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EH/New Sensor still having tube trouble in Russia


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Originally posted by fernmeister

I wish him all the best, but fear it will turn out for the worst.


Is there a contingency for developing more capacity elsewhere, like China?

 

 

China ...

 

Shuguang Electrical Factory No. 1: In Changsha, Hunan; owned by Korean firm Samsung. Shuguang makes most of the popular audio and guitar types, which are frequently rebranded by importers and Original Equipment Manufacturers.

Types believed in production: 6L6GC, EL34 (3 types), 6550, KT100, 5AR4, 2A3, 807.

http://www.shuguangtubes.com

 

Liuzhou: makes many power types which are marketed abroad.

 

O&J Enterprises/Valve Art/ESTI: allegedly makes the following: 6L6GC, EL34, 6550A, KT88, KT100, 300B, 300B-C60

(graphite plate 60w), 5300B (graphite plate 80w 150mA), and 6300B (graphite plate 80w 180mA), plus

possibly other types, at a factory in Changsha, Hunan.

It is suspected some types might be made by Shuguang and Liuzhou under an exclusive license.

 

"Sino" factory in Beijing recently stopped making 12AX7, 12AT7, 12AU7, 6GH8, 6AN8 and other small tubes, due to a poor market and tough competition from Sovtek/New Sensor.

Sino is apparently no longer making any tubes. Rumor has it that Sino's old tooling was purchased by Magic Parts, who have put it back into operation with a Chinese partner.

 

Tianjin: small facility, run by former Sino factory manager.

Makes power triodes and rectifiers similar to old Western Electric types. Their tubes are marketed under various names, such as "TJ", "All Music", "Full Music", and "Sophia". Types: 101D, 102D, 205D, 274B, and many variations of 300B.

 

There are other tube factories in China. Most make only large power tubes and keep a very low profile, such as the Jingguang factory which makes most of the ceramic tubes for Penta Laboratories. Some specialize in transmitting tubes such as the 811A, 812A, 813, 3-500Z, 100TH, 833 and others. Such transmitting types are often branded with old American/European brands and sold without notification that they are Chinese-made.

 

like on-line Viagra

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wait there's more ... an article by the man himself

 

Rock & Roll Vs Racketeering

By Mike Matthews

 

All of us at New Sensor / Electro-Harmonix want to thank the many hundreds of our friends who contacted us and voiced their overwhelming support. Following is an update on some of the events since our first e-mail.

 

December 9

 

Hartley Peavey, CEO Peavey Electronics sent a great letter via UPS to A. Konovalov, Putin

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meanwhile in Serbia ...

 

Elektronska Industrija (Ei), Nis:

Former Philips contract manufacturer is making audio tubes along with many other electronic products. Currently being marketed by Edicron. Types in possible production: 6CA7, 6CG7, 12AT7, 12AX7, 12BH7, 12DW7, EL34, EL519, PL519, KT90, KT99, EL84, possibly others.

http://www.eiexpo.co.yu/

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and SLOVAKIA:

JJ Electronic, Cadca, Slovakia:

Spinoff from now-defunct state factory Tesla. Outside of Slovakia, JJ tubes are sometimes sold under the Teslovak or Tesla brandnames. Types in production: KT88S, EL34, E34L, ECC83/12AX7, EL84, 6L6GC, 300B, 7027A. Some of the power types are available in red or blue glass.

Robert Keeley has got some explaining to do

http://www.jj-electronic.sk

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than there's the Czech Republic

at the former Tesla factory, Hloubetin, Prague :

All the tubes sold by AVVT, KR Enterprise, and the new Emission Labs are said to be made by the same contract manufacturer in Prague, using old Tesla equipment.

 

Tesla Vrsovice, Prague might still be making some glass power tubes under proprietary type numbers.

http://www.electron-tubes.cz/

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another blurb ...

Matthews has to battle against SOK, a notorious multi-billion dollar Russian conglomerate with aggressive real estate aspirations.

 

The Samara-based SOK has made headlines in Russian newspapers recently for its ambitious acquisitions in the city of Saratov. Headed by Yuri Kachmazov, who reportedly travels with ten or more bodyguards, SOK has already purchased Saratov's largest bridge building company, and is seeking control of its port on the Volga River.

 

Through its subsidiary RBE Saratov (Russian Business Estate), SOK is now planning to acquire ExpoPUL tube manufacturing facilities.

 

In Saratov, the battle began last autumn when Matthews received a letter with an offer. For $400,000, a company called Russian Business Estates, or RBE, would buy his factory, called ExpoPUL, which has 930 employees and sales of $600,000 or so a month. Matthews quickly refused. Next, a letter arrived warning that the factory would soon have troubles with its electricity; two weeks later, the power went off. Intruders came and used jackhammers to raise dust into the factory's clean rooms. Strange young men in leather jackets loitered just outside the factory gate. Matthews rallied makers of musical equipment who rely on tubes from Russia and promised a fight. RBE's director in Saratov, Vitaly Borin, said he wanted to buy Matthews's factory for the building it occupies and then sell to an unidentified investor. Conceding that his company was putting pressure on Matthews, he said that only legal tactics were being used. If Matthews did not agree to sell, Borin said in an interview, the factory might run afoul of national security rules.

"We have instructions of the FSB where it is written in black and white that a military factory cannot exist beside a company with foreign capital," he said, referring to the Federal Security Service, a successor to the KGB. Near ExpoPUL is a factory that makes electronic components for military hardware. "The FSB hasn't gotten involved only because we haven't gotten them involved," he said. Writing a letter to Moscow would be all he needed to shut the factory, Borin said.

Matthews is currently appealing to the American Embassy in Moscow, along with several other government officials in both the U.S. and Russia.

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meanwhile in the USA ...

 

Groove Tubes, San Fernando CA are making copies of old RCA 6L6GC and 6V6GT, using old tooling and marketed as high-end guitar amplifier tubes.

http://www.groovetubes.com

 

Richardson Electronics, LaFox, IL:

Made a 300B, 845 and 50 sold under the Cetron brand for high-end audio, as well as a KT88 sold under the

National brand. Current production cannot be confirmed. Richardson has large quantities of tooling obtained from old American tube factories when they shut down. Also makes some larger transmitting and high-voltage types. Richardson markets many tubes (some obtained from other factories worldwide) under their own brandnames; such as Cetron, National and Amperex.

http://www.rell.com

 

MU, Oceanside CA:

This small factory once made glass tubes on a low-production basis for the US government. They are now working on a

rectifier tube for the audio market, as well as possible other products.

 

Westrex Corporation, Huntsville AL:

Makes the reissued Western Electric 300B for high-end audio. Might be developing a KT88 (with a UK partner factory), 308B, 274A and other types for future manufacture. http://www.westernelectric.com

 

Triton Services was manufacturing some glass transmitting tubes using former Eimac and RCA tooling. Recently they were reported to have ceased production of glass tubes.

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Originally posted by bieke

and SLOVAKIA:

JJ Electronic, Cadca, Slovakia:

Spinoff from now-defunct state factory Tesla. Outside of Slovakia, JJ tubes are sometimes sold under the Teslovak or Tesla brandnames. Types in production: KT88S, EL34, E34L, ECC83/12AX7, EL84, 6L6GC, 300B, 7027A. Some of the power types are available in red or blue glass.

Robert Keeley has got some explaining to do

http://www.jj-electronic.sk

 

Oh. At least they're being made in my ancestral homeland. Maybe my relatives will buy me a matched quad.;)

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or a different opinion (from a tube freak)

hmmm

 

I would imagine that Mike Mathews isn't sleeping so peacefully anymore. Russian bears are hungry and clawing at his door.

He paid $500,000 for the factory in Russia in 1993.

In essence, he paid peanuts for a factory which employs 900 people, but of course there is no real law and order in Russia, no real esate, so if he loses his factory, he don't lose much, considering how much he has made in the last 13 years.

 

I think If I were MIke I'd agree to close and sell but on condition that I be given 12mths to set up elsewhere.

I hear depressed parts of the US could use some re-investment, and don't tell me that American knowhow couldn't make tube making profitable. The trouble of course is greed. Tube making

in the US would have to be done by higher paid people, but is there the slightest justification for the cost of a WE 300B at usd $300 each?

 

There seems to be less in a 300B than in a 6550, no suppressor or screen grid for starters, so WTF are they so expensive?

 

Anyway, what is needed is a keen young workforce willing to really work so each man makes 50 tubes a day and that gives a saleable product of $12 per item, or $600 worth of goods.

That man should take home $100, there would be $250 worth of costs, and that leaves $150 worth of profit and for taxes and factory rent. At least if you rent, the mobsters can't take what you don't "own", they can only extract a high rent.

Is Mike prepared to pay the bribe price to keep things running? Obviosly not. I'd have thought that if Mike offered the crims 50 grand a year they'd leave him alone.

 

I'd also have thought that there are perhaps 10 countries in Sth america who would welcome a tube factory with open arms gleefully.

 

But lets work from the figures above.

$600,000 worth of tube sales PER MONTH from 930 employees means that each person generates $645 worth of goods, which based on 20 working days per month, each man makes $32 worth of goods per day, so that's about 3 Sovtek, 6550, and one pays for the raw materials, another is the mans's wages, and the other is presumably rent, taxes or profits.

 

So is any of the story by Kramer true? So what are the wages? how efficient are the factory methods? How much Vodka do the Russian workers drink? How many tubes do they pilfer from production to sell elsewhere privately?

 

Maybe Mike is thinking of retiring anyway, and I can understand the attractions of fishing and golf.

 

Maybe he would have to just move the factory, maybe create an opportunity for someone younger and passionate about good tubes to make it all happen without the mobster BS factor.

 

If he doesn't save his enterprise the chinese and all the others will simply raise production to satisfy demand.

Expect prices to rise. Stock up now.

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or how about this opinion ...

 

Fresh tubes are now a $60m business with only a handful of producers in strange parts of the world.

 

"Mike Matthews sent out a press release a few months ago. Such things happen in Russia all the time nowadays. Indeed, the word "bysnesmenyi" has become a cynical slang term for "criminal" among ordinary Russians. The massive corruption tends to explain how a hard-liner like Putin was elected. People figure, at least he's a law-and-order type.

"Mike Matthews does not have a monopoly on vacuum-tube production. The primary reason why guitar-amp companies do business with him: he offers them extra-low prices on bulk tubes. Plus, he's an aggressive self-promoter.

"Don't forget, there is also JJ, Ei, Svetlana (which is no longer allowed to use the name "Svetlana" in the USA, because Mike Matthews bought the trademark and is slapping it on tubes made at his factory), plus at least 2 factories in China.

This doesn't count smaller firms that specialize in tubes for high-end audio, such as Western Electric or Tianjin. So, we have at least 6 factories making typical tubes for guitar amps and audio use (12AX7, 6L6, EL34 etc.).

"Bear in mind that some of those firms are just resellers....there are actually only a few real factories making the tubes. Some resellers like to claim they are making the stuff, but they really aren't. A LOT of Chinese tubes enter the US under various brandnames, and are often claimed to be American-made. No, I won't name names.

"Even so, you see how many firms are still doing this? Ten years ago, I estimated that audio tubes (not amps or other audio devices, just the tubes) were at least a $40-million a year business worldwide. Since then it has probably grown by at least 50%, perhaps more.

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Originally posted by bieke

or how about this opinion ...


"Here is a complete list of glass tube factories, as far as I can find out,
as of 2003....

Bear in mind that some of those firms are just resellers.....

 

meanwhile, april 2006, in Frankfurt MusikMesse,

the other pure tube guys:

jimtons339.jpg

are considering...

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When has Rock n' Roll and its related culture and enterprises NOT been oppressed and exploited by criminals, fascists, and lowlifes?

 

This was true when crooked record promoters corrupted radio DJs with payola in the 1950s. This was true in the 50s and 60s when the bigoted Neo-Cons of that day condemned Rock music as Satanic. This was true when an unscrupulous labor union laid seige to EH back in the late 1970s. This is true today in Russia, whose organized crime incursions in America make the old-time Cosa Nostra look petty by comparison.

 

Personally, I believe a large investment in vacuum tube technology in this day and age is risky, perhaps unwise. Mike Matthews however bravely undertook this, with considerable success. He survived past unscrupulous depredations and will survive this as well.

 

To support him, if you use tubes, buy Sovtek!

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another comment in this respect

 

Question : Is audio tube engineering and manufacturing destined to become a lost art?

 

Answer : It already is lost. The only reason we have tube guitar amps in the stores today, is because guitar-amp manufacturers found sources for cheap 6L6s and 12AX7s. Almost all of them come from old Communist factories in Eastern Europe, Russia or China.

 

Ask Aspen Pittman at Groove Tubes. He's been trying to make his own 6L6GCs for years. He can't even get the button-base stems anymore. The remaining factories usually have to make all the parts themselves, from scratch.

 

This "industry" is hanging by a thread. Only the demands of the marketplace keep it alive. As I said before, engineers regard vacuum tubes as antique abominations, better off eliminated.

 

One major result is that discerning users are running around driving up the prices of good NOS audio types, and using them up-- thus driving the prices up further. But the current production is nowhere near as well-made. The only pressure the tube factories feel is from guitar-amp makers--who only want the price lower.

 

The musicians are usually clueless, and also looking for the lowest price. Laissez-faire capitalism might yet choke the business off. Ignorance is strength, war is peace.

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or this quote :

 

"One can do far more intersting things with old TV tubes, or pentodes like the 6AK5. I know of one surplus dealer who owns 260,000 military-surplus 6AK5s. He can't seem to sell them as a bulk lot, nobody wants them. They don't plug into guitar amps. One could MAKE an excellent guitar amp using 6AK5s, but people are conservative, so they keep using 12AX7s."

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