Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Guitars, Amps and Effects => Topic started by: gooch on November 23, 2010, 12:42:08 AM
-
Hi
What can anyone tell me about Mullard EL34s?
how easy are they to get a hold of? when did they stop making them? how much do they cost these days?
-
Hi
What can anyone tell me about Mullard EL34s?
What do you want to know?
how easy are they to get a hold of?
Not too hard if you have the cash.
when did they stop making them?
Duno.
how much do they cost these days?
Couple of hundred each.
-
thank you for replying
I had some in my amp and i thought they'd finally died. However after 38 years they are still working
awesome, i should probably sell them while they work but tbh they just sound too good :D
I got the whole amp on ebay for £161 loaded with Mazda preamp valves and 2 mullard EL34s lol
happy times
again thanks for the reply
-
You're welcome!
I do like the old Mullard ECC83s myself, and own a couple, though I've found that for everyday use, the JJ 803S is virtually indistinguishable from the Mullard. Power valves are another story, however ... much harder to find something that sounds like an old Mullard, which is why I switched to an amp that uses preamp valves in the power stage4!
-
As much as I hate recommend chinese, Shuguang's Black Treasure series are great.
-
As much as I hate recommend chinese, Shuguang's Black Treasure series are great.
No, they are not.
-
shuguang makes pretty good 12ax7's and EL34's, but I'd never pay more than US$30 a pair
and I'll never buy non-rebranded/tested chinese power tubes again
they have a huge failure rate (20 to 30%), in my personal experience
the "good" thing is that they tend to fail in the first day, so if they last a week, they are not likely to be a problem after a month or two, like newer JJ's
so if you want a quad, buy a matched sextet, so you'll have spare matched tubes
on ebay you can buy unbranded shuguangs for $40 a matched quad
the top sellers by ruby, TAD and groove tubes are rebranded shuguangs
they sound better than the new reflektor tubes (sovteks, electro-harmonix, reissue mullards, new svetlanas), in my opinion, and better than JJ's as well
the svetlana winged C's sound slightly louder, deeper and more in your face, but a quad costs almost 4x the price of a shuguang equivalent quad
the shuguangs sound smoother, with a fuzzy midrange character
I can't compare them to an old original Mullard, though
my only experience with NOS tubes is with RFT and Tungsram preamp tubes
-
As much as I hate recommend chinese, Shuguang's Black Treasure series are great.
No, they are not.
Yes they are.
-
Maybe out of the thread, but does this series contain 6V6's too? Playing JJ's now, but it's always interesting to try something different.
-
As much as I hate recommend chinese, Shuguang's Black Treasure series are great.
No, they are not.
Yes they are.
its the pantomine season ;)
-
As much as I hate recommend chinese, Shuguang's Black Treasure series are great.
No, they are not.
Yes they are.
its the pantomine season ;)
behind you!!!! :lol:
-
:D Like for like, yeah?
I feel they are the best on the current production market. Their KT66s have a sharper, but more open character compared to JJs. The KT88s, compared to Golden Lions, have a tighter bass, sweeter mids and extra definition over all, but especially in the top end. They just feel stronger to me. The EL34s are on par with some old NOS GEs that I had, but less abrasive. They did take about an extra 20 hours to settle in. These are not the normal valves they are known for. They only have their most experienced employees involved with construction. I like them, but if you don't that's cool. I haven't had any problems with reliability either.
-
:D Like for like, yeah?
I feel they are the best on the current production market. Their KT66s have a sharper, but more open character compared to JJs. The KT88s, compared to Golden Lions, have a tighter bass, sweeter mids and extra definition over all, but especially in the top end. They just feel stronger to me. The EL34s are on par with some old NOS GEs that I had, but less abrasive. They did take about an extra 20 hours to settle in. These are not the normal valves they are known for. They only have their most experienced employees involved with construction. I like them, but if you don't that's cool. I haven't had any problems with reliability either.
where are you getting the Shuguang Black Treasure series from?
-
Bought the quad of KT88s from Grant Fidelity Audio for a good chunk first off. The others I bought from Ebay for less. I can't remember what the name of the seller was, I just looked for the best comments and gave it a go. If my memory is correct the EL34s and KT66s were around $50 USD each. They were matched and packaged fine.
-
Bought the quad of KT88s from Grant Fidelity Audio for a good chunk first off. The others I bought from Ebay for less. I can't remember what the name of the seller was, I just looked for the best comments and gave it a go. If my memory is correct the EL34s and KT66s were around $50 USD each. They were matched and packaged fine.
I can only find Black Treasure 6CA7s or KT88s - any chance you could link me an auction so I know which ones you mean? - I'm assuming the BT ones are different to the 'normal' Shugang EL34s ????
-
As far as I know, 6CA7 is just the American designation for EL34 and there's no difference between them. Here is an auction for a quad from the seller I bought mine from. He had the highest amount of good reviews with many of the comments on the Black Treasures. Seems his shipping is still free, but the wait looks longer due to Christmas time postal complications. I had a good experience though. I'd buy again.
http://cgi.ebay.com/4pcs-Matched-ShuGuang-50years-TREASURE-Tube-6CA7-Z-/320577803285?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4aa3ed1415
-
And yes, they are different in construction. I'm not real studied on their plate structure or anything like that, but the black coating minimizes electron swirling. I did use Paypal, just in case I had a problem. They are valves after all.
-
EL34s and 6CA7s are different valves with different spec, however they are interchangeable and were labelled pretty freely back in the day. TRUE 6CA7s do sound different to EL34s, sort of halfway between an EL34 and 6L6.
-
200 bucks??? :o
hell no! :?
-
aye, they're a bit pricey - I'd be trying out a pair first to see how good they are before dropping $200 on a quad.
they would need to be pretty special at that price though, you're in NOS land with that kind of cash.
-
As far as I know, 6CA7 is just the American designation for EL34 and there's no difference between them.
Although they are practically the same valve, they have different internal contruction and work on a slightly different principle.
6CA7s are beam tetrodes (like 6L6s) designed to have very similar specs to the EL34 which is a pentode.
Sylvania 6CA7s sound fantastic, and were rumoured to be Eddie Van Halen's valve of choice.
-
This store has some NOS Siemens EL34s for $250 a quad. http://www.vacuumtube.com/guitar.htm They have a 30 day warranty, so that's good. Information I've found on them is that they are nearly identical to the Mullards until pushed very hard. I think I may pull the trigger on a quad just to see what they sound like. Perhaps they'll be as smooth in the top end as the few reviews I've read have stated.
-
regular $10 shuguang EL34's are smooth enough for me
they have a compressed and fuzzy character
maybe a bit too much for cranked settings
-
Siemens EL34s are really nice, very crunchy and aggressive. They're not like Mullards though, Mullards just have 'IT' - fat, warm and crunchy all in perfect measure. I have two of each in my 100w HTH high gainer, best of both worlds.
I will say, I can never get a plexi to sound right unless it has Mullard EL34s in it - those amps just sound too thin otherwise. As always, ymmv etc.
With higher gain amps, Siemens are great - I had a 2203 from '81 that didn't sound right unless it had those EL34s in it.