Marshall Branded Tubes

[LesterPTelestrat]

Anyone know who makes these? Sovtek maybe?

[Mick Bailey]

Various manufacturers over the years, but mainly Shuguang these days;

VLVE-00007 12AT7/ECC81 No selection White Logo
VLVE-00009 12AU7/ECC82 No selection White Logo
VLVE-00010 EL34 Svetlana
VLVE-00033 SV6550C Svetlana White Logo
VLVE-00038 6V6GT Shuguang White Logo
VLVE-00039 KT66 Shuguang White Logo
VLVE-00040 12AX7/ECC83 Philips-EI Black Logo
VLVE-00041 12AX7/ECC83 Philips- EI White Logo
VLVE-00042 EL34B Shuguang Gold Logo
VLVE-00047 12AX7B/ECC83 Shuguang Low Microphony Gold Logo
VLVE-00049 12AX7B/ECC83 Shuguang High Microphony Gold Logo
VLVE-00055 12AX7B/ECC83 Shuguang No Selection White logo
VLVE-00063 12AX7B/ECC83 Shuguang A Low Microphony White Logo
VLVE-00064 12AX7B/ECC83 Shuguang B Low Microphony White Logo
VLVE-00065 12AX7B/ECC83 Shuguang Gain Selected >=4V White Logo
VLVE-00066 ECC83S JJ Low Microphony Red Logo
VLVE-00066S ECC83S Microphonic Selection A
VLVE-00067 ECC83S JJ Low Microphony Red Logo
VLVE-00067S ECC83S Microphonic Selection A
VLVE-00068 EL84 JJ Graded Low Anode Current Red Logo
VLVE-00069 EL84 JJ Graded High Anode Current Red Logo
VLVE-00070 EL34 JJ Graded Anode Current Red Logo
VLVE-00071 EZ81 JJ No selection Red Logo
VLVE-00077 KT66 Shuguang Graded Anode Current Gold Logo
VLVE-00080 KT88 Shuguang Graded Anode Current Gold Logo
VLVE-00083 5881/6L6WGC Shuguang Graded Anode Current Gold Logo replaces VLVE-00006
VLVE-00092 EL34B Shuguang White Logo
VLVE-00087 EL34B Shuguang Graded Anode Current White Logo
VLVE-00088 GZ34/5AR4 JJ No selection Red Logo Replaces VLVE-10043
VLVE-00092 EL34B Shuguang White Logo
VLVE-00101 EL34B-STR Shuguang Graded Anode Current Gold Logo replaces VLVE-00092

[Justin Thomas]

Pictures?

Justin

[LesterPTelestrat]

Wow, thank you Mick Bailey: I'll post pics when I get home later today. I believe they are 6V6GT white logo's. I've never heard of Shuguang before. I imagine there are other major brands that use their tubes?

[Mick Bailey]

They're rebranded under Ruby, Groove Tubes, TAD and many others as well as being house-branded by quite a few manufacturers. Also sold under their own name.

[Justin Thomas]

There are only three companies that make the tubes we use today: Shuguang, JJ, and Sovtek/Reflektor.

Shuguang is a conglomeration of factories in China, JJ is in the Slovakia (I'm not sure if the name of the country is correct - my geopolitics are a bit weak since 1992), and Reflektor is in Saratov, Russia.

But basically, that's your three choices for current-manufacture tubes...

Justin

[LesterPTelestrat]

Good info gents. Much appreciated!

[Mick Bailey]

Some more reading here;

State of the Vacuum Tube Industry 2016

[J M Fahey]

Some more reading here;

State of the Vacuum Tube Industry 2016

Stopped reading halfway.

Coming from the audiophool oriented end of the Industry, they claim 40 or 50 different factories while we all know there´s actually 3.

Least offensive is counting different Shuguang plants as if they were independent factories, worst is counting resellers and rebranders as legitimate independent Factories.

Economics of scale demand minimum production for any type of 50000 a year ... hard to believe that a factory´s only output is a batch of 1000 KT88 , once a year or less often, which strongly smells of 1000 unit batch , labelled with own brand.

Oh well.