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Hammond tube ID

elitopus

elitopus

Addicted Member
I have a bunch of hammond labeled tubes. 3 of them say "made in holland". The rest are made in the usa. Any idea who made these tubes for hammond? I have a 12ax7 and two 6bq5's that say made in holland. The 12ax7 has a code 61-29 and also delta 1a3. The 6bq5's say x3 and then delta oh1 under that. Ive heard the hammond tubes are amperex.
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I don't know all the codes, but yes, I'd say that is an Amperex, and one of the best 12AX7s ever made.
 
jaymanaa said:
I don't know all the codes, but yes, I'd say that is an Amperex, and one of the best 12AX7s ever made.
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I don't know, could be a Philips/Miniwatt tube as well, as they were also based out of Holland and made tubes for themselves and for export/other companies.
 
captainclock said:
I don't know, could be a Philips/Miniwatt tube as well, as they were also based out of Holland and made tubes for themselves and for export/other companies.
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Same plant. Amperex was the US division of Philips. For some reason, other than Mullards, it appears that most Philips tubes destined for the US market were produced in Holland, even though they had plants all over Europe.
 
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Sam Cogley said:
Same plant. Amperex was the US division of Philips, tubes they made for US sale usually carried the Amperex name, except for Mullards, and those sold to other manufacturers for relabeling.
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Ok, I thought so but wasn't sure. I have a few Amperex Tubes laying around (some in their original boxes yet) but of course they aren't all that useful because they aren't audio/HiFi tubes they're TV tubes... :(
 
Amperex IS Philips.

That said, US labeled organ tubes are almost always RCA, GE, or Sylvania. The US Amperex plant was rather small, and was mostly purchased so that Philips could get access to the US military market.
 
At the time, Philco existed and the names and products offered were too similar. Phillips sold radio gear under the Norelco name, and tubes under the Amperex name. They eventually bought Philco in the 1970s, and now you can buy Phillips branded products in the US.

The USA made tubes could be a number of things. You'd have to find the number codes on the side to tell for sure. 188 with etched numbers is GE, 312 is Sylvania, and 274 is RCA. If you have different numbers, check this list to see if anything matches up

http://www.triodeel.com/eiacode.htm#tubes
 
gadget73 said:
At the time, Philco existed and the names and products offered were too similar. Phillips sold radio gear under the Norelco name, and tubes under the Amperex name. They eventually bought Philco in the 1970s, and now you can buy Phillips branded products in the US.

The USA made tubes could be a number of things. You'd have to find the number codes on the side to tell for sure. 188 with etched numbers is GE, 312 is Sylvania, and 274 is RCA. If you have different numbers, check this list to see if anything matches up

http://www.triodeel.com/eiacode.htm#tubes
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Well if Philips bought out Philco (which was a subsidiary of Ford at the time) then why was it that it was Philips-Magnavox for the longest time on the TVs and Stereos that they sold here in America? I thought Philips bought out Magnavox? :scratch2:
 
Interesting history here. Philips ECG/Sylvania (no affiliation with Philips of Europe at the time) did indeed buy Philco :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philco

But later: "In the early 1980s, GTE Sylvania sold the rights to the name Sylvania and Philco for use on consumer electronics equipment only, to the Netherlands' NV Philips. This marked the end of Sylvania's TV production in Batavia, New York, USA and Smithfield, North Carolina, USA. The Sylvania Smithfield plant later became Channel Master. The rights to the Sylvania name in many countries are held by the U.S. subsidiary of the German company Osram which, itself, is a subsidiary of Siemens AG (NYSE:SI). The Sylvania brand name is owned worldwide, apart from Australia, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, Puerto Rico and the USA, by Havells Sylvania, headquartered in London."

Alas, we're wandering a bit off topic now.
 
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