18Watt.com

I hate to ask this but:

I did do a search but didn't find any pic's of a Mullard 12AX7 or a re-labled Mullard 12AX7.

Just wondering if anyone can post pic's of the sweet stuff in 12AX7's, like Mullards and their re-labled cousins.

I got a box of old 12AX7's used, most of them have 12AX7 barely visable but nothing else.

Basically how can I tell what a re-labled Mullard looks like? I'd rather get my info here then eabay.

I don't have a pic of one but the best way to tell is a mullard label or rebrand will have an etched code near the bottom of the tube which begins with "B" indicating the Mullard Blackburn England plant.

This is the best collection of tube pictures I've found:

https://69.36.182.51/NOS%20Tubes%20Pict ... index.html

If you still have questions, ship 'em all to me and I'll let you know if you've got anything worth keeping.



-Dana

ajkimba wrote:Basically how can I tell what a re-labled Mullard looks like? I'd rather get my info here then eabay.

I don't know if this is true of ALL Mullards, but all the Blackburns I have show four closure seams at the top of the glass. Even the relabels have these. They also have the "B" code etched as was said earlier.

burchtone wrote:

ajkimba wrote:Basically how can I tell what a re-labled Mullard looks like? I'd rather get my info here then eabay.

I don't know if this is true of ALL Mullards, but all the Blackburns I have show four closure seams at the top of the glass. Even the relabels have these. They also have the "B" code etched as was said earlier.

I would say that the etched code is what to look for. I'm quite sure that Mullards share those seams with quite a few other producers, such as the Heerlen factory.

actually, every blackburn mule I've ever seen has just the one seam across the top. The heerlen, and seimens (and more) have the double seams perpendicular to each other across the top.

I bought this on ebay a little while ago, Philips 7025 made in Great Britain. The bottom print reads "163" and "B3A5" or is it "83A5". I bought it thinking it might be a re-label and was the only bidder. Did I get what I was hoping for?

Thanks
dave

No questions - y hit the jackpot there - 63 Blackburn.
Let us be clear - the Blackburn plant turned out a lot of valves, but there were other plants in Mitcham and Kenley which were also making genuine Mullard valves - and the other plants in the Philips group made nice valves to the same design. The thing that ajkimba should be looking for is that group stylised code of 2-3 characters over 2-4 characters which makes it a Philips group code - but the Brimar code (6 or 7 chars with the silkscreen) and Mazda codes (6/7 chars etched along the axis for Ediswan, similar along or around for MBLE, something that looks like a Philips code but makes no sense for French Mazda) also say that you hav a good 'un. But the Blackburn valves are sought after all over - the S&H coded ("not equal") sign are about as good (better if you are a German), and the USA Amperex production (coded *) are VERY underrated. Mullard were the most relabelled makers on earth (I have Realistic tubes which have a Blackburn code). Any etched code is worth a follow-up - and a lot of old valves are still worthwhile, even without additional codes (Tungsram and RFT , for example). Back to
http://www.18watt.com/modules.php?name= ... ic&t=13255

for the Philips codes.

This page has excellent photos of many old brands of 12AX7's

https://www.tubeworld.com/12ax7.htm