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In Reply to: check this fake U52 on ebay . posted by vintageguy on August 17, 2002 at 03:22:21:
I don't quite understand what I'm hearing....
Follow Ups:
No, they are not fakes per se, they are misrepresented.They are NOT U52's, they are GZ33's - a much more common, much less expensive, and electrically different tube.
They are GZ37's. GZ33's are a tad shorter in length. (I've seen enough of them to distinguish between the two. The proportions look like those of a GZ37.) Although the internal plates are quite similar.The funny thing is the Mullard GZ37 (and GZ33) is *already* a premium tube- I think it would garner a higher price had it been sold as a GZ37. I do think the B+ is a little higher than a U52 or 5U4, so whoever wins this auction better be using it in a circuit that doesn't run anything at max B+ with a U52 or 5U4. (The GZ37 is an indirect-heated rectifier, where the 5U4 is a direct-heated rectifier.)
I've seen a plethora of 5AR4/GZ34's being sold as GZ37's on eBay as well...
The height of the bottle depends on the vintage.1950's GZ33's and GZ37's were a bit shorter. Later 60's and 70's production were taller, and had a different mica shape. But in both vintages, the GZ33 and GZ37 are identical in height - actually, they are virtually indistinguishable from each other - except that later production GZ33's had a slight greyish internal coating between the 2 top micas, and the two dark squares above the filaments.
The mica shape on Bugleman's auction pair tells us these are later production, consistent with the squares indicating these are GZ33's.
A NOS pair of real GEC U52 (and there are a horrible number of fakes, one idiot on Audiogon sells standard 5U4G's for horrible prices trying to say they are the equivalent of the U52) will go for between $160 and $200 on Ebay, while the GZ33 and GZ37 will fetch between $70 and $90 generally. But real U52's are distincive and quite rare, unfortunately, some of GEC's competitors were indiscriminately putting U52 on 5U4G's.
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