Talyn
SAINT
I got rid of my Arsenal since it was a dissapointment.
Chances of a Mainstream American AK?
- Thread starter wmg1299
- Start date
I got rid of my Arsenal since it was a dissapointment.
POS. I could not hit a target at 10 meters away. Probably could throw the gun and hit that target.
I had experienced the Russian and Romanian ones and definitely the Russians were junk. Or maybe that's what we got shipped to us, client states, in purpose... IDK.
We also were using WWII guns in the late 80's. Awesome to shoot a 37mm AA gun with "Krupp" stamping on barrel and a polished space where the swastika was.
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Pitdogg2
Professional
From the examples I've seen and shot the Bulgarian AK's seemed to be the best fitted and shooting...
Russian vacuum tubes
Russia never really made exact equivalents to most of ours until they bought some names. Example being Tung-Sol and Mullard.
Back in the day Russia was always quantity over quality every time. I've seen cases of Russian made tubes that had a failure rate above 50%.
Have they gotten better in the last decade absolutely! But I'll take NOS American, British, German and Hungarian over Russian/Chinese everyday and twice on Sunday...
Russian vacuum tubes
Russia never really made exact equivalents to most of ours until they bought some names. Example being Tung-Sol and Mullard.
Back in the day Russia was always quantity over quality every time. I've seen cases of Russian made tubes that had a failure rate above 50%.
Have they gotten better in the last decade absolutely! But I'll take NOS American, British, German and Hungarian over Russian/Chinese everyday and twice on Sunday...
Should have traded PBR's for AK's?
www.npr.org
Iconic Pabst Beer Brands Sold To Russian Company
Pabst Brewing Co., with its famous Blue Ribbon, Old Milwaukee and Schlitz labels, is being acquired by Russian brewer Oasis Beverages for an undisclosed sum.
www.npr.org
Bassbob
Emissary
I disagree. If they are NOS made in the old St. Petersburg factory they will be fantastic. Anything made in the Refraktor plant are highly suspect. Many "Russian" tubes these days are just rebranded Groove Tubes ( Chinese).
I have a pair of vintage SVTs. I have 3 complete sets ( That is 2 matched trios per set) of Winged Cs (SED- not the New Sensor version of Svetlanas) and a set of NOS 6550Bs that were made in the St. Petersburg factory. That cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $2000 US and worth every penny. Modern Russian tubes are crap in comparison. No American or British tubes come close either. All the 12AX7s ( 3 per set) are Telefunken. All the 12AU7 ( 2 per set) are Brimar.
Then we have the old '61 Fender Brown Deluxe. I spent $200+ for a matched pair of NOS RCA Blackplates. They are glorious, 40's military grade glass and shine like the light of a million suns in that amp. My 12AX7s are Mullards ( British), Amperex Bugle Boys ( Dutch), Telefunken ( German) and a super rare Mazda Silver Anode ( Japan).
Pitdogg2
Professional
My mistake I didn't see you were talking power tubes. My comment was more towards the signal tubes.
I've got plenty of experience in 6sn7, 12at, 12au, 12ax7 and their equivalents as well as 6bq5(7189). Tried many and have many early 40's,50's, and I stop at mid 60's . Raytheon, Brimar, Tungsram, Tesla, Telefunken, Ken-Rad and others from Sylvania and RCA.
Tubes can be an addictive chase for sure.
Bassbob
Emissary
Even so you aren't really wrong. Not about US, Dutch, British, German tubes etc.. They are generally the best and most reliable. Particularly the military grade stuff from the 40s or so. The NOS stuff gets pricey for sure, but for musicality, particularly in vintage amps ( which I much prefer and which were designed for these tubes) they can't be beat.
Modern amps are mostly made in China and even the ones that sound really good, for instance the little Vox AC10 I bought a couple years ago, "Tube rolling" is a much less satisfying experience as it doesn't really seem to matter as long as they work. It's a damn shame that Vox makes most of their stuff in China these days. I got into a protracted argument with a rep from Celestion ( they provide speakers for Vox as well as Marshall and many other manufacturers and are generally the most popular musical instrument speaker brand in the world) over their Vintage 30 12" drivers. They used to be made in Ipswitch. Now they are made in China. He insisted that there was no difference and was dumb enough to challenge me to tell the difference in a blind test. I have a few broken in actual vintage V30s and I also have a modern Chinese V30. So I already A/B'ed these speakers before I ever talked to him. Of course I was able to tell the difference. They are different speakers.
Now to be fair ( I suppose) Vox and Celestion do both have products they make in England. The vox Handwired series AC line up are British made ( and double the price) and certain Celestion speakers ( Most of the Alnico line and I believe Greenbacks) are made in Ipswitch. Again at a premium. About 5 years ago Celestion brought out the Alnico Cream 90. It was designed to sound like an Alnico Blue, but rather than 25 watt power handling it is rated for 90 watts. It cost $300 ( at the time, I don't know what they sell for now), but man. What a speaker. I put one in that Fender Brown I was talking about that I put the Blackplates in and holy $hiite. It's a 22 watt amp so you gotta go full tilt to get it to start overdriving the Cream 90. It's like Clapton's tone from the 1969 Hyde Park concert. My Tele sounds magic through that little amp.
The tubes are probably identical. Maybe some difference in longevity, but geometry is easy to copy.
The lost art is in the audio transformers. Hand made, core steel, coil layout (order, separation, pull tension), isolation, airgrap filler. Probably there is nobody alive in England that can do them today as they did in 60's and early 70's...
There is only so much they can copy today, without screwing up something.
Bassbob
Emissary
I assume you are referring to the vox amps and not the speakers. Which I agree with you.
FWIW the Chinese made Vox amps all ship with Shugang crap glass in them. I don't know what they put in the Handwired UK series. Probably JJs.
Good channel/stuff. ....Robsky
SaltyMonkey
Professional
Tolerances are much tighter on an ar. Sure you can slop one together but that does not mean it will run well. If you can find some of the best made on that platform are the Norinco mak 90 and sks . This guy has some great videos on that platform.
bigx5murf
Elite
I love my PSA AK GF3. But it wasn't without issues. Mine literally came with a sling stud and stock that came lose and fell off first time I fired it. Around the 500 round mark I lose the firing pin mid mag, I still have no idea how that happened. PSA made me send back the whole rifle to get a new firing pin installed. Since getting it back, I've put over 1k rounds through it without issue, other than the magpul MOE stock still comes loose once in awhile. Just last weekend I was naling an IPSC target at 150 yards consistently, standing, with irons. I will say, I hate using plastic mags with my example, you have to position them just right to lock in, and really makes fast reloads hit or miss. No such issues with my Korean steel mags, which btw are some of the best AK mags I've ever used.
AK Union ran Riley Defense AKM-47's very hard during some reviews and worked the bugs out of them together. Is that the one you're thinking of?
Grifter
Custom
I do remember that one also. Was thinking more about palmetto state armory and their AKs.
PSA or Palmetto State Armory are rated highly too. Many AK builders out there suffer growing pains in some ways possibly because of the mindset being different than what typically taught and learned in this country? Just watched more of AK Union's videos last night. One of a few memorable ones watched again was "AK is not for you." Good video and may help explain a lot more than mentioned about AK's that sometimes go unsaid? AK's aren't "Lego guns" comes to mind? In some ways like many 1911's? Parts may need to be properly fitted to function correctly. They're not always plug and play. Is partially why I like them....the can do and make it work attitude and function, the blending of parts, making something work well coming together.