Hammond branded EL84/6BQ5 made in Spain. Any idea of actual manufacturer?
Mike
Mike
Hammond EL84 Spain
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Primotubes
Active Member
The construction looks like an Amperex el84.
mrwood200
Well-Known Member
Yes, they had a partnership with Philips, which eventually took them over.
https://es-m-wikipedia-org.translat...tr_sl=es&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc
mrwood200
Well-Known Member
From your photo, I can see part of the etch code at the bottom of the 1st & 5th tube.
Can you get the rest of the info? May be tough to capture in a photo. Should be OK to clean in this area.
Should be 2x lines of code. Top line = construction code. I can't really make out anything on your tubes. Should rX_ (rX3?). Maybe kM4.
Bottom line = manufacturer & date. I think you have S8__. I can't make it out. Could be 1x letter. Could be another set of letter & number (e.g., S8F2).
Not required info, but could be interesting. I try to match my tubes by version & factory; more flexible on date.
Dswankey
Lunatic Member
mrwood200
Well-Known Member
Agreed. But this company has been in tubes since the early days. They should have traveled by now. Plus there is very little info on internet.
With this example (rX3, seams, Philips equipment), maybe Philips QA/QC...I bet they made a good product. I would love to hear more from owners and/or our Spanish/Euro members.
Dswankey
Lunatic Member
Mike,
The "rX" part of the code denotes the tube type in this case 6BQ5/EL84 the "3" if I remember correctly is for production series
Here's a Valvo, German made EL84 that I have
rX3 D81
I'm guessing here however I think "D" stands for Deutschland "8" 1958 "L" December using A as January
The "rX" part of the code denotes the tube type in this case 6BQ5/EL84 the "3" if I remember correctly is for production series
Here's a Valvo, German made EL84 that I have
rX3 D81
I'm guessing here however I think "D" stands for Deutschland "8" 1958 "L" December using A as January
I want to thank everyone for helping me identify these. They were in a Hammond organ amplifier cabinet from the late 50's.
Mike
Mike
yup
that makes sense to me, but thats a big maybe. ive often wondered how the characters that denote manufacturer were picked. there are lotsa deutchland manufacturers, a lot of dutch manufacturers but D stands for valvo hamburg. siemens munich has that sideways h or equal sign with a vertical slash...F is surenses, france, but backwards F is marconi, dunno if spain or italy. L is mazda in brussels, belgium. were discussing the S, and sure spain begins with an S in english, german and dutch, but in other languages, including spanish, it begins with E. big r is mitchunm, uk and little r is ontario, canada, and so on...
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Dswankey
Lunatic Member
Dohhhh!!! You're correct I'm not sure why I forgot that as I have 12AX7's with D between the pins that I remember denotes Hamburg
Dswankey
Lunatic Member
I thought of that earlier Spain/Espana, maybe for tubes destined for the N.American market they chose to spell Spain?
mrwood200
Well-Known Member
....you forgot that you have mC1 Hamburg Valvo's ?!?
I have got a bunch of tubes, but these would probably be my best 12ax7's...!
Dswankey
Lunatic Member
I tried to do a little research and from what I can gather, "Lampara" is Spanish for Lamp
Lamparas "Z" primarily made light bulbs my guess is they had the infrastructure and I'm guessing Philips provided the tooling to also make tubes
Lámparas Z. la Zona Franca
En 1960, la Zona Franca era un hervidero de fábricas metalúrgicas arropadas al costado de la Seat. Unas de tantas era las lámparas Z, (Phil...
totbarcelona.blogspot.com
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