STR-450s are NOS Siemens, right ? Please read......

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thegame

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So I ordered 8 (4 for my Strategy 400, 4 for my friend's C+) STR-450 NOS Siemens EL34s from Mesa. Yet in the package there were only 7 EL34s and they are all STR-447s !!!

This may be a stupid question, but could Mesa accidentely relabel tubes incorrectly ? I mean, I'm sure this must be a simple shipping/packing error, but I just need some reassurence from someone who would know !

I also need to know ASAP before I start raising hell with them :evil:
I also ordered a bunch of 6L6s and they sent the correct quantity and types of those.

I paid full NOS price for the Siemens and got the 447s, so I'm understandably quite mad.
 
No mesa didnt relable the true siemens 450's. What they did was send you the next available el34,, the 447.
Just this past Monday I called Mesa directly because on their web sight they still offer the 450's. The Gent I spoke to looked into it and indeed comfirmed that they are no longer made and not available. Why havent they been taken off their sight is beyond me but I never asked either. I also have a hard time picturing mesa actually knowing they are sending the wrong tubes at NOS prices. But you never know.
The same day I spoke to mesa I looked on their sight and called every one
of their listed dealers in my state to see if any of them had any remaining 450's in stock. I called every dealer and only one of the 8 places I called actually had a duet of 450,s he found at the very bottom of a stack of 447's.
I didnt buy them because I need a quad.
So think of your situation here,, on their sight they offer 450's,, you bought them but they have no more. Instead of contacting you to say they no longer supply these,, they simply take a couple 450 boxes and put the only available el34 in them that they have,, the 447.
Id bet if you contacted mesa they will tell you that they are all pretty much the same,, try it.
And to make matters worse they stupidly only put 7 tubes in an order that obviously was 2 quads. Remember, they sell individual tubes and duets and el34's are not available as individuals so how can the actual order come out to a total of seven?
I love my mesa I really do but from what ive been reading on many forums mesa is deffinatley starting to cut corners.
And to make matters worse I know for a fact a thread was started here on this forum about 6 months ago about this same subject of 450 NOS mesa tubes. A few of the posters on that thread also called mesa and confirmed to the rest of the people that they were in fact out of stock and not able to aquire any more. I knew this many months ago but upon browsing the mesa sight months later I see that they still offer them so thinking they may have indeed found more, I called them directly and was told they were not available anymore just like the other posters were told months ago. Now why would a top notch company simply not update their sight to stop the confusion? Somethings a bit fishy to me.
 
Out of stock is out of stock. I don't agree with someone sending the "next closest thing" at all. Even if they refunded the difference in value / cost between what was ordered and what was sent, (which you didn't mention them doing), I would still be upset if they didn't clear the substitution with me first. There opinion of "the next closest" might not be my opinion.

To knowingly advertise a product of higher value than the product you actually have in stock and plan on shipping is just a form of "bait and switch". If they've been notified or made aware of this "product available / product being shipped mismatch" for months and still haven't altered the advertisement the issue becomes less one of oversight and more one of fraud.

I hope the dude in charge of sales never moves to R&D.

"Yes Sir. We are aware that the ad shows an amp with a 5 band EQ. We built you one with 4 bands because it was the next closest thing".
 
recto-robbie said:
And to make matters worse they stupidly only put 7 tubes in an order that obviously was 2 quads. Remember, they sell individual tubes and duets and el34's are not available as individuals so how can the actual order come out to a total of seven?
.

Thanks for the info. Just to clear up what you meant in your post, Mesa can sell certain tubes as singles, just not EL34s ?

I'd assume the only tubes available as singles would be preamp and rectifier tubes ?

You're right though, shipping 7 power tubes does not make sense.
To make matters worse, I'm in Canada and it was already a huge pain in the *** getting them here. Now this :roll:

When I call them in a couple days I will let them know I have purchased plenty of brand new Mesa products in the past and that I don't deserve this BS.
 
inmyhands said:
Out of stock is out of stock. I don't agree with someone sending the "next closest thing" at all. Even if they refunded the difference in value / cost between what was ordered and what was sent, (which you didn't mention them doing), I would still be upset if they didn't clear the substitution with me first. .

Thanks to you too. I havn't called them yet as I got them late just yesterday (Thursday); they are off on Fridays so it'll have to wait till Monday.

Frankly I don't want a refund of the difference. I want a full refund of the El34 portion of my order. I'll gladly ship the 447s back on Mesa's dime. Why the hell should I pay for their error ?

Another odd thing is that all the 447s were shipped in plain white boxes, unlike the regular Mesa duet black and white official boxes.
 
Yes that is strange about the white boxes,,, makes me almost wonder if they could be mislabeled 450's.
If you want, when I get off work today I could take a look at my 447's
and snap a shot of them and post the pics here for you to see if there is actually any fifference between the tubes. Let me know if your interested.
 
recto-robbie said:
Yes that is strange about the white boxes,,, makes me almost wonder if they could be mislabeled 450's.
If you want, when I get off work today I could take a look at my 447's
and snap a shot of them and post the pics here for you to see if there is actually any fifference between the tubes. Let me know if your interested.

Yeah that would be cool of you. Thanks for the help !
 
Here you go,,, hope it helps.

DSC02650.jpg


DSC02649.jpg
 
This confirms what I've always said about Mesa and their tubes.They obviously think most people dont know anything about tubes.Their whole "fixed bias" thing is a big sales scam.Buy our tubes or your warranty is void.That is a lot of B.S. The 447 is a Russian p.o.s. tube,cant even come close to a NOS Siemens.Send them back and get your money back.Get the adjustable bias mod done and get some real tubes.If you wanted to use the Sovtek crap you can get a pair for about $25 if you look around.You will just have to set the bias properly,if you buy them from anybody but Mesa.
 
stokes said:
This confirms what I've always said about Mesa and their tubes.They obviously think most people dont know anything about tubes.Their whole "fixed bias" thing is a big sales scam.Buy our tubes or your warranty is void.That is a lot of B.S. The 447 is a Russian p.o.s. tube,cant even come close to a NOS Siemens.Send them back and get your money back.Get the adjustable bias mod done and get some real tubes.If you wanted to use the Sovtek crap you can get a pair for about $25 if you look around.You will just have to set the bias properly,if you buy them from anybody but Mesa.

Thats what I was afraid of. So the 447s ARE actually Sovteks ?
 
If you paid for the 450's they at least owe you almost $30 a pair.
 
Sorry for the late responce. Anyway Mesa rectified the situation and sent me the correct ones. BUT they didn't follow my shipping instructions precisely and I had to pay extra taxes because of it :cry:

Anyway I finally have all the tubes I originally ordered but I have mixed feelings about Mesa's competence.
 
Sorry for the late responce. Anyway Mesa rectified the situation and sent me the correct ones. BUT they didn't follow my shipping instructions precisely and I had to pay extra taxes because of it Crying or Very sad

Anyway I finally have all the tubes I originally ordered but I have mixed feelings about Mesa's competence.

What? You mean they sent you actual Siemens EL34s? If they did, you scored huge.
 
edgarallanpoe said:
Sorry for the late responce. Anyway Mesa rectified the situation and sent me the correct ones. BUT they didn't follow my shipping instructions precisely and I had to pay extra taxes because of it Crying or Very sad

Anyway I finally have all the tubes I originally ordered but I have mixed feelings about Mesa's competence.

What? You mean they sent you actual Siemens EL34s? If they did, you scored huge.

Yes they sent the Siemens. I paid full price for them so I don't see how I scored huge.
 
Yes they sent the Siemens. I paid full price for them so I don't see how I scored huge.

What was the full price? They go for well over $100 a pair, and that is IF you can find them. Trust me, you scored big time. The Seimens EL34 is light years beyond anything currently made. If you got them at the $70 a pair price listed on the Boogie website you got a kick *** deal. KCA currently has them at $115 and they are the only dealer that I know of that has them.
 
edgarallanpoe said:
Yes they sent the Siemens. I paid full price for them so I don't see how I scored huge.

What was the full price? They go for well over $100 a pair, and that is IF you can find them. Trust me, you scored big time. The Seimens EL34 is light years beyond anything currently made. If you got them at the $70 a pair price listed on the Boogie website you got a kick *** deal. KCA currently has them at $115 and they are the only dealer that I know of that has them.

I guess I did get a good price then. I also bought some STR 415s at $75 each. Now if only I could find some Sylvania 6CA7s I'd be set for life !
 
hmmm. I bought 3 pairs of the 450's last year. $50 dollars per set.
 
edgarallanpoe said:
The Seimens EL34 is light years beyond anything currently made.

I have a quad of Siemens EL34's. I find they don't live up to the hype after I upgraded everything else in the system. Cables *by far* made the real difference in tone and feeling and will give you what you expect to get in a top quality tube. I now use Mullard 0xf2's but even those are only a smidgeon better than the rarer of Mesa's EL34 offerings (STR-447's?).

Better yet are Yellowjacket EL84 replacements for getting a superb British power amp distortion and chime IMO. And they bypass the Mesa fixed bias fiasco because they are self-biasing in a really nice way...
 
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