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Valve Guidance Notes
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The Service

It is not our policy to give opinions on valves but we have provided a facility to share your comments on each valve. So please do not ask for our opinion on one valve over another ie which is better an Electro Harmonix EL34 or a JJ EL34? So much will depend on the equipment they are being used in and of course your own personal preferences.

Lastly a few things to be aware of...

  • Valves are still basically assembled by hand so variances will occur, even within the same batch.
  • By and large valves made today, as with most things in life, are not as good as ones made years ago. This has a lot to do with the raw materials and is not a matter of poor production or quality control. Allowing for inflation over the years, a new valve should sell for as much as or more than its equivalent NOS now sells for.
  • Even such revered manufacturers as Mullard, Philips, Telefunken, Siemens, Brimar Westinghouse etc. bought in from other manufacturers and sold them under their own brand.
  • In respect of matched valves, please check exactly what you require, for instance 1 quartet or 2 pairs. 2 halves of a quartet really is not as good as 2 pairs.
  • Currently we do not offer any matching on twin triodes, such as ECC83.
  • Many current production valves are being marked, both legally and illegally, with famous brands. Beware.

The Valves

Most of the valves we are offering, are current production (ie still being made today mostly in Russia, China and Slovakia) or recent production (ie from former Eastern Europe and bought from the factories when they were still operating. Amongst all the above you will find a few genuine NOS (ie Mullard, Siemens, Brimar, GE, GEC etc acquired over the years at auctions, from other dealers, as job lots).

Almost all the valves that we supply carry the manufacturer's brand and part number. We do not intend to sell any valves under our own brands. Should the valve not be clearly marked with the brand and part number, as in the case of some Russian originals, we may supply them with alternative markings.
Whichever way, you will know exactly what you are buying.