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Bugle Boy

Posted by Bambi B (A) on August 10, 2006 at 09:32:22

In Reply to: did VALVO make bugleboys for Amperex? posted by bernard991 on August 9, 2006 at 17:35:20:

bernard991,

Eli Duttman is on the right track for this discussion. Amperex was a brand of Philips who over time bought a lot of European tube companies including Valvo and Mullard. "Bugle Boy" was a model of Amperex and I think every Bugle Boy will be called "Amperex".

However, not every Amperex is a Philips tube and not every Bugle Boy is either. I have a few "Bugle Boys" and, as mentioned, these are all branded Amperex. However, the BB EC92s (6AB4) I have were made by Siemens, a GZ34 BB is a Mullard, ECC85s (6AQ8) are Telefunken, and ECC81/12AT7s are Philips, France. It's odd, but I think there were not Dutch or Hamburg Philips Bugle Boys ECC81- only the French-made one for some reason. All the BB 6DJ8s and 12AX7s I have are Dutch. I'm not sure- there may have been Bugle Boy 6DJ8s from Mullard, Blackburn.

BTW, visually, I can't distinguish the Bugle Boy tubes I have from their contemporaries- I really don't know what selection made it a BB. I have several early 60's Philips Heerlen ECC82/12AU7 and a couple of BB and these -to me- look and sound identical. The BB 6DJ8s seem identical in construction to the Amperex orange globes and even the BB ECC83/12AX7s look to be built the same as later Mullard Blackburn organge globe labelled ones.

Rebranding was amazingly widespread- the later the more complicated the interrelationships. I have a lot of Valvo tubes- well, perhaps 50-60, and I think 60-75% are Philips Hamburg ("D"), 15-25% are Philips Heerlen (delta), and the remainder are Siemens and Telefunken. I'm not aware though of having any Philips, Hamburg tubes branded BB.

Complicated stuff!

Cheers,

Bambi B

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