Sovtek

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A Sovtek MIG-50 racked on top of an SWR Henry the 8x8
Enlarge
A Sovtek MIG-50 racked on top of an SWR Henry the 8x8

Sovtek are a Russian brand of vacuum tube owned by the New Sensor Corporation that are still in production. They are often used in guitar amplification and include the popular variants of the 12AX7, EL84, EL34, and 6L6 models. They have also briefly made tube amplifiers with circuits similar to popular Fender and Marshall amplifiers.

Owned by Mike Matthews of Electro-Harmonix fame, many amplifiers in modern production come with Sovtek valves, due to their low noise performance and low prices.

New Sensor makes tubes under many different brand names, Sovtek and Electro-Harmonix being only two. They recently acquired the rights to market tubes under the names Mullard and Tung-Sol. They also acquired the rights to the name Svetlana for North America out from under a competing tube manufacturer who now go by SED or "Winged C" in that market. New Sensor is currently making tubes under all those brand names.

[edit] External links