New Northern Electric 12ax7 anyone tried ?

I just noticed this while looking for a better 12AX7.

http://thetubestore.com/northern-electric-12ax7.html

Could just be another over rated over priced tube in a fancy box. For the money I don't want to be the first sucker So does anyone know anything about these tubes ?

I'm not 100% sure but its more than a reasonable assumption that this tube is the Full Music 12ax7 made in Taiwan... with a Northern Electric Label. This is a small boutique-y tube manufacturer that used the Telefunken ecc803s as its standard for development of the new 12ax7. Full Music is better known in the the HIFI market. Relabeling of tubes with another's brand name is nothing new in the world of tubes either, that happened in the golden age of tubes as well.

Haven't heard one yet.

Have a more than decent collection of vintage old stock 12ax7's so for now I personally won't be purchasing this new tube. I have paid more than 50-60 bucks in a few instances for a special vintage 12ax7 type...

Ah, thanks for that, I think you are right about the origin. The name of the owner of full music is mentioned by the Tubestore. I didn't know about Full music until now. From what I can tell there is some buzz from the hifi guys so I am starting to think they may be worth trying.

I really like NOS tubes and have a few including a Mullard Longplate ECC83. It is the best tube I have heard and I use it to measure my other tubes by. I just don't have time to search out old tubes and even when you find some, they are often not available in quantity. I have been hopping that the day will soon come when I can just order a bunch of top notch tubes whenever I need to.

If what has been happening over the last few years is anything to go by then the future of tubes is looking quite good. The choice of new tubes seems to have about doubled in the last 3 years. We are even starting to see premium versions of increasing quality.

Yeah, these are not made in Canada. :lol: From what I've read, they're made in China.

They cost more than the Genalex Gold Lion 12AX7s, which is a bold statement because I like the Genalex for distorted stuff.

I'm gonna give these a try shortly just to see if they're hype or not.

Over at the JVM forum a member tried it and he found it to be almost the same if not completely the same as a standard Shuguang 12AX7.

Now sure different tubes will behave differently for different amps but I think these tubes are the same bottle as every other Chinese 12AX7 with a fancy label.

talltxguy said:

I'm gonna give these a try shortly just to see if they're hype or not.

Click to expand...

Don't forget to let us know what you think when you do. There is still very little information about how those tubes perform.

Jackie said:

Over at the JVM forum a member tried it and he found it to be almost the same if not completely the same as a standard Shuguang 12AX7.

Now sure different tubes will behave differently for different amps but I think these tubes are the same bottle as every other Chinese 12AX7 with a fancy label.

Click to expand...

the Northern Electric comes in a fancy box too :roll: The bottle and internal construction from the few pictures I have seen do look to be different, but I wouldn't bet any money on it.

Personally I had put this tube off my list a while back. The Genalex sounds like it could be worth trying