Mullered does have a point about picking a decent tube before spending $100s on the supporting parts.
So many threads start out with "I found these XX tubes in a car trunk at some junkyard, can I make a tube amp?"
Unless there is some over-riding curiosity about building with some unusual tube, one should have a clear picture that the tube is not generally the big cost factor. Not saying that you can't find a super tube off the main street for cheap:
So many threads start out with "I found these XX tubes in a car trunk at some junkyard, can I make a tube amp?"
Unless there is some over-riding curiosity about building with some unusual tube, one should have a clear picture that the tube is not generally the big cost factor. Not saying that you can't find a super tube off the main street for cheap:
Attachments
You must be referring to some of this nonsense above then.
I don't need to link to any anecdotes.
A family member worked in Mitcham during the peak production era , and so called "peak quality" also.
The staff at that factory knew very well the EL34 was an over hyped load of rubbish.
The early ones with the steel lower collars were discontinued because the steel base used to snap the base of the glass off at the bottom, like a guillotine.
The bakelite ones would overheat, get brittle and arc over like no tomorrow at max Va, so you had 50:50 chance of either the white hot G2 collapsing into G1 and the cathode under its own weight, or the octal socket baking itself to oblivion at 800V (+ the combined pk-pk voltage of 1600V).
Many Russian consumer items as I mentioned in another post were very happy to be copying western designs badly.
It proves what exactly?
Lots of western consumer items were also trash in the 60s and 70s, just they tended to be things that didn't have to endure such a harsh climate.
FYI
The 6P14P is nothing like the EL84, (many threads on the internet about it),-it just looks similar, but there again a Russian Jiguli looks just like a Fiat 124, except it's a Russian central planned piece of rubbish.
The only feature of it,- is so bad, it couldn't possibly be made worse by Russian roads.
Then they made them all over the USSR!
Even the Lada DAAZ carburettor is a copy of the Italian DCR, but with clearances so desperately awful, you have to change every part on it to western tolerances before you stand the remotest chance of it ever working correctly.
I should know I live here.
I can get an example of any electronic component I like, from a shop in town 300m from here for peanuts.
Some of the USSR stuff is gorgeous quality, lots of it is dire trash.
eg. The optics were brilliant and still are today.
Many Leica copy lenses are as good as the originals.
My titanium glasses & industrial work glasses cost 1/10 of the price compared with London, and are much better quality, but you can't sell any in the EU because they routinely refuse CE certification or make it ridiculously expensive.
They are of course made in Vologda the "optics capital" of the north.
Nearly all Russian cities have never diversified from the same USSR mono-culture in the cities that bankrupted the USSR in the first place...
Eg, Saratov (valves), and Ulianovsk (aviation and electronics)...Lomo (optics and electronics), Svetlana,- St Petersburg , Novosibirsk, Melz Moscow region....
So, you see the situation cuts both ways.
Last edited:
Sveltana Wing-C tubes out of production
I believe there is a deal of truth in this news from 2013.
I know this city SPB quite well for its very high quality engineering industry and the machine tools corridor nr Kursk-Orel-Tula, where they make guns and microphones.
When is a Russian EL84 not an EL84?
Well, all that, very much depends on who made it, and if they knew what they were at.
When marketing takes over and the machinery is worn out, and run by who knows who, how on earth do you know what is production QC and spread?
My local shop has 51 x 6П14П in stock from 79-88, so likely made in SPB in soviet times and no doubt I could buy them all for less than $2 ea.
"smoking amp" makes a good point.
The expensive bit is not the mass produced stuff, but making the cheap bit work how it should.
I have scoured the whole world high and low, just to get an OPT that will deliver 20-20hz flat for a small 2-5W valve amp that could be used with high quality headphones and maybe some studio monitors.
So far I found ONE company in Germany that can do it, and another possibility in Poland.
Good luck in your searching to find bits for an obscure Mullard El9x series valve.
I believe there is a deal of truth in this news from 2013.
I know this city SPB quite well for its very high quality engineering industry and the machine tools corridor nr Kursk-Orel-Tula, where they make guns and microphones.
When is a Russian EL84 not an EL84?
Well, all that, very much depends on who made it, and if they knew what they were at.
When marketing takes over and the machinery is worn out, and run by who knows who, how on earth do you know what is production QC and spread?
My local shop has 51 x 6П14П in stock from 79-88, so likely made in SPB in soviet times and no doubt I could buy them all for less than $2 ea.
"smoking amp" makes a good point.
The expensive bit is not the mass produced stuff, but making the cheap bit work how it should.
I have scoured the whole world high and low, just to get an OPT that will deliver 20-20hz flat for a small 2-5W valve amp that could be used with high quality headphones and maybe some studio monitors.
So far I found ONE company in Germany that can do it, and another possibility in Poland.
Good luck in your searching to find bits for an obscure Mullard El9x series valve.
The reason I want to use the el91 and that I am is sound of the tube, have you heard the marshall mini 1 watt series. I been building this kinda guitar amps for a long time, since a 12au7 se h&k cream machine fell in my lap cheapppppp!!!!!!!!!! try it thro a v30 loaded 4x12 cab. will blow you away. I am attempting to get the circuit like jtm50 complete with real mustard caps. I had a transformer custom wound. ? The thing is the marshall preamp
runs 12ax7's at like 300 + volts so if i could run the el-91s hot then would save some grief, altho I have built a VVR with IRF840, just rather keep it simple. Fender Champs
(tweed ones) have somtimes like 425 on a se 6v6 way over its ratings, infact you really need like NOS tung sols for them. I read an article about a famous studio tweed needed repair and the tech was so paranoid with its plate voltages and generally shaky (vintage )condition he couldnt wait to complete and return it. Alot of pseudo famous tracks were done with that particular tweed champ so it was considered precious. We all know tubes will run over the rca tube book. You can only know from experience. Its not in a spice model or handbook. If you know you know. I ran some 6aq5's at 365 plate volts in a jca22h el84 amp with adapter sockets I made but I was told would drill a hole in glass by some and a bunch of jerks agreed. How high can you run a 6V6 ? Well i ran em at 425 and so does hammond m100 amps is that double the data sheet ? We and all know hammond makes decent gear. I dont think 6aq5/6005 data sheets call out 350 plus
but I did it with rca tubes I am getting some 6005's and plan to toss a zener in the jca22h,
as i really like the tone and I am not a el84 person. Whats the data sheet say on el84 ?
Jca22h runs chinese el84s at like 365 I know thats not according to hoyle. I was hoping
someone with real knowlege would chime in but its an odd tube.
I did buy some 6111's 6021's and 5902's and some lnd150s to play with, but this amp is in a jtm45 chassis with octal and 7 pin tubes with real; mustards.
this isnt my dads car radio LOL
MYBUILD4_zps7lrnaglb.jpg Photo by BILLYOUNG606060 | Photobucket
runs 12ax7's at like 300 + volts so if i could run the el-91s hot then would save some grief, altho I have built a VVR with IRF840, just rather keep it simple. Fender Champs
(tweed ones) have somtimes like 425 on a se 6v6 way over its ratings, infact you really need like NOS tung sols for them. I read an article about a famous studio tweed needed repair and the tech was so paranoid with its plate voltages and generally shaky (vintage )condition he couldnt wait to complete and return it. Alot of pseudo famous tracks were done with that particular tweed champ so it was considered precious. We all know tubes will run over the rca tube book. You can only know from experience. Its not in a spice model or handbook. If you know you know. I ran some 6aq5's at 365 plate volts in a jca22h el84 amp with adapter sockets I made but I was told would drill a hole in glass by some and a bunch of jerks agreed. How high can you run a 6V6 ? Well i ran em at 425 and so does hammond m100 amps is that double the data sheet ? We and all know hammond makes decent gear. I dont think 6aq5/6005 data sheets call out 350 plus
but I did it with rca tubes I am getting some 6005's and plan to toss a zener in the jca22h,
as i really like the tone and I am not a el84 person. Whats the data sheet say on el84 ?
Jca22h runs chinese el84s at like 365 I know thats not according to hoyle. I was hoping
someone with real knowlege would chime in but its an odd tube.
I did buy some 6111's 6021's and 5902's and some lnd150s to play with, but this amp is in a jtm45 chassis with octal and 7 pin tubes with real; mustards.
this isnt my dads car radio LOL
MYBUILD4_zps7lrnaglb.jpg Photo by BILLYOUNG606060 | Photobucket
BTW Alot of the Russian defense system ran on Digital PDP computers, which they did not copy or make they got them in surplus market, which I was in many years. I know people who were arrested and indicted to supplying PDP's to russia. According to what I was told they put the digital equipment guts in there own cabinets and put a Russian name on the box. I was told by a russian engineer they did not have computers that were reliable for defense applications. I dont know what happened with the criminal case, but the initial media and all was a 3 ring circus, very often the parties involved handle that sort of thing out of the eye of John Q Public, I guess for embarrassment purposes. People doing it were at it like 15 years, so it makes idiots out of our security etc.
6v6's from tung sol call out 285 volts abs absolute maximum, we all know old tungsols were some of best tubes like the 5881.
http://www.r-type.org/pdfs/6v6g.pdf
nother shot of ridiculous 4 watt amp
MYBUILD8_zps0albnsac.jpg Photo by BILLYOUNG606060 | Photobucket
MYBUILD13BK_zpsanlx9zcg.jpg Photo by BILLYOUNG606060 | Photobucket
the parts were not cheap, and took to long to get
http://www.r-type.org/pdfs/6v6g.pdf
nother shot of ridiculous 4 watt amp
MYBUILD8_zps0albnsac.jpg Photo by BILLYOUNG606060 | Photobucket
MYBUILD13BK_zpsanlx9zcg.jpg Photo by BILLYOUNG606060 | Photobucket
the parts were not cheap, and took to long to get
- Status
- This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.