Anyone recognise this tube?

[daz]

It's an EL34 thats at least 15 and more likely 20+ years old. Any idea about the origin/manufacturer? Stamped onto the base in white ink and smudged so that i can't be 100% sure of what it says is what appears to be "EL34M".

[Chuck H]

It looks like one of the Chinese turds I threw out from an old Nomad amp I repaired once

Chuck

[daz]

Chuck, trust me on this....i do know tone and i know what aspects of tone are general consensus stuff like sustain, balance, complexity, the things everyone wants. And i compared this old pair i found to my SED winged C's, EH, and tung sol RI's, and i swear these tubes easily slayed them all. The SEDs were closest but the high strings sounded skinny compared to these. I know they're chinese now, (Shuguang) as i posted elsewhere and someone answered last nite so i did a search and found they are available still even to they are out of production. Maybe it was another chinese 34 you hated? Like the EL34B maybe? All i know is i cannot imagine many people would not like these if they compared them to the ones i did, which are all popular current production tubes.

[Chuck H]

Well, I didn't say they COULDN'T sound good. I threw them out because they were old, weak and unmatched. I suppose that's not good circumstances to judge by. So I'll be more concise and say that the tubes I threw out were in turd condition. Chinese tubes do have a very bad rep for output power, reliability and consistency but some can sound good for that squishy, loose sound. And they usually cost A LOT less than Russian and European counterparts.

Chuck

[daz]

It's not loose, but it's smooth and maybe that could be seen as loose by some. I do worry about reliability tho. So i'm considering the newer EL34B. Mainly because i've read it's built well and a tube store short review described it tonally exactly as i would described the older model i have.....

For many years no one would have believed that Chinese tube factories could turn out work of this quality. The construction of this tube is first class, with a well-supported plate structure that rests in a large straight bottle that tapers to a well finished brown base. These tubes represent a very solid piece of construction with almost no mechanical noise and an overall feeling of quality.
The sound is loud and clear with a very nice sonic range. Not excessive in tops, mids, or bass, they are accurately described as well balanced. The sample tested had no audible microphonics and an average background noise level. Harmonic content was rich, lending that pleasant "swirl" and sustain that guitar players crave.

[daz]

I'm finding the weakness in them now....lack of articulation. Not too too bad, but enough that i will go back to the EH i was using. They're still great sounding, but i really thrive when there is great note definition and the EH are just better in that regard even if they do sound skinnier.

[Diablo]

I'm not very good at describing how a tube sounds, but I stuck a new pair of Shuguang EL34B tubes in my 5E8A clone, and they sound very good, not the least bit microphonic. The unmatched pair even matched up fairly close (within a couple of mA). Not bad at all for a $9.25 tube. I just hope they're reliable and have some longevity. As a general rule, I like to stick with NOS tubes, but with EL34 tubes, we're talking stupid money.

[Robert M. Martinelli]

Hi all,
first of all I have to say I can't be 100% sure, but that EL34 looks like the ones I used to find inside some Marshall (JCM800) amps I worked on back in the late '80s, and it seems to me they were from the Eastern Europe. I remember the preamp ECC83s were stamped "Polamp", betraying a Polish origin, while the output tubes' sockets were stamped "EL34M" in white, just like the one in the picture, and their style and construction looked very close to some Eastern Germany EL34s I had around.

As to the way they sounded, I can't remember for sure after all these years, sorry I can't give my contribution on this.

Cheers

Bob

[Steve Conner]

If you like them, meh. One man's meat is another man's poison and so on.

To me, the little square mica supports say Russian. They're just like the ones in the old Reflektor 6P3S.

But the build quality looks more Chinese.

NOS EL34s are pricey, especially if you want the original Mullard XF1s. But you can get XF2s cheaper if you look around. They were also sold under other brands, and I believe Matsushita made a load of "6CA7s" in Japan with tooling from Mullard, that are just about identical to the real thing.

[oskar]

Those are a Chinese EL34 , I think Shuguang , Marshall install them on early 90's amps, after brown base Tesla EL34 and before they switch to Sovtek 5881 on all of their amps.
These tubes have a really muddy sound when overload.

Oskar.