International Servicemaster Tubes

megasat16

Anyone here tried them? What's the words on the 12AX7A?

I found them sold on eBay for a good amount of coins and wonder how they do against the Mullard or Tele since International are certainly in the Tele or Mullard NOS price range.

headrott

Hmmm, interested in peoples' thoughts on them. Never heard of them...... They better be pretty darn good for the Mullard and/or Telefunken prices. The long plate Mullard 12AX7's are damn fine tubes and hard to beat, IMO.

mhardy6647

It all depends - I believe they were jobbers/resellers; tubes with that branding could be sourced from almost anywhere - sometimes excellent, sometimes awful (maybe sometimes even used "washed" tubes, rebranded). In general, they didn't enjoy much of a reputation in the old days; they were the cheap or last resort alternative for scrupulous repair persons, as I recall.

heiney9

They are a re-brander meaning they bought tubes from other manufacturers and put their own label on them. They could be anything. If you show me the link I can try and identify them for you if the seller has some good pictures.

H9

heiney9

Mega, if you need help buying signal tubes I can help. It's quite a maze out there and you NEED to KNOW what you are buying. Some sellers are misinformed, make assumptions or are just plain unscrupulous. Also sellers think their stuff is worth a lot more than it is, meaning prices for the same tubes can be all over the place.

H9

heiney9

If these are the ones you are referring to: http://www.ebay.com/itm/NOS-MATCHED-INTERNATIONAL-SERVICEMASTER-12AX7A-VACUUM-TUBES-4-Available-NEW-/261256759984?pt=Vintage_Electronics_R2&hash=item3cd41dcab0

They are Ei's from 1980's probably. Ei bought all of Telefunkens old tube making equipment and put out tubes before NATO bombed the area and destroyed the plant. While they are some decent copies of Tele's they are no where worth $249/piece. Real Tele's are better built, with better materials and last alot longer and sound better.

H9

Msabot1

Amen to that!

Dawgfish

^^Agreed^^ They are asking way more than they are worth! I wouldn't pay more than $35-40 for those and as H9 alluded to, there are better 12Ax7s out there for the price.

Interestingly enough ISM did sell some relabeled Mullard XF2-XF4 EL34s. You can find pretty good deals on them sometimes if you are looking for EL34 power tubes.

PM one of us the link to the tubes you are looking at and we'll be glad to help identify for you. Did you get different tubes for your SF amp yet?

megasat16

Guyz,

Thanks for your wisdom on the ISM tubes. I didn't buy anything from them but I bought a tube preamp and that came with 6 of ISM 12Ax7A tubes.

Since I have never heard of ISM brand, I checked eBay and found the prices on the 12AX7 is high and wonder why.

I have attached pictures. What could be the manufacturer for these ISM labeled 12AX7A tubes?

heiney9

They look Chinese made.

headrott

heiney9 wrote: »

They look Chinese made.

Agreed.

heiney9

heiney9 wrote: »

They look Chinese made.

headrott wrote: »

Agreed.

Which means they are way overpriced.

Seriously Mega, tubes can be a real PITA to source if you don't know what you are buying. If you buy from a well known dealer you'll be fine. Unfortunately they rarely have the best of the NOS tubes from yesteryear. If you need help please ask. I'd hate to see you pay a premium price for a mediocre tube because you didn't know what you were buying.

What signal tubes does your gear take?

H9

P.s. ISM is strictly a re-labeler and never made their own tubes. They could be anything

megasat16

heiney9 wrote: »

They look Chinese made.

headrott wrote: »

Agreed.

+1 to both of you on this Chinese tubes thing. I scoured through the ebay and all tubes sellers websites for all the 12AX7/12AX7A/ECC83 tube types yesterday to see what they really are. I found ruby tubes look nearly matches them. I think they are probably special order Chinese made tubes.

heiney9 wrote: »

Which means they are way overpriced.

Seriously Mega, tubes can be a real PITA to source if you don't know what you are buying. If you buy from a well known dealer you'll be fine. Unfortunately they rarely have the best of the NOS tubes from yesteryear. If you need help please ask. I'd hate to see you pay a premium price for a mediocre tube because you didn't know what you were buying.

What signal tubes does your gear take?

H9

P.s. ISM is strictly a re-labeler and never made their own tubes. They could be anything

I agree the ISM 12AX7A are way overpriced on eBay. I would never ever buy an unknown brand in the first place let alone paying over $50 for an unknown tube.

The ISM tubes came with the preamp. There are six of them in the preamp and are still fairly new according to the seller. Seller mentioned he liked how the top end sound in the ISM tubes. He also threw in six NIB reissued Mullard 12AX7 with the deal with free shipping so it's a hell of the deal for what I paid for. The preamp alone is worth more than what I paid for IMO.

I listened to both ISM tubes and the Mullard last night. Interestingly enough, the preamp uses all 6 tubes in the cathode follower circuit so all 6 must be matched and solid state supply circuit (no tube rectifier).

Anyway, I found Mullard reissued tubes to be well rounded sounding tubes but the ISM sounds a bit more extended top end. It's not my cup of tea though and I think the ISM Chinese tubes have a bit higher noise floor.

H9, Thanks for the offer on the tube quest and I will take up on your offer soon.

But so far, I haven't found my tubey soul yet and I am guessing dropping some serious coins in the search for soul? I really hope not.

I think I might put the Dynaco PAS-3X in the FS forum since I promised Dave (Poee7R) I will keep the Pas-3X in the polk family.

P.S. The pre uses six ECC83/12AX7 variants.

heiney9

You won't find soul in any of the current issue tubes. Some others will disagree as Psvane seems to be the current favorite.

I will make some suggestions since you need 6 and you don't want to spend an arm and a leg.

Stay tuned for and I'll put together a short list of cost effective choices. I'd also suggest trying some 5751's but (6) are really going to cost you some $$$.

H9

megasat16

No, I don't want to spend an arm and a leg.

I am looking forward to your suggestion list.

If you have 2-3 sets of tubes for each type and if you have like 3-4 different tube amps and tube preamps, you are looking at 20-30 sets of tubes. Each set might have 2 tubes for pre and most likely 4 or 6. For the amps, it is 4-20 tubes.

Sweet Jesus, it's gonna be a hell of expensive soul searching!

Dawgfish

Could be expensive, but then it again it doesn't have to be. That's where research and taking advantage of other member's advice really pays off. Having said that tubes are very system dependent. I've found the best tube for one piece of gear is not necessarily the best tube for others. It is fun though and that's one of many things I love about tubes, being able to tailor the sound to your equipment and tastes. Have you got the new tubes for your SF amp yet?

megasat16

Dawgfish wrote: »

Could be expensive, but then it again it doesn't have to be. That's where research and taking advantage of other member's advice really pays off. Having said that tubes are very system dependent. I've found the best tube for one piece of gear is not necessarily the best tube for others. It is fun though and that's one of many things I love about tubes, being able to tailor the sound to your equipment and tastes. Have you got the new tubes for your SF amp yet?

Yes, things can go down South quickly with my impatient in gear rolling. I got 2 tube pre, 1 tube amp and 1 tube DAC within a couple of months.

I haven't got down to the Upscale yet. I got to wait awhile to get a quad of KT120 and 6922 for the SF amp.

I will post an update when I got them next month. I am a little hesitating to visit upscale because I know I might be hauling more than the two sets of tubes. lol