Are these EL34s RFT

eazilyled · Post by **eazilyled** » Wed Aug 24, 2011 7:03 am

I bought these EL34s from ebay for cheap, turns out they were from a fellow UK TAG member (thanks Rob Livesey).

I got them because they looked very much like RFTs in the picture. Two of them are stamped 'Edicron', and the other two are stamped 'EL34G'. They were listed as Edicron / unknown in the auction.

They have the dimples on the top, and the innards look correct.

I was wondering if anyone could take a look at these pics of them to confirm if they are RFT or not?

overtone · Post by **overtone** » Wed Aug 24, 2011 7:53 am

yes, sure look like RFT to me. Sometimes a clear picture of the base helps too, but usually a dimple means DDR tubes, or S*emens to the uninitiated.

Here is a thing that not many people know: back in the Cold War days, the replacement tubes for some of the NATO firing control systems actually came from the socialist East Germany DDR. I have a few "Telefunken" EL34s that are obviously from RFT, made in East Germany, but and marked with the West German military symbol under the Telefunken logo.

paulster · Post by **paulster** » Wed Aug 24, 2011 8:41 pm

Look like RFTs to me.

Lonely Raven · Post by **Lonely Raven** » Wed Aug 24, 2011 10:23 pm

overtone wrote:yes, sure look like RFT to me. Sometimes a clear picture of the base helps too, but usually a dimple means DDR tubes, or S*emens to the uninitiated.

Here is a thing that not many people know: back in the Cold War days, the replacement tubes for some of the NATO firing control systems actually came from the socialist East Germany DDR. I have a few "Telefunken" EL34s that are obviously from RFT, made in East Germany, but and marked with the West German military symbol under the Telefunken logo.

That's funny you mention that; I just saw some Telefunks that looked like RFTs and I was confused.

eazilyled · Post by **eazilyled** » Thu Aug 25, 2011 7:15 am

Thanks for the replies guys.

Overtone - interesting fact about the use of tubes in the cold war. I have also attached a couple of pics of the bases if you are interested - one for the Edicron and one for the EL34G.

They all have 8 pins which I believe is another feature of the RFTs.

I have tried the tubes in a Mesa Tremoverb as my Express build isn't finished yet and they sounded good.

I was trying to research Edicron and EL34G yesterday. I believe Edicron was / still is a UK reseller of tubes. Their website (www.edicron.com) indicates that they have bought EL34s from Ei, JJ, Tesla, Sovtek, China, Svetlana and RFT.

The Edicron info on the tubes bought from RFT states "Some of the last RFT production, based on the original Siemens design. The blue prints of this valve went on to become the Russian EL34-G, G+, WXT and EH."

I then did a search on EL34G and it seems that that Sovtek produced a tube with this name as a copy of the RFTs in the early 90s and were renowned for being awful. So now I'm not sure, certainly about the ones marked EL34G... although the Edicron ones could be the genuine article.

eazilyled · Post by **eazilyled** » Thu Aug 25, 2011 8:00 am

Just found this link to a German site that shows lots of rebranded RFTs. Interesting stuff. Edicron are in there...

http://www.jogis-roehrenbude.de/EL34-St ... Seite4.htm

and a Google translated version (German to English):
http://translate.google.com/translate?j ... Seite4.htm

overtone · Post by **overtone** » Thu Aug 25, 2011 9:08 am

eazilyled wrote:...I then did a search on EL34G and it seems that that Sovtek produced a tube with this name as a copy of the RFTs in the early 90s and were renowned for being awful. So now I'm not sure, certainly about the ones marked EL34G...

The Sovteks have slightly smaller punched through joiners, I mean those tell-tale rectangular cut outs one above each other.
The only good thing that I can say about the Sovtek EL34 is that it indirectly brought me around to being able to build and maintain guitar amps myself. About ten years ago the tech replaced some original Golden Lion KT77s with those Sovteks. I could hardly use that amp after that, it was like cleaning your ears out with a Dremmel sander. So I decided to take matters into my own hands.
In another identical amp the KT77s had long since been replaced by a quad of "Valvos", which in fact were RFT made. I think you will enjoy the RFTs.
Great that you found that web site, I was going to post it, but I was only aware of the German text.
Here are some close ups of the two kinds of RFT bases, thick and thin, with a UK made xf2 EL34 as reference,
best, tony

eazilyled · Post by **eazilyled** » Thu Aug 25, 2011 9:39 am

Thanks for the great info Tony.

The bases of the valves definitely match your thick RFT base pic, although you can't really see it my pics as they are bit dark and blurred (sorry).

On a side note, I had actually contacted Edicron earlier today to see if they could tell me what source the Edicron valves were, as one of them has a partial code on it (see the left hand valve on IMAG0097.jpg). I got a reply from a helpful guy called Peter Cruh who said he will check the code against their archives next week, although I think we know they are RFT now.

overtone · Post by **overtone** » Thu Aug 25, 2011 10:55 am

That is a pretty amazing side note, especially if they can trace that code.

I made a quick mash-up image of the Sovtek sander-bit EL34 on the left, shown against your EL34G on the right, for comparison.
The Sovtek doesn't have a dimple on the top of the glass and no halo inside, you can see the typical soviet disks instead. I hope you can see how the punch throughs are finer on the Sovtek too.

eazilyled · Post by **eazilyled** » Thu Aug 25, 2011 11:10 am

Thanks for the image comparison Tony.

I will post any response I get from Edicron next week (should be Tuesday).

rooster · Post by **rooster** » Thu Aug 25, 2011 3:42 pm

FWIW, I have not been aware of any RFT/Siemens EL34 that didn't have the dimple on top, the 6 pin missing, and a hole in the key.

There's a seller on ebay, Bryan Sanborn(e) (SanborneAmps?) who know more about these tubes than any man alive. Contact him.

Those Rusky tubes, whew, stout base indeed. Plate crimps look different but similar. Hm, there's more to tubes than getting the looks right.

Structo · Post by **Structo** » Thu Aug 25, 2011 5:44 pm

Here are some good pictures and data on various old EL34's.

http://natubes.com/index.php?page=produ ... &catid=104

rooster · Post by **rooster** » Fri Aug 26, 2011 6:53 am

Tom - This site has some counterfeit Mullard tubes on it. See page #2 the last two pics, Chinese junk. I wouldn't trust this guy with my laundry.

eazilyled · Post by **eazilyled** » Tue Aug 30, 2011 2:09 pm

I got a response from Peter Cruh at Edicron today.

His response confirms that the Edicron tubes are RFT

:

"Hello Rick

I have checked the archives and compared your photo with our stock and

The valve in your photo is identical to our original RFT stock

I am also fairly certain the valve originally read "K3RM2". This would be consisted with a large quantity of RFTs we bought in September 1982

So I am pleased to confirm you were right, your valve is an RFT EL34.

Kind regards
Peter Cruh
Edicron Limited"

eazilyled · Post by **eazilyled** » Wed Aug 31, 2011 6:37 am

Also I forgot to mention that Edicron have a few NOS RFT EL34s in stock. They are £25 each (excluding VAT), and can be supplied as matched pairs.

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