An interesting video

[soundmasterg]

I came across this video that some of you may like.

Greg

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/01/27/bb ... -elec.html

[jps]

Cool!

[beatlefreak]

Great insight into the company,

[johnallg]

Greg, interesting, but the interviewer and Boing Boing had no idea of the veracity of what they printed or filmed. EH is a tester and re-brander of tubes, not a manufacturer. The burn in and test fixtures of the tubes is just that - they cull the best of the batch and match them in sets of 2/4/6/8 and brand them EH.

Case in point - "Turns out that EHX also manufacturers a huge percentage of the world's vacuum tubes in its factory in Russia," - Most of what they cull from are Sovtek tubes. EH owns New Sensor, importer of Sovtek tubes, and also owns the Sovtek name. I do not believe they own the factory in Russia.

Also, the comment that the NOS shelves were probably the largest collection of tubes you'll see in your life is stretching it. I have almost that much in my basement. We have a huge pile of boxes full of NOS tubes stored here at Broadcast House too. Antique Radio Supply (www.tubesandmore.com) might beg to differ also. I'm sure there are more.

[johnhall]

I do not believe they own the factory in Russia.

Mike Matthews thinks that he does:

http://media.zzounds.com/media/matthews ... 8ad93d.pdf

Also, an excerpt from The Music Trades:

MIKE MATTHEWS IS STEELED for a fight. More than two decades after Electro-Harmonix fell victim to labor racketeers, the maverick manufacturer is fiercely defending the vacuum tube business he has lovingly built over the past 15 years. ExpoPUL, a wholly owned subsidiary of Matthews' New Sensor Corporation, produces Sovtek, Electro-Harmonix, Tungsol, Mullard, and Svetlana tubes, which are used in amplifiers made by Fender, Peavey, Mesa Boogie, Crate, Soldano, Korg, Marshall, and many other brands.

The implications for the guitar amplifier industry are potentially enormous. Early responses from some of the many amp manufacturers that depend on the company's tubes suggest that they are seriously concerned. According to Matthews, there are only two other much smaller factories in the world still mass-producing vacuum tubes, and ExpoPUL is the only one that designs new types of tubes to meet the needs of its major manufacturer customers.

Matthews' current adversary is RBE Saratov, a subsidiary of Russian multibillion-dollar conglomerate Samkon. RBE (Russian Business Estate) is seeking space occupied by ExpoPUL in the Reflektor Industrial Complex, where RBE owns ten other companies. Matthews says he ignored numerous statements by RBE claiming to "want and need"...


More info:

http://www.stereophile.com/news/052206tubes/

[soundmasterg]

The last I had heard about that whole situation was that it had been resolved to New Sensor's satisfaction, with the Russian government stepping up and making the people who were interested in the property go away and leave New Sensor alone. Mike Matthews is supposed to be chummy with the daughter of a big wig general over there, or so the rumor goes. Given that it is Russia, anything can happen though.

New Sensor's factory in Russia does make about 2/3 of the world's tubes. You've got their various brands made in the Saratov factory, (Sovtek, Mullard, Tung-Sol, Svetlana brand in US and Canada, EH, Genelex) then you have JJ in the former Czechoslovakia, the Svetlana factory in St. Petersburg which makes Svetlana brand worldwide, but labelled and sold as Winged C in US and Canada, EI in Serbia but not sure if they are still producing and selling tubes worldwide, and several Chinese factories and thats about it for worldwide tube production. There are some runs made in the US here and there for military and other purposes, but they are few and far between. The former Blackburn factory of Mullard in the UK is supposed to be coming out with some new tubes, but word is they will be expensive, and their initial design isn't good enough so they are delayed.

Greg