National Electronics Tubes

brgman

Anyone familiar with these?

heiney9

brgman wrote: »

Anyone familiar with these?

Going to have be much more specific. They never made their own tubes so everything is rebranded. The only way to know what you are getting is by knowing the internal structure and or date codes etched or printed. Many of the later National tubes are of Russian origin.

Need to get as many close up photo's and/or descriptions as possible. And if someone has already stated it's "such and such" tube, probably best to ask the questions to confirm they are correct. I stay away from National branded tubes unless I am 100% certain of what I'm buying, because they sourced tubes from everywhere. If you know what to look for physically you can find some sleepers because people don't know they have some of the better known tubes. They could be Mullards or Telefunkens and because they are branded National people don't know what they have.

H9

heiney9

They are a division of Richardson Electronics and not to be confused with the much older National Union (NU) tubes.

H9

brgman

Great info .Thanks
I will see about getting good photos or something on these.

heiney9

Generally the tubes they rebrand as National are common everyday tubes and moreso from China and Russia these days. I tend to stay away unless something about the description intrigues me. It's just safer that way. IMO, Richardson Electronics was/is a bit shady as they distribute more common tubes and can *sometimes* be misleading. They distributed many of the later Amperex orange globe tubes and those are thought to be pretty inferior to white label Amperex tubes. IIRC, they bought the Amperex trademark and haphazzardly put it on ALOT of tubes that never would have passed the mustard in the heydey of Amperex when it was under the Philips conglomerate.

There were still a couple US tube factories making tubes for the Military into the early 90's, inferior tubes compared to the 50's and 60's. So Richardson bought a few well respected brand names and started distributing these inferior tubes making people think they were getting the same tube and quality as the 50's and 60's tubes. Another tube that you see a lot of these days because the Military finally released the remaining stock are Phillips ECG tubes. A competely different Phillips company than the original Philips conglomerate and a very average tube because it was made in the 80's and into the 90's, in the US with inferior craftsmanship and materials compared to the 50-60's tubes. I believe the last tube manufacturing plant shut down in the US in the mid 90's.

So in the end, stay away unless you are 100% sure of what you are actually getting.

H9

brgman

Don't need them bad enuff to bother with them.Thanks
Never heard of them before and plan to stay away from them.