what tubes are being used by Mesa now?

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Mesa use JJ 12ax7 and str 440 (chinese made shuguang) 6L6. Not sure what brand they use for EL84 and 34 these days. Probably chinese aswell.
 
The EL34's are JJ. I'd have suspected the EL84's are too. Same rounded top which is something of a rarity with EL84's. However it looks like I was wrong. Shuguang and JJ both use the same rounded top.

el_84_6bq5_nav__31546.1453573756.1280.1280.jpg


here's the Shuguang

el84_5.jpg


And here's the JJ

jjel84__16721.1453328302.386.513.jpg


The only physical difference I see is the distance from the plate to the getter flash. There seems to be a good bit of the JJ with nothing in it.
 
That would be sovtek or EH then. Essentially the same valve. Dunno they and Tung Sol look too empty near the getter flash

el84-tung-sol.jpg
 
I think it's good that Mesa supports the 3 tube factories left in the world. They could probably just use one source for all of their tubes but by spreading the wealth around it helps keep an obsolete technology like vacuum tubes available.
 
xdg999 said:
I think it's good that Mesa supports the 3 tube factories left in the world. They could probably just use one source for all of their tubes but by spreading the wealth around it helps keep an obsolete technology like vacuum tubes available.

Yep absolutely. I think there are more factories than that. Svetlana, Sovtek, Shuguang, JJ, Tung Sol. Just off the top of my head. I don't know if PS Vane manufacture their own.
It's all good for us in the long run. I don't think having a load of other factories would benefit the industry. Mesa say they throw away a load of valves. I have no doubt Marshall are as selective with their matching. I can't for the life of me believe that these companies don't have some sort of sale or return thing going on with their suppliers. Where they return valves they haven't matched. Or maybe they get moved on to supply shops like TAD. Rather than them paying for the quantities they say they reject
 
Svetlana, Tungsol, Sovtek, Mullard, Electroharmonix are all manufactured by New Sensor (Sovtek), in Russia. Winged C tubes are no longer in production. The major manufacturers buy shipping crates (the size of a semi truck trailer) full of tubes. Some will test and others will just plug the tubes in and ship them out. At the price of pennies per tube, they have nothing to lose.
 
I thought Sovtek owned EH?
[edit, disregard that]

What are the modern Mullards like? I've a load of old yellow writing ECC83's that I use in my 2203's
 
well, new product aren't better reliable tone tube as it was at tube's age, new sensor best are tung sol and maybe mullard made by russian sovtek factory the rest is awfull!

better get old used tubes
 
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