Vintage/NOS preamp tube haul!

[War_in_D]

I may have gone off the rails a bit, since the vintage/NOS tube bug bit me. But, in addition to the various RCA/GE/Telefunken 12ax7's/at7's/au7's and GE/JAN 5751's that I already had. I recently managed to pick up 6 more smooth plate Telefunken ECC83s, four NOS Ei ECC83's and four GE long plate 12ax7's.

AND.. I may have a line on three more Telefunken ECC83's (I hope anyway) here locally. Should know something about that next week. I know I'm nowhere near the stockpile that a lot of you guys have, but these should keep me happy for a while.

 

[OUTLAW1969]

Congrats on the tube haul !

It is like a contagious disease, but very worthwhile and fun, lol.
An initial small stockpile of 12AX7's, simple tube tester, move on to more 12AX7's and then a couple of quads of NOS power tubes, then a really nice tube tester to get more accurate results, and then more tubes......Mullards, Ei, RFT, Beijing.....long plates, short plates....ribbed plates vs smooth plates...halo getters..

 

[Racerxrated]

If you can find some older Tungsram I’d give them a listen. They’ve become one of my fav pre tubes. They can be had for half the cost of vintage Mullards.

 

[Chubbs]

We need pics! And maybe a PayPal address

 

[War_in_D]

If you can find some older Tungsram I’d give them a listen. They’ve become one of my fav pre tubes. They can be had for half the cost of vintage Mullards.

Any physical attributes I need to be looking for to I.D. a Tungsram?

We need pics! And maybe a PayPal address

LOL.. Speaking of pics and paypal, the 6 Telefunkens only had one picture of the tubes from the side, but several had the Telefunken logo or known OEM logos on them and the description liste <> base, etc. so I hope they are what they were represented to be. I don't have them here yet, so we'll see.

 

[blackba]

Congrats on the tube haul, I think you have exceeded my stash. At least for NOS, got a good deal of new production tubes.

I did have to order preamp tubes for a couple of Customer's amps and JJs are in stock at the tube depot. Interestingly I found the NOS 12AT7s (needed a pair) were just a few bucks more than JJs, no brainer there.

 

[Racerxrated]

Any physical attributes I need to be looking for to I.D. a Tungsram?



LOL.. Speaking of pics and paypal, the 6 Telefunkens only had one picture of the tubes from the side, but several had the Telefunken logo or known OEM logos on them and the description liste <> base, etc. so I hope they are what they were represented to be. I don't have them here yet, so we'll see.

There’s a silver tab inside the tube, usually on the top that has a 2 digit code that dates it. Sometimes this tab is farther down towards the middle of the tube but most of mine are on top.

 

[War_in_D]

Congrats on the tube haul, I think you have exceeded my stash. At least for NOS, got a good deal of new production tubes.

I did have to order preamp tubes for a couple of Customer's amps and JJs are in stock at the tube depot. Interestingly I found the NOS 12AT7s (needed a pair) were just a few bucks more than JJs, no brainer there.

For sure, when there is only a couple of bucks difference (knowing what I know now), I would go the with NOS every time. Especially these days, with the price of the current production stuff rising to meet what NOS was selling for. I will say that most of what I have gathered, I wouldn't call true NOS. The Ei's are, and the GE/JAN 5751's I picked up were. All the others I would consider used, but were represented well and tested high on my equipment once I got them here. So, maybe I've been lucky. I've been stalking Ebay, digging into those dark corners around the interwebz and biding my time and I've managed to find some good deals on these tubes. Overall, after the purchase price/tax/shipping I'll have about $32/tube in this most recent haul. I've been avoiding buying single tubes so far until I get a decent base of tubes that I'm relatively sure I'll like, so I try to look for lots and I've set my spend limit between $30-$40/tube for the NOS/ANOS/used stuff, as long as they test good and are legit.

There’s a silver tab inside the tube, usually on the top that has a 2 digit code that dates it. Sometimes this tab is farther down towards the middle of the tube but most of mine are on top.

Thanks! Do you have a picture? **edit** I actually found a pic online, so yeah.. I see what you're saying about that tab.

 

[Racerxrated]

For sure, when there is only a couple of bucks difference (knowing what I know now), I would go the with NOS every time. Especially these days, with the price of the current production stuff rising to meet what NOS was selling for. I will say that most of what I have gathered, I wouldn't call true NOS. The Ei's are, and the GE/JAN 5751's I picked up were. All the others I would consider used, but were represented well and tested high on my equipment once I got them here. So, maybe I've been lucky. I've been stalking Ebay, digging into those dark corners around the interwebz and biding my time and I've managed to find some good deals on these tubes. Overall, after the purchase price/tax/shipping I'll have about $32/tube in this most recent haul. I've been avoiding buying single tubes so far until I get a decent base of tubes that I'm relatively sure I'll like, so I try to look for lots and I've set my spend limit between $30-$40/tube for the NOS/ANOS/used stuff, as long as they test good and are legit.



Thanks! Do you have a picture? **edit** I actually found a pic online, so yeah.. I see what you're saying about that tab.

Here's a Reverb listing...note the silver tab on top with 2 numbers...

https://reverb.com/item/50380743-tu...pport-halo-getr-test-nos-minty-vintage-1960-s

 

[War_in_D]

Here's a Reverb listing...note the silver tab on top with 2 numbers...

https://reverb.com/item/50380743-tu...pport-halo-getr-test-nos-minty-vintage-1960-s

Thank ya sir!

 

[Dino 939]

If you can find some older Tungsram I’d give them a listen. They’ve become one of my fav pre tubes. They can be had for half the cost of vintage Mullards.

Dude, stop showing your cards!!!
LOL!!
Seriously though, those are killer,
especially if you can find strong ones.

 

[War_in_D]

Dude, stop showing your cards!!!

Yeah, I've discovered that asking where to find these old tubes is akin to trying to find the local dealer when you're an unknown..

Not that I'd know anything about that, but I've heard.

 

[Racerxrated]

Dude, stop showing your cards!!!
LOL!!
Seriously though, those are killer,
especially if you can find strong ones.

At this point, there’s enough guys here that like them that most including me have a pretty good stash. Problem now is many of the eBay sellers are in Russia…so we’re kinda screwed for the time being. They were Hungarian tubes but I haven’t seen many sellers from there.
But, rest assured I do have some secret ways of identifying Euro pre tubes that are relabeled; plus some EL34s that I think measure up well to Siemens/Mullards that most overlook.