Does it look like fake ECC83 / 12AX7 Mullards?

[william vogel]

Some more detailed pictures would help. Like the plate structures and the mica spacers. The bottom of the bottle probably isn’t going to reveal anything. The seam area where the base portion was attached to the envelope, the top of the glass where the envelope was swedged and the evacuation tube sealed. Amperex was Holland. If I was going to fake a Mullard, I’d at least make it Britain. Mullard and Amperex had etch codes. Previous pictures aren’t enough to tell much of anything.

 

[denrrou]

Some more detailed pictures would help. Like the plate structures and the mica spacers. The bottom of the bottle probably isn’t going to reveal anything. The seam area where the base portion was attached to the envelope, the top of the glass where the envelope was swedged and the evacuation tube sealed. Amperex was Holland. If I was going to fake a Mullard, I’d at least make it Britain. Mullard and Amperex had etch codes. Previous pictures aren’t enough to tell much of anything.

heres a video of its details more closely:

 

[Jethro Rocker]

Some more detailed pictures would help. Like the plate structures and the mica spacers. The bottom of the bottle probably isn’t going to reveal anything. The seam area where the base portion was attached to the envelope, the top of the glass where the envelope was swedged and the evacuation tube sealed. Amperex was Holland. If I was going to fake a Mullard, I’d at least make it Britain. Mullard and Amperex had etch codes. Previous pictures aren’t enough to tell much of anything.

It seems some were. See post #4

 

[Jon Snell]

I'm no tube expert but didn't the Chinese or Japanese buy the old Mullard tube equipment and make tubes that structurally look like vintage Mullards but were called (don't remember name started with a M...)

No, Mullard sold some manufacturing plant the the Eastern Block.
Pity really, England pioneered valve manufacturing.
The Mullard name was used under licence by many companies and the valves had to pass the inspection before the logo was printed on them.
Philips to name just one.

 

[StingRay85]

Instead of a shaky video, please make good pictures as suggested in the posts above. I get dizzy watching your video, but I see a few clues that could help with IDing the tubes

 

[Amadeus91]

I'm no tube expert but didn't the Chinese or Japanese buy the old Mullard tube equipment and make tubes that structurally look like vintage Mullards but were called (don't remember name started with a M...)

Yes, I believe it was Matsushita.

 

[Amadeus91]

Here is an interesting one of three, I have.
Mullard NEVER made a 5Y3G. There is no code on the tube, so it is of unknown origin.
A nice anomaly, to have in my collection.

Apologies, for hijacking your thread @denrrou hope you get a resolution to your dilemma.

 

[stickyfinger]

If you cant find any etch code and the tubes have very clean unworn silk screening (as the silk screening literally can wipe off touching it) I think these might be Japanese Mullards made by Matsushita. Ive never owned a Matsushita but I might have one or two Mullards that dont have etch codes and might be fake as well!

 

[StingRay85]

If you cant find any etch code and the tubes have very clean unworn silk screening (as the silk screening literally can wipe off touching it) I think these might be Japanese Mullards made by Matsushita. Ive never owned a Matsushita but I might have one or two Mullards that dont have etch codes and might be fake as well!

You are on the right track. There are still some gaps in the story of the blackburn I63. When did they stop and where did the tooling for this tube went to? Philips stopped with the I66 in Heerlen already in the early 70s, Blackburn was already out of production

 

[SkyMonkey]

My uncle was a radio ham in the 60s and I can remember boxed and boxes of tubes in his workshop. Plenty of them had those blue boxes. After he died they threw it all in the trash - tubes were just old fashioned rubbish in the 70s.

Wow man. My Dad too.
He had an antenna pole in the back garden taller than the house, with a wire to his 'Man Attic', where all the Ham kit, maps of the world, stacks of dead TVs, and draws full of tubes and diodes were carefully filed and labelled.
He used to make junction box doodads out of old St Bruno tins!

All gone when we moved house in the late 80's, bar one new-ish crappy Solid State Ham kit!

I will just never know what treasures he had stashed away.

 

[purpleplexi]

Wow man. My Dad too.
He had an antenna pole in the back garden taller than the house, with a wire to his 'Man Attic', where all the Ham kit, maps of the world, stacks of dead TVs, and draws full of tubes and diodes were carefully filed and labelled.
He used to make junction box doodads out of old St Bruno tins!

All gone when we moved house in the late 80's, bar one new-ish crappy Solid State Ham kit!

I will just never know what treasures he had stashed away.

Wow. Your Dad was my uncle. That makes us cuzzins or something. Honestly that was just the same. He had like a network of antennas laid out all over the garden and piles of tube radios, tvs, and just endless spares including the afore mentioned tubes - just boxes and boxes of them. He also had a scrapyard with dozens of american cars - in the UK- I guess he was a bigger influence on me than I realise....

 

[SkyMonkey]

piles of tube radios, tvs, and just endless spares

Yup. He seemingly just couldn't throw out anything he thought he could plunder for spares.
As a tiny kid I have a vivid memory of peeking around the door and seeing three old 60's style TVs stacked on top of each other.
I couldn't understand why we didn't each have our own TVs in the house.
He must have kept every TV up to that point that had ever died on him.

The big World Map had pins in it for all the far-off other Hams he had contacted.

For comedy nostalgia you should listen to Tony Hancock's Radio Ham episode.

"There's nothing like a DS19/87B radio valve. Look at you. A triumph of technological engineering! A work of art.
They can keep their Sistine Chapels. Give me the inside of a wireless set any day!"

 

[william vogel]

heres a video of its details more closely:

A video is useless. Still closeup photos. Just like already requested.

 

[william vogel]

The Japanese Mullard idea is a possibility and unless the seller advertised the tube as a Blackburn or something else other than it’s labeling then no foul. I’ve never owned the Japanese tubes but heard they are good. I have a few orange RCA labeled Blackburn Mullard tubes. Because your tube is labeled Holland means nothing. It could be fake but it could be genuine.

 

[denrrou]

A video is useless. Still closeup photos. Just like already requested.

i am not a good photographer, but heres a bunch of them

even if its fake, the tube sounds actually quite good... and this one did not blow...

 

[denrrou]

A video is useless. Still closeup photos. Just like already requested.

 

[StingRay85]

More than 80% of pictures are not even focused on the tube. I give up

 

[william vogel]

More than 80% of pictures are not even focused on the tube. I give up

That’s what I was thinking. The mica has the Mullard notch out in the center of the plate. The plates look Mullard. It could be

 

[StingRay85]

No etched code means no Mullard. It's probably Japanese on Mullard tooling

 

[william vogel]

It’s my understanding that the 12ax7 Japanese tubes that look Mullard from the internals have a 45 degree getter and flash. I’m not an expert on these but it’s what I’m seeing.