Which brand of 1626 to buy.

sweet & juicy SE amp for 1626 Darlings and the 6L6 family

Which brand of 1626 to buy.

Postby Isophon » Wed Dec 31, 2014 12:32 pm

Hi guys,

Planning to buy some 1626 tubes so I can build my own Clementine.

If there a big difference in sound between different manufacturer of 1626 ? Which brand do you normally buy and from where ?

I already have a working UL 807 (similar to 6L6) that I really enjoy so maybe I could modify the amp to accomodate the 1626...any though ?

Thanks and all the best for 2015
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Re: Which brand of 1626 to buy.

Postby EWBrown » Wed Dec 31, 2014 10:15 pm

I like the plain brown box military surplus CTL 1626s, particularly the ones marked thusly:

U.S. NAVY
CTL 1626
VACUUM TUBE
MANUFACTURED BY
TUNG SOL LAMP WORKS INC.
CONTRACT NXs-6302
ACCEPTED NOVEMBER 1942


(Mostly because I managed to find a large quantity of these, several years ago, at a "silly low" cost).

The original US made Tung Sols are of excellent quality, and should not to be confused with the "New" Tung-Sol power tubes,
which are manufactured in Russia. No new manufacture 1626s exist, as far as I know.

I've also found that just about any 1940s vintage 1626s are very good, and I've not noticed any major differences between brands.

These were also produced by RCA, Hytron, and possibly even Western Electric. $)

1626s were never intended as audio tubes, but were designed for use as RF oscillators and low-power (approx. 5 Watts) Class C RF Power amplifiers,
and the published operating characteristics and spec sheets reflect this.

Some more 1626 facts and figures: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1535&p=9607#p9607

It is less than a minute from 2015, Happy New Year, everybody! (b) (wine) (d) (cig) (banana) :o) (banana)

/ed B inNC
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Re: Which brand of 1626 to buy.

Postby Isophon » Thu Jan 01, 2015 10:08 am

Thanks a lot for your detailled answer. Bought a pair of RCA on e-bay.

For the 12SL7, is there an ST shape valve available or an equivalent to the 12SL7, that would look nice in between both 1626 ;)

All the best,
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Re: Which brand of 1626 to buy.

Postby battradio » Fri Jan 02, 2015 10:13 pm

The 12SL7 came out long after small signal tube had that shape , the only chance would be a chinese copy made to look like that
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