Garage Sale Find: 44 Vintage Tubes

[thisismyname]

A buddy of mine found a bunch of used vintage tubes at a garage sale and gave them to me. Includes, 12AX7, 6V6, 6L6, 6BQ5, Pictures below.

Regarding the common guitar-amp-compatible tubes, are there any brands that particularly good or particularly bad?
I have a modified Champ I could try out those 6V6s in.

Regarding the others, are any worth trying to sell?

The 12AX7s:

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6L6, Match Unknown

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6V6. The RCA's base moves a little bit, the GE's barely moves. Are these ones unfit to use then?

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RCA 5U4GB, Philco 5Y3G, Magnavox 5Y3GT

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6AN8

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EL84/6BQ5, Unknown brand top left, GE 7189 top right, Phillips? 6AQ5 on the far bottom

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Westinghouse 6CY5, JAN GE 6201

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RCA 6SJ7, 6AX4 GT, 6AX5 GT, EDAL B1154??

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[thetragichero]

nice score!
can they be sold? maybe
i'd probably use em in my own amps, in lieu of a good tester

[Phil_S]

It's hard to say because it's impossible to know what you really have without testing the tubes. Most people don't have a proper tube tester. Even so, rolling them through an amp may tell you something. In particular, you should know pretty easily if a tube is spent, in which case, it's worthless.

To my amateur eyes...if the tubes have some life...
12AX7's: Amperex, JAN (green, probably GE or Sylvania), and RCA are good finds. The ones that are are white Yugoslavia are not RCA even though someone silk screened that in orange. Save for the one that is over-screened Westinghouse. The GT one is anyone's guess, likely eastern Euro or China made -poo.

Brown base 6L6 Made in Canada, I don't like the look of the retaining clips. These look Russian made to me, may be usable/useful, but basically considered poo.

6V6's, several stop sign etched are RCA made and desirable. I think the Silvertone, Zenith and Crosley, and probably the Westinghouse and CBS are Sylvania made unless you find the RCA stop sign on the side I can't see, also desirable. GT look old and may be USA made.

Rectifiers: I think the RCA branded is really Sylvania and the other two are RCA. I can see the RCA stop sign etching on the one in the middle. Nice to have but these are not tone tubes.

68N8. Raytheon appears to be RCA made. The other two, I'd guess Sylvania. Low market value for 6AN8.

6BQ5: The GE ones have the braille style dots. The "Made in England" might be USA made; I don't know if Brimar made EL84, but Mullard would be "Made in Gt. Britain." Construction on all three in the top row looks very similar. Three RCA and one mystery black could also be RCA. These are nice but not top shelf.

6CY5, don't know this tube, probably wouldn't be worth much brand new.
6201 is a military grade 12AT7. JAN = joint army navy. If you can find braille dots it's GE otherwise, probably Sylvania. Desirable.

RCA 6SJ7, 6AX4 GT, 6AX5 GT, EDAL B1154??
6SJ7 makes a decent V1 pentode input tube.
6AX4GT and 6AX5GT are rectifiers.
All low value tubes.
The last one looks like a base with no tube - worthless.

These are a nice find if low cost/almost free. I don't think you struck gold here, but you may find a gems or two in the pile.

[Chappy]

The 6L6WGBs are North American made and they are more commonly known as 5881s. They are almost identical to the ones made by Tung-Sol, and they are excellent rugged tubes. I have a bunch of these that I pulled out of an old Canadian military flight simulator, circa 1950s and they look the same as yours. Hopefully yours still have some life left in them.

Steve
Canada

[Phil_S]

The 6L6WGBs are North American made and they are more commonly known as 5881s. They are almost identical to the ones made by Tung-Sol, and they are excellent rugged tubes. I have a bunch of these that I pulled out of an old Canadian military flight simulator, circa 1950s and they look the same as yours. Hopefully yours still have some life left in them.

Steve
Canada

If it means anything, I'd like to retract my comment on the brown base Canada made 6L6WGB's. I should have looked at the Russian 6p3s tubes I have. The Russian tubes have a similar retaining clip close to the glass, but it is not identical and it is only at the top, not top and bottom. My identification of these was wrong. FWIW, I agree these should be very nice tubes if any life remains. It goes to show, memory is often faulty.