Raytheon 12ax7 Country of Origin?

[Killtone]

OK, I need some tube wisdom, and I know there is a lot of it here. I just received a pair of Raytheon ECC83's from an auction. They are marked "Made in Japan".

Can anyone tell me about them? I am curious because I thought Raytheons were made in the US. Did I get ripped off?

I also got a RCA 12ax7a long plate. I am new to NOS tubes, but I have noticed that RCAs usually have cut micas - this one does not. Did they not cut the micas on the long plate tubes? The logo on it looks more modern than a lot of the older ones. It has the red block letters.

Thanks for your answers.

 

[dmt]

Raytheon is an American company, but during that time all major tube manufacturers were known to relabel tubes made by other companies. Thats why you have to be careful when buying NOS tubes, it may say RCA on it but its actually a Sylvania tube that has been relabeled...

 

[212Mavguy]

Do not be afraid of japanese Raytheons, you did not get ripped off at all unless you paid more than 30 bucks each before shipping. Do yours have a getter flash that is at a 45 degree angle to the plates? I own 4 different styles of Japanese Raytheons, one is a 7025 designation, and all of them sound better to my ears than any modern production tube...any! Keep the faith... :wink: If you can put in pics of the tubes you won in your next post, there are those here who can positively identify them. 8) Peace.

 

[Killtone]

Thanks for your answers so far!

Actually I got 2 RCA's and 2 Raytheon's for $50 including shipping. For the price I figured it was well worth the gamble.

On the Raytheons: they have a distinct very thin black stripe around the base. This is not like the purplish tinge from use, but more like an embedded thread. They also have "12ax7a" inside of an octogon like I have only seen on RCAs. I am assuming that the getter flash is the silver coating around the top of the tube? It is not at an angle, infact it is about the most even and perpendicular to the edge flash I have ever seen. Looks like a halo getter (ring with one support)?

I'll try to get pictures up if I can - never have done that before.

Thanks again!

 

[trem]

I've read that some Japanese tubes were made using Mullard's tooling with similar design, and hence they produce similar sound. Japanese make products with top quality. Don't worry about it. It's a good thing they're still low in price.

 

[Timbre Wolf]

Raytheon stopped making tubes in the US, and outsourced their tube production to Japan in late 1962. Yours may have been made by Toshiba. The angled-getter wire Japanese tubes were made by Matsushita, and have Mullard/Philips-style innards.

I've seen both types of short gray-plate Japanese Raytheon 12AX7s, so Raytheon must have been drawing from more than one Japanese source. These are "genuine" Raytheons, by the way, just from a different historical period.

- Thom

p.s. Raytheon used the octagon on their tubes from the early-'50s on. Toshiba also used an octagon outline. Other manufacturers, such as Tung-Sol, and Ken-Rad (became GE later) used the octagon, so don't take that as an indication of RCA.