Northern Electric 12AX7

[Cliff Schecht]

Just saw this when looking up some AX7's I found. Anybody tried these or know anything about them? FWIW this is about the price point I'd expect modern premium tubes to be at..

http://thetubestore.com/northern-electric-12ax7.html

[ToneMerc]

Just another made in China tube spun with magic marketing faire dust.

TM

[cyprusx]

Agreed! I have a bunch of old RCA's I would let go for a fraction of that price... wow!

[Bob S]

Wow - $58 each plus $5 for matched.

I'm in the wrong business.

[rp]

Crazy, and not even cryogenically frozen or packed in a wooden box I've seen my share of old tubes, first I've heard of Northern Elec. If you're gonna mine for venerable old names to exploit why not Marconi, Ken-Rad, Brimar? Reckon the rights to the NE name were cheap?

[rdjones]

Crazy, and not even cryogenically frozen or packed in a wooden box I've seen my share of old tubes, first I've heard of Northern Elec. If you're gonna mine for venerable old names to exploit why not Marconi, Ken-Rad, Brimar? Reckon the rights to the NE name were cheap?

Canadian, with ties to the original Bell System and Western Electric.
What's left is called Northern Telecom and has been in receivership for a few years. Down to only 150 employees, in the recent past there were easily 10x that in Nashville alone.

This is the first I've seen of any "reissue " tubes.
I wonder why they think they're worth those prices ?

rd

[rdjones]

Agreed! I have a bunch of old RCA's I would let go for a fraction of that price... wow!

Ditto, but I'm hanging on to mine.
Haven't had to buy recent production preamp tubes in a while.

reddog

[Structo]

Without getting into it too much, I bought some power tubes from that dealer and within a few days they had drifted 10-12ma apart.
He refused to take them back.

[MCK]

I also had few tubes from them which I had bought long time ago and never used. Spares... Recently got an Amplitrex AT1000 and found that the tubes did not match the stickers on them... I sent them an email asking them how they test etc letting them know I have a good tester and that some of their tubes are testing "out of spec"... Here's what I received back...

We typically do not discuss which test gear we use. We don't like to educate our competitors. However I will tell you that we have a handful of AT1000 here, among other high-end testers.

Regarding your request, I would first want to understand what your expectations are and how you qualify a tube as "out of spec". Is that anything varying from the loaded ideals? A 10% tolerance? A 25% tolerance? As well, which tubes are you looking for specifically? Some tubes meet the old datasheet specs well and others do not even as brand new strong tubes. One example is JJ 6L6GC power tubes. They are made slightly different in that they require a different bias setting to meet the "ideals" published for the last several decades. So they all appear weak under the standard test, but when biased appropriately they have good Gm and hold up well.

Not ordering from them ever again.

[brentm]

I also had few tubes from them which I had bought long time ago and never used. Spares... Recently got an Amplitrex AT1000 and found that the tubes did not match the stickers on them... I sent them an email asking them how they test etc letting them know I have a good tester and that some of their tubes are testing "out of spec"... Here's what I received back...

Not ordering from them ever again.

Seems that tube testers are just so darn expensive. You must be pretty serious about tubes if you picked up an AT1000. I was looking at getting a Maximatcher tester, but I couldn't justify spending the money on something like that... Too bad the playing field isn't leveled by affordable test equipment. Most of us that end up getting scammed and never know it... we only know we didn't like the tube.

[MCK]

I agree. And many of us pass judgement on the type of tubes by the few samples that we've had going through our hands not knowing whether they are good samples of their kind or not...

The AT1000 was an investment for me. A large one but I hope it will serve me for many years.

Remember the recent comments from Dr.Z on his tube discard rate? We've heard of similar comments from other builders too. Reality is that some tube resellers unknowingly (or knowingly) might be passing down these otherwise rejected tubes to their clientele... Having a tester at home gives you an upper hand in the game.

It is also very educational to know more about the tubes you roll through your amp and then observe how it differs from others...

[Prairie Dawg]

[/quote]
Canadian, with ties to the original Bell System and Western Electric.
What's left is called Northern Telecom and has been in receivership for a few years. Down to only 150 employees, in the recent past there were easily 10x that in Nashville alone.

This is the first I've seen of any "reissue " tubes.
I wonder why they think they're worth those prices ?

rd[/quote]

Trade mark squatting ala Mike Mathews, relabeled Shuguang crapola. They registered their canadian trademark about a month ago. Phooey.