Telefunken copies in my mark III

[boogiemon]

just got a blue Mark III that has some old tubes in it. 420's in the power section & some skinny long-plate's (smooth, not ribbed) in the pre-amp. i asked Mike B. about them & he said they could be telefunken copies made in Yugoslavia. Anybody know about these tubes?

 

[212Mavguy]

Ye, I know about these tubes, have several in different brand labels. They were made by EI in Yugoslavia. Clean tones resemble the famed telefunken smooth plate, but when EI preamp tubes are pushed into distortion the tones are more gritty sounding that their telefunken forbears. Also, after a while they can become microphonic, their support micas are thin and the plates are long, that combination leads to microphonic behavior, some of their tubes made for military use (ECG branded 12ax7/ecc83/7025) were a bit more stoutly constructed in the mica department. They would be better for HIFI or used in a head than a combo for guitar amp usage. Mesa used them as a tube supplier during the time they were producing the Heartbreaker. So you might see some with the Mesa label on them.

 

[94Tremoverb]

I heard somewhere that these went out of production when NATO bombed the factory during the Kosovo war... maybe just a rumor but I haven't seen them in new amps since around that time.

 

[boogiemon]

cool, thnx.

Ye, I know about these tubes, have several in different brand labels. They were made by EI in Yugoslavia. Clean tones resemble the famed telefunken smooth plate, but when EI preamp tubes are pushed into distortion the tones are more gritty sounding that their telefunken forbears. Also, after a while they can become microphonic, their support micas are thin and the plates are long, that combination leads to microphonic behavior, some of their tubes made for military use (ECG branded 12ax7/ecc83/7025) were a bit more stoutly constructed in the mica department. They would be better for HIFI or used in a head than a combo for guitar amp usage. Mesa used them as a tube supplier during the time they were producing the Heartbreaker. So you might see some with the Mesa label on them.