WHO MAKES TUBES?
At this time, Groove Tubes actually does make tubes. They have purchased the original tooling to produce US made 6L6s' and are manufacturing these in the USA. They also make an import KT66 and one particular 12AX7, useing gold in the construction of the control grid. That's all they make at this time. The rest of their tube line is, as it always has been, a representation of all the worthwhile tubes made, mostly currently. They, like Fender, Marshall, Mesa Boogie, Ruby, TNT, do a very good job of screening out the bad tubes and putting their own name on them. To the best of my knowledge, Groove Tubes is the only one on that list who manufactures any tubes, and that represents only a small portion of what they offer. Fender is now shipping "Fender Groove Tubes'" in their amps. All the ones I've seen still carry a third name, the name of the actual manufacturer: Sovtek.
Marshall has dropped Sovtek from certain model amps, and is currently shipping Svetlana tubes in
their amps (pronounced Sevitlana). Prior to that they had used Tesla tubes for a long time, and are currently made also. EI was apparently on the wrong end of Western politics, and the manufacturing plant in Yugoslavia fell down, went boom. Its production of tubes rises and falls to this day. The highly abused Chinese Sino 12AX7 was the tube everyone loved to hate, while at the same time widely used or the production of new amps. The tooling is said to have been put outside, and has gone to rust. I guess another form of friendly fire.
There is more than one tube manufacturer in China! Lets not lump everyone together unfairly. Just like there is more than one Russian tube company, there are few enough choices in tubes to start getting a National Bias (is this a joking matter?). For anyone who cares, there is a market for American made tubes, as proven by the gentleman who purchased the tooling and licensing of the name from Westinghouse - who is making the 300B in the good old USA. The import 300B's sell for up to $300, so it's a fair guess the American made Westinghouse will cost more. By the way, the 300B is IT for true hi-fi. If you want to buy a guitar amp that uses this 42 watt triode please tell me.