemens will be $200. Not a major difference, but these days $80 is $80 you know?

to me it's worth the $80. I'd say do it.

 

[johnnyjellybean]

Depends on which......... there were east German made and there were yugoslavian made. The east German ones were great. The yugoslavian ones sucked. You better learn how to tell the difference before you buy them.

 

[glip22]

My experience wirth the German made is that they sound excellent in a low to medium gain head. I would not run these at much over 450 plate volts. They fall apart under power and higher gain. You have to be carefull. I believe they are only rated to 450 pv. The old Tesla EL34 are fantastic for guitar and can take the higher PV.

 

[glpg80]

My experience wirth the German made is that they sound excellent in a low to medium gain head. I would not run these at much over 450 plate volts. They fall apart under power and higher gain. You have to be carefull. I believe they are only rated to 450 pv. The old Tesla E34L's are fantastic for guitar and can take the higher PV.

fixed

 

[glip22]

My experience wirth the German made is that they sound excellent in a low to medium gain head. I would not run these at much over 450 plate volts. They fall apart under power and higher gain. You have to be carefull. I believe they are only rated to 450 pv. The old Tesla E34L's are fantastic for guitar and can take the higher PV.

fixed

 

[Marshall Law]

I have an old set they are pretty killer

 

['63-Strat]

I had a pair in my XTC-C, they do sound great. I wouldn't say WORLDS above SEDs but I do think they're better. Bogner used to use them as OEM in their amps but switched due to availability I think. Whether they're worth $80 more is relative but I'm sure you'll like them.

 

[glip22]

I like them but will not take any chances on a failure. By using these at 450+pv you are upping your odds on a failure and can take out your OT, maybe PT, screen grid resistors among other things. It's happened to me. Just finished piggybacking a 220k resistor in my Cornford MK50H and biased up some NOS Tesla Brown base EL34. Sounds killer.

 

[Greazygeo]

I have these in my 68 Supertrem...over 500pv and its run on 8 thru a Hotplate all the time.....have not puked them yet. I cant stand those old Tesla tubes, too hard edged (same with JJ's).

 

[Nigel Tufnel]

My experience wirth the German made is that they sound excellent in a low to medium gain head. I would not run these at much over 450 plate volts. They fall apart under power and higher gain. You have to be carefull. I believe they are only rated to 450 pv. The old Tesla E34L's are fantastic for guitar and can take the higher PV.

fixed

He's talkin Tesla's not JJ's smarty. Really though the old 60's, 70's, and some of the 80's Telsa EL34's are tough as nails in my experience, they also sound really really really great, one of my favorites. "Siemens" which are RFT E. Germany are actually pretty stout too, I think they tend to die out early in amps that are slightly unstable in terms of parasitic oscillations more so than just high B+. I think a lot of old Marshalls ate them on account of not so perfect lead dress and then the 490 ish volts just helped accelerate their death.

 

[hunter]

I got a quad of RFT and love them. Not sure about the plate voltage thing, because they used to be stock in the 100B and mine has plate voltage 570V. No issues with my quad and the XTC too.

They are a bit more grainy than SEDs, but in a good way.

 

[duesentrieb]

(older) EL34 handle plate voltages up to 800V in general.
Some of today's "EL34" can't. (so those aren't really EL34s )
Thats due to the original Telefunken specs from the 50s.
It is the screen volts that are limiting (if at all) their use.

And yes, the "Siemens" term isn't really correct, GT and other companies imported mostly RFT made (dimple top) EL34 with a Siemens label, those with a "peak" on top (labelled Siemens, not RFT) are from former yugoslavia.

see below

 

[hunter]

(older) EL34 handle plate voltages up to 800V in general.
Some of today's "EL34" can't. (so those aren't really EL34s )
Thats due to the original Telefunken specs from the 50s.
It is the screen volts that are limiting (if at all) their use.

And yes, the "Siemens" term isn't really correct, GT and other companies imported mostly RFT made (dimple top) EL34 with a Siemens label, those with a "peak" on top (labelled Siemens, not RFT) are from former yugoslavia.

dimple top:

GT-RFT supply:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yugo-Siemens:

Pics don't show it seems?

 

[duesentrieb]

Really? I will change it to the links then for those who should be interested . . .

 

[stephen sawall]

Really? I will change it to the links then for those who should be interested . . .

Thank you

 

[smdb]

What plate voltage does a Bogner 101b put out?