will
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You are welcome Lon. I had about forgotten Brendan too. Over time I bought quite a few OC3, OB3 and OA3 from him, but not for quite a few years. Pretty much narrowing down to OB3s, then eBay becoming so easy, I bought a pair now and then on eBay. But then, I guess maybe 5 years ago, I realized I had quite a few more OB3s than I would likely use, so I stopped buying them and thinking about sources until HK asked for a decent one.
You might recall Brendan was the one who told me he thought most all OB3s were Sylvania made. I had noticed the two basic ST shaped construction styles as a choice for sound, and he associated those with earlier, and slightly later vintages. One group's construction, the middle of three wires running through the solid interior glass blob was off center, and the other group, the middle wire was centered, most everything else being quite close. Associated, I had found one style was generally a little warmer and softer, more texture oriented, and one was more solid sounding and more open/spacious. I wonder if the Arcturus fits into this.
Some months ago I did some cursory tests, and as I bet you have, I found amp modifications had overruled the rolling benefits of a lot of the warmer versus cleaner aspects from the different constructions. Though still noticeable as I recall, they all sounded so good I stopped thinking of the differences as the tool it once was for tailoring the sound. At the same time, each individual tube from within a given construction style/vintage sounds more different from each other to me than I remembered, but all good. Still choices, but less distinctly important.
Right now I am really liking some labelled Marconi, and they have the centered middle wire. And before that, I used my first Sylvania labelled OB3s, that pair having the off-center middle wire.
Tubes are so amazing to me. Especially after successful modifications, about all of them sound notably different, but also most sound pretty great, while also allowing more varied tube combinations than I once used. Right now I am having fun with a few of my old 5U4GBs, most of my favs fat, straight sided bottle tubes I had "left behind" many years ago! Some of them are likely my bassist rectifiers in general, and to balance them I am really liking some GZ30s/5Z4s, some of my leaner/faster rectifiers. Just now, the bigger sounding bassier ones in the CSP3, and the leaner, more open ones in the Torii, it is pretty magical.
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