That's exactly what I think, as well. The whole NOS tubes hype started around the turn of the century, propelled by the audiophile folks and then slowly crept to the musician community. Back then, NOS tubes were much more abundant and accordingly, cheaper. New production tubes, at that time, were nowhere near today's quality or quantity.
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The hidden gem among 12AX7/ECC83 NOS tubes, the RFT ECC83
- Thread starter blr2
- Start date
Guitarist tend to get wrapped around the axle a bit more than bass players.
In the event I considered a tube essential to my sound, I might buy ANOS tubes for $100 if there were no other options. I have collected quite a few NOS and ANOS tubes that were between $70 and $80. Also, I have spent approximately $100 for several Mullard CV4004. The most expensive was $135. All of the CV4004s were listed as NOS and in original packaging, which includes the box, craft paper, and pin protector. Haven't tried any of the NOS or ANOS tubes I bought
. Sort of lost interest in guitar and gratuitous tube rolling 
.I am sure some of the NOS and ANOS tubes I have bought will turn out to be duds. Then again, some of the brand new tubes I have bought were duds. Some were crappy straight out of the box and some failed with very few hours on them.
I have rolled quite a few current production tubes. The most expensive current production tube I have purchased is a Genalex Gold Lion ECC83 B759. I paid about $45 for the last one I bought, and the current price appears to be about $63.
That's another reason why I'm not interested in them anymore. We're getting down to the leftovers.
Well, just popped in to say, I went looking for a tube yesterday and all I could get was a new JJ Electronic ECC83S for about $40 Aus, to replace the original 40+ years old Sovtek 12ax7lps.
- Feb 12, 2006
- 61,095
- 5
- 221,234
- Disclosures
- Development Engineer-Mesa Boogie, Development Engineer-Genzler (pedals), Product Support-Genz Benz
There have always been excellent quality new production tubes available. No different than today, for production quantities some serious screening and testing has always been necessary. Depending on the era, we would use between 1/4 million and 1 million tubes a year. We know a thing or two about tubes.
I don't know what the situation has been in the US in the 90's, but here in Europe, it was more difficult to obtain new production tubes. JJ wasn't present on the market until the second half of the 90's. Russian tubes were available, but they were regarded as lower quality and high failure rates (don't know how much this is true). It is after EHX bought the plant that the production and quality stabilized. There was a point when most of the tubes were Chinese.
I must admit that I wasn't searching for tubes much back then, since I had only one small tube amp, but this was my impression. On the other hand NOS tubes were widely available, especially the above mentioned RFT. In 99 or 2000 I bought a headphone amp that came stock with a pair of JAN/Philips 6922. AFAIK, these were out of production by then, so should have been considered NOS.
I must admit that I wasn't searching for tubes much back then, since I had only one small tube amp, but this was my impression. On the other hand NOS tubes were widely available, especially the above mentioned RFT. In 99 or 2000 I bought a headphone amp that came stock with a pair of JAN/Philips 6922. AFAIK, these were out of production by then, so should have been considered NOS.
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Yes. It had developed a crackling sound upon warm up as well as some electronic harmonics, that had me concerned. With replacement, everything has ceased.
Still got the Sovtek for a "just in case" moment.
I put a second RFT ECC83 in the V2 position of the PF-20T. The sound didn't change, but the noise floor improved. In other words, what was a quiet amp is now nearly dead silent without something plugged in, when set to home practice volume. The tubes stay in this amp, a great match.
Back in the '80s all of us around here used RFT tubes quite a lot, because they were dirt cheap and sounded just fine, especially EL34s. EI was good for EL84s and KT88s.
This thread had me chuckle a bit because I ran into a batch of rebranded NOS RFT ECC83s in local online classifieds two hours ago, and I'm likely to order a few since I'm down to zero preamp tubes and that's not an acceptable state of affairs...
To each their own, but collective experience with JJ tubes around here has been abysmal. Maybe they sell the stuff that no one else would buy to our retailers at a massive discount. I've got nothing bad to say about Russian tubes, but they've been MIA for obvious reasons for the past couple of years, even in this neighbourhood.
So NOS RFT it is, at roughly $30 a piece. Oh well. Considering that I just shelled out $100 for a pair of NOS 6CG7 preamp tubes for my audio amp a month ago, not all that bad...
...these were Ultron which is likely re-badged RFT as well, BTW...
This thread had me chuckle a bit because I ran into a batch of rebranded NOS RFT ECC83s in local online classifieds two hours ago, and I'm likely to order a few since I'm down to zero preamp tubes and that's not an acceptable state of affairs...
To each their own, but collective experience with JJ tubes around here has been abysmal. Maybe they sell the stuff that no one else would buy to our retailers at a massive discount. I've got nothing bad to say about Russian tubes, but they've been MIA for obvious reasons for the past couple of years, even in this neighbourhood.
So NOS RFT it is, at roughly $30 a piece. Oh well. Considering that I just shelled out $100 for a pair of NOS 6CG7 preamp tubes for my audio amp a month ago, not all that bad...
...these were Ultron which is likely re-badged RFT as well, BTW...
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- Feb 12, 2006
- 61,095
- 5
- 221,234
- Disclosures
- Development Engineer-Mesa Boogie, Development Engineer-Genzler (pedals), Product Support-Genz Benz
They were dirt cheap even in the beginning of this century. I remember around 2002-2003 you could by 10 or more RFT preamp tubes for less than 5 Euro a piece in Germany. They had plenty of them in stock. This was actually cheaper than new production tubes back then. Last month I paid 20 Euro per piece for a couple of RFT ECC83, and I thought it was a good deal.
About JJ, I never had a defective tube. My tube preamp/DI came stock with a pair of gold pins 803S, and they are still in there 10 years later. Use some power tubes as well- everything is fine.
... yeah, all the ones Mesa passed on.
JJ is pretty good these days. They had QC issues several years ago where the mica was not in contact with the bottle, also noise issues. EHX reached out to me about it to check my shipment, which was nice. Maybe they weren't supposed to go out the door.
Prices have gone up a lot. Just under $50 for a small signal tube. Granted that's list price.
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