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Tubes: The Old Verses the New

  1. HomeKnowledge BaseTubes: The Old Verses the New

Tubes: The Old Verses the New

by Phil Taylor

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It’s not so much as case of old verses the new tubes as Russian verses American tubes. [Photo shows a custom tube chess set made by Paul Fryer in 2009]

…Or to put it another way, “Tubes: The West Verses the East”. The thinking behind suggesting this alternative, politically incorrect subject title is that tubes made by American companies like RCA, Sylvania, Tung-sol, and European companies such as Philips, Mullard, Brimar and Telefunken, circa 1960s have a reputation for being superior quality to tubes coming out of factories in the east—mainly Russia and China—today. But is there any truth in this or is it merely nostalgia-fuelled enthusiasm for a bygone age in audio electronic manufacturing? Well, the tale of tube quality is intertwined with the space race, atomic power, colossal super computers; the stuff of science fiction, impossibilities that have now become reality. This article explores how the climate of striving to make the impossible possible elevated tube quality to new heights and, more importantly, how these advances in thermionic technology might translate into better tone for guitar players.

What is a N.O.S. Tube?

By the early 1970′s many of the western electronics companies mentioned above had switched their production from the manufacture of tubes to transistors. Tubes were still manufactured for specialised purposes such as broadcast television and radio transmission, but production of miniature receiving (preamp) tube types (12AX7, 12AT7, etc) ceased in the 1980s—the last man standing was Sylvania’s Emporium plant, Pennsylvania who shipped their last tubes in 1988. From then on the only tubes being produced were in Soviet Union (Russian and Chinese) factories. Pretty much all tubes made today originate from these factories.

Although tube manufacture ceased in the west over quarter of a century ago billions and billions and billions were produced over the decades, and a small percentage of this staggering quantity still survive to this day, unused and in their original boxes (note: a few percent of billions is still quite a lot of tubes!). These are more commonly referred to as ‘new old stock tubes’ or ‘N.O.S.’ tubes for short. N.O.S. tubes have a reputation for being better quality than tubes produced by the Russian and Chinese factories. Because of this and the fact they’re a finite, dwindling resource N.O.S. preamp and power tubes are becoming steadily more expensive as the gulf in time between now and the time when they were manufactured widens. But are N.O.S. tubes worthy of their reputation or is their reliability overrated and their tonal qualities just some kind of urban legend?

The Space Race

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The ‘Space race’ began when the Soviet Union launched the world’s first artifical satellite, ‘Sputnik’ on October 4th 1957.

Well, the Russian tubes were often copies of western tubes, not clones or exact replicas, but manufactured to perform a similar duty in a circuit and that’s about as far as any resemblance went. The metallurgy, chemistry and the construction, that is, the physical geometry of the components within the tube are different and, rather annoyingly, the pinouts of Russian tubes are often different too. For instance, take the subminiature 6111 tubes utilised in Effectrode’s PC-2A compressor and Glass-A buffer pedals. These tubes were manufactured by Philips ECG using Sylvania tooling (hence the green epoxy print on the tube—green was Sylvania’s brand colour).

The Russian equivalent of this tube, the 6N16, although an excellent engineering achievement, is technically inferior to the 6111 in several ways. Firstly, microphony is generally higher because it has a single getter mount (the 6111 has two getter mount points to improve rigidity of the electrodes). Secondly, the coating on the cathode in the 6111 is more efficient than the Russian 6N16. These two factors play an significant part in determining the noise performance and (long) term reliability of the tube.

So there are real aspects relating the design and manufacture of western tubes that gave them the technological edge over their Russian counterparts in the 1960s. This edge was sharpened by ‘Cold War’ competition between the Soviet Union (USSR) and the United States (US) as each nation attempted to assert their supremacy in space. This space race, effectively began in 1957 when Russia launched Sputnik and then later launched cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin into orbit around the Earth in 1961. America consequently set forth on an unprecedented and immense effort to beat Russia in space exploration. This race drove technological advances in tube manufacture just as WW2 had a few years earlier and the US invested heavily in the development of atomic weapons technology and part of this included the development ruggedised tubes, miniature tubes, better tubes for communications, proximity fuses for guided missiles and computers.

1sh24b_pentode_sputnik_320px
1SH24B pentodes used in Sputnik’s transmitter circuitry.

So, Russia may have initially had the lead in space, but America rapidly caught up and zoomed by—it was they who landed men on the moon in 1969 and then went on to explore the outer regions of the solar system. Perhaps it was the climate of western democracy, capitalism or some hidden political agenda that allowed the US to overtake the communist east, whatever the reason, western tube development, like the American space program went on to reach greater technological heights. It really is no exaggeration to say that guitar tone is indeed rocket science.

Stellar Quality

Space and military applications required electronics that could operate reliably in extreme environments of high altitude, high acceleration/vibration and even space, where high levels of radiation are present. Incidentally, one of the reasons Russia continued to manufacture tubes was because these thermionic devices are immune to an electromagnetic pulse (EMP), the gamma ray burst that an atomic bomb releases upon exploding—Russian MIG jet fighters were equipped with tube circuitry in their radar systems so that an EMP would not interfere with onboard navigation systems.

Tube reliability was a real and ongoing concern for the US military. You may have seen the initials ‘JAN’ stamped on Philips N.O.S. tubes, which is an acronym for ‘Joint Army Navy’. These are ruggedised tubes manufactured for the military. During world War II the American military initiated a ‘ruggedisation’ program with aim of improving tube reliability in the field. For example, there was concern that delicate electronic comms equipment thrown around in the back of a jeep hurtling along a rock strewn dirt track might not fare too well. To remedy this perceived problem with reliability tubes were designed with shorter, stockier anodes, additional or thicker support micas and a very complex and elaborate tube numbering system evolved along with the numerous revisions of tubes [Getting the Most Out of Vacuum Tubes by Robert B. Tomer pages 72-75]. Reliability of electronics and tubes in military and space applications was of paramount importance.

At this time tubes were also utilised in scientific laboratory equipment, where accuracy and precision were absolutely essential if experimental apparatus was to output valid data. For example, measuring physical parameters, such as displacement, temperature, air pressure, brain waves and other weird and wonderful stuff, such as vacuum tube synthesisers and analogue computers, required precision, low-drift, low-noise D.C. coupled tube amplifiers. The exacting demands of the scientific and military establishment meant there was a necessity to develop processes and materials that would drive tube quality upwards—the goal being to design and manufacture tubes that were the best they could possibly be. To this end some companies, such as Mullard and Sylvania even installed plant so they could control the quality of alloys used in grid wires, cathodes and the other electrodes within their tubes. They also installed chemical plants to synthesise special formulas used in cathode coatings—the exact processes for blending and treating the cathodes and the composition of these alloys were often closely kept secrets.

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Philbrick GAP/R model K3-W operational amplifier.

Back to the Future

Today there aren’t the same forces driving up tube quality—non of the stringent demands of the military or scientific research communities, nor is there the industrial infrastructure and pool of expertise: the boffins, chemists, physicists, metallurgists, skilled workers, etc required to make tubes to the same exacting standards, even if there was the will to do so. Tube manufacturers no longer jointly engage in serious research and development efforts with the academic community or military to refine and improve thermionic technology. There’s no chance of getting an apprenticeship with Mullard and studying an HNC to learn thermionics—those days are gone.

The prime mover dictating tube quality today is mainly cost, not quality—tube amp manufacturers and vendors will only pay so much for their tubes. And the market for tubes is tiny in comparison to the 1960s—it’s essentially the demand for domestic audio amplifiers that’s kept the Russian and Chinese factories alive. This is in no way intended to be a criticism of Russian and Chinese tube manufacturers. They are what they are—tubes made for today’s guitar and hi-fi industry and to this end they serve their purpose well, however they are not made from the finest materials nor is their construction up to the exacting standards of the tubes of yesteryear when the technology was at its zenith.

What’s in a name? Tube Rebranding and Other Nonsense

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Rebranding is no new thing. Here we see a 1970s Japanese Matsushita (now Panasonic) 12AX7 tube made with Mullard tooling and rebranded ‘Realistic’ by RadioShack, a division of Tandy Corporation. Confused? Me too!

Presently any, ahem, ‘developments’ in tube technology come under the guise of marketeering efforts such as re-branding, cryo-treatment, tube-dampers, none of which offer the customer any real tone benefits. Re-branding is typically employed by companies seeking to move their brand upmarket or to distance it from past negative connotations. This is no new thing. Rebranding has been around since before tubes were invented, before men travelled the Wild West in covered wagons peddling their special brand of cure all bottled tonics and surely long before that too. As for cryo-treatment and tube-dampers, you’ll find an in-depth engineer’s take on the subject here.

Perhaps even more suspect than rebranding is the practice of releasing so-called ‘reissue’ tubes, where tubes manufactured in the east are rebranded with the names of the great western manufacturing giants of yesteryear. Seldom is even the slightest effort made to replicate the internal construction—the anode, cathode, grid—of a vintage tube from which heritage is being claimed and more often than not the only passing resemblance is the print on the glass. However, it’s fairly straighforward to discern the quality of any reissue tube by taking quick look at the manufacturer’s sales or technical literature to see how much care and attention to detail has been lavished on recreating the metallurgy, chemistry and tooling of the original. As customers we are entitled to know what we’re buying, whether it’s food, tubes or beer and if I’m paying for a locally brewed artisan ale then that’s what I expect to get, not relabelled beer coming from another product line. On a final note, and with some irony, it has to be noted that the Philips ECG tubes utilised in Effectrode’s small pedals, such as the Fire Bottle tube booster are technically rebranded Sylvania tubes, but that’s another story.

Well that wraps up this brief outline history of N.O.S. tubes. This section has only barely scrapped the surface, but it’s time to move on and discuss the important stuff—how N.O.S. tubes perform in practice, that is in a guitar amp. First we’ll deal with preamp tubes…

N.O.S. Preamp Tubes

A preamp tube does the job of amplifying the tiny signal from your guitar pickup and making it bigger. Most guitar amps have anywhere from one to six signal tubes depending on the number of features the amp incorporates (channels, send return loops, gain stages, tremolo, reverb pan, etc). The V1 position, the first gain stage, is often cited as the critical tube to substitute in guitar amps. The reasoning behind this is that if the first gain stage is adversely noisy, that is, the tube is generating hiss, picking up electrical hum or sensitive to external vibration (microphonic), then this unwanted noise will contaminate your guitar signal. In fact, with an extremely bad tube in the V1 position the noise can be higher in level than the guitar signal the tube is supposed to be amplifying. At best this is off-putting in a gig; at worst, really objectionable in a studio situation.

A good N.O.S. tube, such as Mullard ECC83 can work wonders in the V1 position to ensure low microphony, hiss and hum. European tube manufacturers utilised a high grade magnesium-nickel alloy (see BS 3504:1962), which was even better than ‘Cathaloy A30’, to make their cathodes. This alloy was specifically developed to be beneficial to the barium/strontium/calcium oxide layer to maximise the electron emissivity and operational life of the cathode and this coupled with Mullard’s precision electrode geometry meant that there’s never been a tube quieter than a Mullard ECC83. There are other tonal benefits to be had by swapping the V1 tube out too, in guitar amps and Effectrode pedals. Any changes in tonal characteristics can be attributed to the following factors:

  1. Capacitance This is not so much a case of long plate tubes having greater capacitance than short plate tubes—a quick look at the datasheets for a 1962 RCA 12AX7 and modern JJ ECC83 reveal the plate to grid capacitance for these long and short plate tubes are both exactly the same at 1.7pF—but more of case of computer tubes exhibiting greater capacitance than audio tubes. For example the 12AV7 has a plate to grid capacitance of 1.9pF and a 5965 comes in at almost double the capacitance of a 12AX7 at 3.0pF. Tubes with longer plates have higher capacitance and depending on how the tube circuitry is implemented, substituting a short plate tube with a long plate variety can give a gentle and welcome rounding off of the top end yielding a thicker, more bluesy sound. Technically what is happening is that the capacitance of the tube forms a low-pass filter with grid resistor in the circuit to filter out high frequencies at -6dB/octave. Incidentally, as a general rule tubes with longer plates exhibit greater microphony than tubes with shorter plates, however Mullard had their manufacturing process nailed—inter-electrode tolerances were as close to perfection as anyone ever got—and electrical tests indicate their Blackburn made long plate ECC83 is a great deal less sensitive to external vibration pickup than any modern long or short plate tube.
  2. Gain Factor Substituting a 12AX7 for a tube with another of lower gain factor, such as a 12AY7 will lower gain in the preamp section. Again, the amount of gain reduction depends on the circuit implementation. In a typical tube preamp circuit where the plate resistor is chosen so that the 12AX7 is operating close to its full 33dB gain, a 5751 tube will reduce gain by a few dB and a 12AY7 substitution will knock about -15dB off this to open up the sweet spot for more bluesy sounds. The tube in the V2 position on the Effectrode ‘Blackbird’ and ‘Tube Drive’ pedals spot can also be changed out for lower gain tube types to increase the amount of headroom for a bigger, bolder sound, an approach adopted by Stevie Ray Vaughan’s amp tech—he substituted the stock 12AX7 tube with a 5751 in the V2 spot on SRV’s Vibroverb and Super Reverb amps.
  3. Bias Point In tube textbooks such as the RCA Receiving Tube Manual you’ll find recommended biasing arrangements for different tube types. The idea is to set bias voltage with the cathode resistor to obtain maximum linearity before onset of clipping on the negative and positive signal excursions. However, being guitarists, that’s not we’re usually after and invariably we’re seeking some additional distortion to add texture and complexity (in a word, ‘hair’) to the straight sound of the guitar. If a 12AX7 tube is substituted with a 12AY7 then the biasing point will shift and this alters not only gain but the sensitivity therefore altering the biting point before onset of clipping. So, to summarise, bias can be adjusted by either changing the resistance of the cathode resistor or the tube itself.

Modern tubes can also be utilised in the V1 and V2 positions to alter capacitance, gain and bias conditions as described above and therefore affect tone, but the space-grade materials and construction of good quality N.O.S. tubes, manufactured by the likes of Sylvania, Tung-Sol and Mullard, are almost always an assurance that the N.O.S. tube will exhibit superior performance in terms of reliability, longevity and noise over a modern tube. Some would go even further to suggest N.O.S. tubes impart other kinds of indefinable sonic ‘magic’ to tone. This is a contentious subject amongst hard core tube heads (I freely confess to being one myself) where religious dogma clashes with cherry-picked scientific factoids, inevitably generating friction—and where there’s friction there’s heat, and often fire—these debates are normally best avoided.

However, there are many subtleties in human auditory perception and often overlooked flaws in electronic amplification systems which do have real effects on tone. For instance, the fact that all tubes are microphonic to a greater or lesser extent. At higher volume levels this inherent defect of an electron tube means that any tube will pick up ambient noise or vibration (almost certainly the amplified guitar sound) to some degree and feed some of this component back into the direct signal adding more depth, dimension and body to it—this non-linear effect is one of the reasons it’s proven so challenging to replicate certain aspects of the ‘tube sound’ with analogue solid-state (transistor, op amp or FET) circuitry or various emerging digital technologies. Perhaps this explains why some audiophiles prefer long plate tubes—although higher in microphony, this microphony in small doses imparts a euphonic effect on tone. This sensitivity to external vibration also adds sustain to the guitar sound and in more extreme cases feedback howl. This is considered adverse microphony, however can be useful in certain special situations where it can be used as an effect in its own right.

Computer Tubes

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RCA 5963 computer tubes manufactured for Hewlett Packard in the 1950′s.

This leads on to the subject of N.O.S. computer vacuum tubes. Although primarily intended for use in computers as digital logic level switching devices, these tubes can be utilised in analogue circuits, including guitar tube amps and pedals, and can yield extraordinarily good results. For example, the 12AV7 with its lower gain factor and long plate structure transforms the Effectrode Tube Drive pedal into a dedicated blues machine. Additionally, the quality of the electron emissive coating on the 12AV7s cathode undoubtedly plays a significant part in creating a beautifully thick and rich overdrive. Tubes such as the 12AV7 (5965) and 5963 utilised (expensive) high efficiency emissive coatings and high purity nickel alloys in their cathodes to improve long-term reliability.

The high purity alloys were less prone to a phenomena known as “cathode interface growth” which occurred when the tube was operated in ‘cut-off’. Additionally, a more efficient cathode coating meant the tube could operate at lower plate voltages, therefore requiring less power and generating less heat. Temperature build up was a serious issue in a computer containing many thousands of tubes and finding and replacing faulty tubes in these colossal machines was, to say the least, problematic.

The Cathode – Size Matters

As rule of thumb, computer tubes generally, but not always, have larger cathodes than tubes specifically designed for audio use and operate at a lower maximum plate voltage. Additionally, computer tubes were manufactured using high purity metal alloys to minimise levels of silicon and other impurities, as these impurities create a layer of silicates on the cathode (“cathode interface growth”) when the tube is operated in cut-off, that is, when the grid is held negative to prevent current flow through the tube, for long periods of time, as is the case in digital logic circuits. This silicate layer increases the resistance of the cathode resulting in reduced electron emission. A larger cathode has a longer life, because emission depends on cathode surface area—if some of the area is lost to deposition it still has enough reserve capacity to continue functioning.

The 5963 is essentially a long life 12AU7—it has the same characteristic curve as the 12AU7 and therefore the same gain factor, but the specified plate voltage is lower at 250VDC (only 70VDC for the RCA 5963). The 5963 can used in some amps as a replacement for the 12AU7 as long as the specified plate voltage isn’t exceeded (Note: Effectrode pedals operate with a plate voltage of 240VDC). The long plate construction of the 5963 does mean this tube is significantly more microphonic than the 12AU7 though—computer tubes were not optimised for use in audio. From an engineering perspective there are no rigorous requirements for tubes utilised within a digital computer to have particularly high immunity to external vibration pickup. The tube is operating as a switch so it’s either ‘on’ (logic ’1′) or ‘off’ (logic ’0′) and so long as the external vibration doesn’t take the tube outside of these voltage thresholds it will work as intended. In fact, this electronic robustness is one of the major reasons digital computers superseded analogue computers in the first place.

Although the 5963 and 5965 tubes are no longer made there are still some great bargains to be had on them at online auctions where they can be bought for less than $5 apiece. Purchasing tubes this way is a gamble. Some will almost certainly be adversely microphonic, whereas others will perform well in audio circuits with the benefits of long plate tone and computer grade cathode reliability. Contrast with prices of more popular N.O.S. audio tubes such as the 12AX7 tube which can typically cost from around $50 to $100, sometimes a lot more for rarer, older tubes, such as these 1940 Tung-Sol 12AX7s [pictured right] valued at $200 each. For comparison, a modern manufacture (Russian) Tung-Sol tubes sell at around $15 to $20.

tung_sol_12ax7_320px
A pair of Tung-Sol 12AX7s manufactured in the 1940′s and supplied to the US military.

There are many working guitarists who talk themselves out of trying out N.O.S. signal tubes imagining they can’t afford them but there’s a strong case for investing in them. Firstly, they really are better quality than modern tubes—the vast pool of technical expertise and superior alloys utilised in tube construction back in the 1960s were light years ahead of the what’s available today. Secondly, the lifespan of N.O.S. signal tubes can easily exceed 10,000 hours, which means even if you’re paying $100 a tube, that’s 1 cent for each hour of use—that has to be a cheap ride by any measure—the expense of your guitar strings, beer or just lighting the room you’re playing in will far out exceed this. Don’t be put off by investing in a good preamp tube—life’s too short.

N.O.S. Power Tubes

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Shhh… can you hear anything? No? That’s because N.O.S. Philips ECG (Sylvania) 6L6WGB tubes are incredibly quiet and reliable in operation.

And what about N.O.S. power tubes, such as the 6L6 or EL34? Well, power tubes have a considerably harder life then preamp tubes as they’re doing a great deal of work pushing electrons around to drive the loudspeaker. Consequently they wear out more quickly as the cathode’s ability to emit electrons gradually degrades. Their lifespan is determined by the type of power amp circuit they are utilised in—the power rating and circuit topology (push-pull or single-ended)—but somewhere between 1000 to 2000 hours is a reasonable estimate. N.O.S. power tubes are shorter-lived than preamp tubes and they’re physically larger. Because they have a shorter lifespan they’re in shorter supply and therefore are more expensive to get hold of. But in practice are they worth the extra coin? Maybe, not in a bar gig situation where their tonal benefits might not be fully appreciated by the clientele, however in a recording situation where you dream of capturing a snapshot of your finest performance and tone for posterity. Here, you want to get as close to your idea of perfection as you can, if for no other reason than your own peace of mind. And, on a more practical note, in a studio the cost of a N.O.S. tube begins to pale into insignificance relative to other costs such as studio hire, travel expenses, production and marketing costs, etc.

It’s reasonable to ask if power tubes really make any real difference to sound quality? After all, they’re a fair way downstream from that critical first, V1 gain stage. But again, when using well engineered N.O.S. tubes from big name manufacturers there will be the usual benefits of reliability and endurance and improvements in sound quality. For example, I recall being mightily impressed to hear a significant reduction in noise and hiss when replacing a (brand new) output quartet of 6L6 tetrode tubes in my Fender ‘Twin Reverb’ with N.O.S. Philips ECG (Sylvania) 6L6WGB tubes. These are superb tubes! and were recommended and supplied by Jim Fish of Wilson Valves, Golcar, Huddersfield. Sadly he retired quite a few years ago now—he really did know his stuff and I trusted him implicitly when it came to tubes.

In Conclusion

On a final note and just to be clear about this: not all N.O.S. tubes are good quality. I’ve bought a few duds in my time and have a few stories to tell. The safe (and sensible) thing to do is stick with reputable names such as Mullard, Sylvania, Philips, et al. and purchase your tubes from a reputable vendor. But it is worth keeping an eye on bric-a-brac stores and radio rallies too. You might catch a glimpse of a couple of Mullard Blackburn ECC83s still in their original boxes amongst all the other electronic junk in a display cabinet—not knowing their true value the proprietor might let you have them for a couple of dollars. Or you might bag a couple of antique Ken-Rad 6V6 tubes made in 1942 from an online auction for a fraction of the cost of a new 6V6. There are still bargains to be had.

Brent Jessee of Recording & Supply, Inc has thoroughly catalogued and des/knowledge-base/the-12au7′-tube/cribed many of the widely used N.O.S. preamp tube types and these can be found on the following pages 12AX7, 12AU7 and 12AT7.

In This Section

  • Black Plate Tubes
  • Chemical Highlights of Tube Manufacturing
  • Cryogenic Treatment of Tubes: An Engineer’s Perspective
  • Developments in Trustworthy-Valve Techniques
  • Evolution of the Tube
  • Foil Those Tube Forgers
  • Microphonics
  • Mullard ECC83 (12AX7) Reissue vs Original – A Physical Comparison
  • Mullard ECC83 (12AX7) Reissue vs Original – An Electrical Comparison
  • Noise
  • Oxide Cathode Life: Investigations into the Causes of Loss of Emission
  • Signal Tubes
  • Speed, Efficiency & Perfection – Aims That Have Built a Mammoth Factory in 16 Years
  • Subminiature Tubes: The Future of Audio!
  • That’s a Sylvania tube, the print is green, no, it’s blue
  • The ‘Magic Eye’
  • The ’12AT7′ Tube
  • The ’12AU7′ Tube
  • The ’12AX7′ Tube
  • The 12AX7 Tube – The Cornerstone Of Guitar Tone
  • The 6SN7GT – the best general-purpose dual triode?
  • The Accurate BSPICE Tube Models
  • The Cool Sound of Tubes
  • The Inner Workings of Vacuum Tube Buffers
  • The Tube Family Tree – Part 1
  • The Tube Family Tree – Part 2
  • The Tube Family Tree – Part 3
  • Tube Vendors
  • Tubes: The Old Verses the New
  • Vacuum Tubes and Transistors Compared
  • Valve Microphony Part 1: Production of Microphony and Methods of Investigation
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mailchimp_user_email1 monthThis cookie is used to keep track of newsletter sign ups and client emails at checkout, Mailchimp utilises cookies to store information captured from user input for remarketing purposes.
mailchimp_user_previous_email1 monthThis cookie is used to keep track of newsletter sign ups and client emails at checkout, Mailchimp utilises cookies to store information captured from user input for remarketing purposes.
mailchimp.cart.current_emailThis cookie is used to keep track of newsletter sign ups and client emails at checkout, Mailchimp utilises cookies to store information captured from user input for remarketing purposes.
mailchimp.cart.previous_emailThis cookie is used to keep track of newsletter sign ups and client emails at checkout, Mailchimp utilises cookies to store information captured from user input for remarketing purposes.
Others
Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.
CookieDurationDescription
woocommerce_recently_viewedsessionDescription unavailable.
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