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Real Telefunken E88CC?

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Hi All:

I just bought a Telefunken E88CC from a big online store. It has yellowish/pale white markings instead of usual white that Telefunken use. It has a diamond on the bottom. The box looks new and crisp. The marking paint does not get smeared if I rub the marking with cotton shirt. The date code is U3218104.

Please help me decide if it is a genuine Telefunken E88CC? The solid pale paint is making me suspicious:rolleyes:.

Thanks!
 

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......
You can find some very nice pictures of the Tele E88CC on:
TFK-E88CC

Before posting here, I actually checked your website and many others. This also lead me to believe something fishy about this tube. Although the tube looks like very much like a Telefunken but I have never seen such glowing golden pins in a NOS tube before. Then the off-white (pale) markings on this tube are made by very durable/hard paint and they cannot be disturbed even by cotton rub. While Telefunken marking were infamously fragile. The tube box is also very crisp for something packed 45 years ago, i.e. date code on the tube suggest 1968 production. I just returned the tube!

Nonetheless I still want to hear members' opinion.
 
Just to make things clear: it is not my website.
My E88CCs are used pulls from VHF equipment of the 1970s.
Their pins are gold plated but not quite as shiny as yours, maybe just dirt.
The printing on my tubes is chalky, very easy to wipe off. As usual for TFKs.
Did you bother to translate the captions of Jogi´s photos? In of them he tells of a find of some E88CC made by TFK in West Germany, one even with a West German army marking in the form of an eagle. What is interesting is, that these tubes were found in an East German (GDR) radio surveillance van. Some cold war thing where they received all kinds of wireless communication from the west.
Here in Germany you get to see a lot of TFK tubes with that wipe off printing in chalk white, and also a lot of GDR made tubes that have yellow(ish) printing in rugged paint. And now you are showing a tube that seems to have TFK technology and GDR-like printing.
 
Although the tube looks like very much like a Telefunken but I have never seen such glowing golden pins in a NOS tube before.
In principle with a true gold plating there is nothing suspicious if the valve has never been out of the box and stored reasonably well. Gold doesn't rust or tarnish in normal conditions. Once it is plugged in one can remove some plating and then it will start to get some oxidation from the underlying metal.

Then the off-white (pale) markings on this tube are made by very durable/hard paint and they cannot be disturbed even by cotton rub. While Telefunken marking were infamously fragile. The tube box is also very crisp for something packed 45 years ago, i.e. date code on the tube suggest 1968 production. I just returned the tube!

Nonetheless I still want to hear members' opinion.

About the printing and the doubt about the originality I agree.
I don't have TFK E88CC's but have some NOS/NIB ECL80's (without diamond) and other used true TFK's whose chalky white printing is really weak and easy to remove just rubbing gently with a finger.
In general with popular valves like ECC88, ECC83, KT88 etc. I think one has to be very careful because there are Chinese replicas around. As these are very popular with a potentially good market they have been made.
This hasn't happened with less popular valves or older types until now (in my knowledge).....
You can find a "true TFK" E88CC in the old Tesla E88CC that is still available. The last ones were made in the 1980's I think. Also here one has to be careful because the first JJ's where still branded Tesla but they were not the same although just as good for the most important features. Here it is easy to distinguish as differences in the glass shape and other visible details are quite striking.
 
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Hello,

I can't see from your photos is it straight or angle getter arm version? According to code they should be angle getter arm!

Did you try to test them?

Many suspicious Telefunken E88CC appear last few years.


I've got these E88CC 6922 Telefunken more than 20 years ago, before any dirty tube business started.

These E88CC Telefunken I've got 6-7 years ago.

Both versions are original Telefunken's, first version I have in qty 100+ and it's amazing how they are almost equal in all parameters on tester, the 2nd version too.
 
It's a genuine Telefunken tube but very likely re-marked and with freshly (gold) re-plated pins. Might be a close (cheaper) variant of the E88CC like the ECC88 or PCC88 or any B9A dual triode with vaguely similar characteristics. The "too crisp" looking box is also suspect. Obviously a "re-worked" tube and you made the good decision in returning it to the seller.
 
Buy hundreds of used original TFK tubes, clean them, make up date codes, reprint them, replate the pins with real gold, print new boxes, cut and fold them, box the tubes, sell them to someone less experienced than Jac and be a criminal all the way. What a way to make a living.
Can someone quote prices for a new and a goood used TFK E88CC? I have a red series Valvo that I liked a lot. Are those valuable?
 
....

I can't see from your photos is it straight or angle getter arm version? According to code they should be angle getter arm!

Did you try to test them?...

The getter support arm is straight and not angled. I have seen Telefunken E88CC with both versions but just like you said the earlier versions should have angled support arm.

I wish I could test it using some test equipment but I don't have any. If I get concerned about a tube after visual inspection I don't use it in my audio equipment. Thus, no testing of any sort was done.
 
If these are pulls from 170s equipment, they are almost certainly genuine (assuming they were there since the equipment was made, which is not actually a bad assumption). The fakery strated many years after that...

No! the tube was not a pull but was sold as NOS. In fact it was the most perfect condition NOS I have ever seen. As if it came to me directly from the Telefunken factory.
 
......you are warned !

djmiddelkoop! Thanks for the links.

In fact I did two days worth of research using Yahoo/Google to understand real/fake Telefunken. In the end, I though I should post pictures here to share my experience.

The diamond on the bottom confused me. But as many of our friends here suggested, it does not exclude re-marking and other tricks.

The moment I had the tube in my hand I had the bad feeling and I started examining it. Again, it looked newer than the new production tubes. Almost all NOS tubes out there must have been tested at least 5 times in 45 years. But this tube and its box gave new currency smell.
 
I've got these E88CC 6922 Telefunken more than 20 years ago, before any dirty tube business started.

And the datecode on your originals is the same as on the fake of the OP.

Seems the person who reprinted those tubes found a valid datecode "on the internet".

Could be ...

I've uploaded these photos 14 or 15 years ago to my old geocities site ... I know that photos were used few times on ebay 10 years ago by frauds ...
 
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