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Mullard IEC 12AX7?

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www.records

Quality over Quantity
I am home sick (flu) and am tired of sleeping so I have been looking through a few tubes. I have a pair of Mullard IEC ECC83 halo getter tubes with B5H3 codes and am curious about these tubes. I tried to use the search function but with IEC being 3 letters it shows no search results. Can anyone give me an idea if these are indeed Mullard tubes, date of manufacturer, etc.

Thanks for your help.
 
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www.records said:
I am home sick (flu) and am tired of sleeping so I have been looking through a few tubes. I have a pair of Mullard IEC ECC83 halo getter tubes with B5H3 codes and am curious about these tubes. I tried to use the search function but with IEC being 3 letters it shows no search results. Can anyone give me an idea if these are indeed Mullard tubes, date of manufacturer, etc.

Thanks for your help.
Click to expand...

They probably have 'Made in Britain' on them too, and yes, they are Mullard.
 
Blackburn, Eng. 60's Primo tubes, the greatest nope, but fantastic bottom end, and warm all over. Cleans up distortion nicely.
 
www.records said:
I am home sick (flu) and am tired of sleeping so I have been looking through a few tubes. I have a pair of Mullard IEC ECC83 halo getter tubes with B5H3 codes and am curious about these tubes. I tried to use the search function but with IEC being 3 letters it shows no search results. Can anyone give me an idea if these are indeed Mullard tubes, date of manufacturer, etc.

Thanks for your help.
Click to expand...

IEC was International Electronic Components, the importer for Mullard and other overseas sourced tubes. Since the date codes indicate Blackburn built tubes I'm sure you have real Mullards. But FYI, IEC wasn't above a bit of chicanery - many IEC tubes in very Mullard-like boxes were actually Russian.
 
Interesting, I have some of those IEC tubes, mostly in EICO gear, & wondered about the IEC, since they're also clearly marked Mullard. But I've also seen them with the Heathkit/Daystrom logo, that also said Mullard, so figured why worry, as long as they're Mullard. :smoke:
 
Great info guys. Any idea when IEC began? Was it as early as the 50's or was it later in the 60's/70's? If it was later then I can assume (guess) this tube is likely 3rd week of August, 1965?
 
IEC started distributing Mullard in the US in the '60s. Most '50s Philips codes have only 3 characters in the second line. So they are 1965.
 
Great info in this thread! I have a couple of those IEC tubes around from a stash I bought a few months ago.
 
Tom Bavis said:
IEC started distributing Mullard in the US in the '60s. Most '50s Philips codes have only 3 characters in the second line. So they are 1965.
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Good to know! I always wondered about the 1950 vs. 1960 dating.
I really didn't think many of these were 1950s tubes, especially ones I've harvested from stereo gear.
Wasn't a lot of that around in the 1950s
 
www.records said:
I am home sick (flu) and am tired of sleeping so I have been looking through a few tubes. I have a pair of Mullard IEC ECC83 halo getter tubes with B5H3 codes and am curious about these tubes. I tried to use the search function but with IEC being 3 letters it shows no search results. Can anyone give me an idea if these are indeed Mullard tubes, date of manufacturer, etc.

Thanks for your help.
Click to expand...

If the other set of tube type/series codes printed on the glass envelope is I63, it's a 1965 production date.

. . Falcon
 
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