Active Canadian vacuum tube manufacturer?

[Dinolobe]

Hi everyone ! I’ve read in that article that there is (or was ?) an active vacuum tube manufacturer in canada. The article doesn’t name the actual manufacturer, and I’d like to know what it is ! I suspect it to be the rogers vacuum tube company, but i can’t find where it is located, or if it’s still avtive. There was also marconi vacuum tubes that were made in canada, but as many brands were just rebranded tubes made by bigger manufacturers, it might be the same manufacturer. Since I live in Canada, if it’s still active and not too far away, I would love to knock their door and ask for a visit

If you guys have any informations about the subject, it would be greatly appreciated ! Thanks !

Could an Old-School Tube Amp Make the Music You Love Sound Better? | Collectors Weekly

 

[audiopro]

There hasn't been a tube manufacturer in Canada since the 60's. That manufacturer was Westinghouse, in Hamilton, ON. The plant stayed open until the late 70's but was used a warehouse. No tube manufacturing was done.
They made tubes for Marconi, Rogers, and even RCA for a while.

 

[JMFahey]

The ads and pictures in that article should give you a clue about what decade they are talking about.

So any Canadian Factory they mention should have been active 50/60 years ago.

If you want to knock some doors, you´d better have your passport ready and have a working level of Chinese, Russian or Czech I´m afraid.

 

[Dinolobe]

Quoted from the article, wich was published in 2015 :

"Today, the vast majority of the world’s vacuum tubes, most of which are produced for guitar amplifiers, are made in just a few factories in China, Russia, the Czech Republic, the Slovak Republic, and Canada."

This might clarify why I asked. The author might be wrong, but it’s strange since he seems to have researched the subject quite a bit. He says himself that he does not know much about vacuum tubes, so he had to pick up this information somewhere. Thanks for your help !

 

[Bigun]

I can only assume they were referring to Hammond to make a lot of parts for the guitar amp industry but not the tubes .......there is a company in Alberta called Grant Fidelity I’m not quite sure what they do but they do distribution tubes and I think they own or partly own a factory in China under the name PSVANE

 

[audio king]

You are likely being "had" by the usual brand-marketing ripoff.Others have already cashed in on the historical cachet of lots of well known tube brands by purchasing the rights to use the names,so we should not be surprised by this happening with a well known Canadian entity,Northern Electric.

And as usual,the users of this name have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the original Northern Electric,and they certainly aren't making any Canadian tubes.

I grew up just down the road from the Northern Electric Pointe Saint Charles plant (Montreal).

 

[JMFahey]

That magazine article is chock full of iffy information, irrelevant data, etc. and writer has no clue , just googled here and there and copypasted.
One of the articles must have been from the 50´s.

Canadian Tube Manufacturing:

none seem recent.

 

[JoeAlders]

That magazine article is chock full of iffy information, irrelevant data, etc. and writer has no clue , just googled here and there and copypasted.
One of the articles must have been from the 50´s.

Canadian Tube Manufacturing:

none seem recent.

Great pictures. Thanks for sharing this with us JMFahey.

 

[cogitech]

Same/similar photos along with a lot more history here CMC Products - Vacuum Tube Era

Safe to say RVC Canada was manufacturing tubes in Canada, not just rebranding someone else's.

Also safe to say they are no longer in the tube business.

 

[cogitech]

Anyone interested in nostalgia?

I've located the address of the old Radio Valve Company of Canada Limited.

It was at 189 Dufferin Street, Toronto. Photos from then and now:

 

[cogitech]

I've just purchased some tubes made in that factory, possibly by some of the women in that photo. I'm getting more nostalgic as I get older. Odd that I am nostalgic about a time well before I was born. Cool that these NOS tubes are likely some of the best I can buy for my Tubelab SSE.

 

[audio king]

I've just purchased some tubes made in that factory, possibly by some of the women in that photo. I'm getting more nostalgic as I get older. Odd that I am nostalgic about a time well before I was born. Cool that these NOS tubes are likely some of the best I can buy for my Tubelab SSE.

Talk about coincidence and timing. I just rebuilt one of my Scott LT110 tuners,and just for appearances sake I used all new CMC tubes as shown in your pic

In the 35+years that I have been working with tubes,I have never had a dud come out of one of those boxes. Not many brands can inspire that level of confidence.

 

[cogitech]

Talk about coincidence and timing. I just rebuilt one of my Scott LT110 tuners,and just for appearances sake I used all new CMC tubes as shown in your pic

In the 35+years that I have been working with tubes,I have never had a dud come out of one of those boxes. Not many brands can inspire that level of confidence.

I have no doubt they are high quality. Did you read the letter/advertisement at the bottom of the page on the site that I linked to a few posts back? Sounds like they developed a good reputation for reliability in the early days.

I was not familiar with that Scott tuner, so I googled it and now I want one, of course!

 

[jhstewart9]

I was in a HS group of students in the late 40s & visited 189 Dufferin St. There I saw an acre of engineers in white shirts working at drawing boards in a room full of cigarette smoke. I decided that was not the kind of engineer I wanted to be, stuck to a drawing board.
Think I managed that!