Hammond Mfg.

[pullshocks]

I ordered a Hammond Mfg. choke recently that arrived today.   Was not expecting to see "Made in China" but that's what it says on the box.

[rafe]

The output transformer was shorted out in my 1952 les-paul GA-40.....It believe it was replaced many years prior. I ordered one from A-E it was a Hammond with the same specs as the original and fit the chassis perfect. I don't recall seeing any Made in China on it or the box. BUT, my rule of thumb is if it's made in the USA, it will definitely say so...and I hope to see that more in the future. If an American company that was started in 1917 has a manufacturing company in China, they will probably have very good quality control ...I am extremely happy with this Transformer and suspect it is every bit as good as the original ,perhaps better!

[AlNewman]

I have quite a few Hammond boxes here, all marked made in Canada.  Maybe they outsource that particular part in China, or perhaps they stuck on a made in China sticker to get around the tariffs.   

[tubeswell]

I ordered a Hammond Mfg. choke recently that arrived today.   Was not expecting to see "Made in China" but that's what it says on the box.

Did you order before the tariff kicked in?

[acheld]

Some of their transformers are made in China.  The 290, 1750/60 series are made in Canada.

I've seen this on their smaller 12 and 5 volt units.  They've worked fine for me.

Of course I'd rather have them made in North America, but what are you gonna do?

[shooter]

but what are you gonna do

EDCOR makes some nice Iron in America

[pullshocks]

I sent Hammond an email asking about this, but from what Acheld posted above, it sounds like they have gone off shore for some of their products.  But not all.


What I will say about Hammond is they have a broader range of choke specs readily available.  This one is 5H 75mW.  For use in my SE 6V6 amp project.  Heyboer has a 4H, 90mW choke available.  It would have been about $10-15 more expensive, not a big deal.  I imagine it would be slightly heavier, a minor drawback.  I don't really have a clue about choke selection, don't know what difference 4 vs 5 Henry would make.


I actually had a Deluxe Reverb style 4H 50mA choke on hand but another forum member suggested to go for at least 60mA, and the Hammond was the closest I could find to that.


At this point I'm just going to use the Hammond.  If I ever build another amp (doubtful) I'll check with Heyboer, Edcor, and Pacifc Audiomagnetics.


Lastly, I don't want to sound all high and mighty about it.  In the past I have purchased other iron that was MIC, and there are lots of amp building supplies that are only available MIC. 

[tubeswell]

I don't really have a clue about choke selection, don't know what difference 4 vs 5 Henry would make.

Not much. It the self/inductance-to- capacitance (L:C) ratio that’s important for good choke filtering


https://valvewizard.co.uk/smoothing.html

[joesatch]

see big price increases on hammond. now they are more expensive than heyboer. Heyboer is definitely better so i'll be going with those from now on

[dwinstonwood]

I'm very confused by this thread.

All but two (an Allen PT and a Musical Power Supplies OPT) of the iron I've used in all of my amp builds has been Hammond. The quality of their products is exceptional.
It is actually amazing given the fact that their transformers are consistently of such impeccably high quality at such a realistic market price (no fake gouging).
Why anyone would "think" that another manufacturer produces a better quality product baffles the mind. Fact: Hammond has way, way more experience than any upstart winder will ever have.

As far as Chinese goes... throw out every single thing in your house that has any Chines component and you'll be reenacting Dan'l Boone's world. Though, he used an awful lot English (monarchical/aristocratic/authoritarian/oligarchical) goods.

[pullshocks]

Kind of sorry I started this thread...
I agree Hammond has  been known for good quality.  Another plus is their broad range of products--where else are you going to get a multi-tap output transformer like the 125 series?.  Another plus is their readily available product data and specification sheets.   The fact that they were doing all their  manufacturing in North America has also been a plus for me.  Although I have bought Chinese-made transformers in the past, and buy "off shore" products when there is no alternative, I prefer to buy American or Canadian-made products where possible, and I willingly pay the extra cost.

[acheld]

I've been a big fan of Hammond for years, especially after I found Hawkusa.com with their fast shipping, and great customer service.

I've used Heyboer transformers in the past, and would use them more -- except that the only outlet I know of is Mojo, and I've had poor customer service from them on a number of occasions.  Is there a more reliable vendor for Heyboer?

Edcor trannies are great.  My biggest beef with them is their difficult to use website -- it's hard for me to find a suitable transformer -- the technical details are buried in the individual pages, and you have to go one by one until you find what you want.   If only they would have all of their similar products listed on one page (like Hammond) where it would be easy to compare each unit.  Also if they would have more options for Z- or Laydown mounting, I'd be happier.

[dogburn]

I've used several Heyboer transformers, I believe some were from Mojotone and some from ebay - I'm pretty sure the ebay vendor was Tube Audio Supply, who have a separate web site you could order from. Never had problems with either. In fact, I just order some parts from Mojotone and they actually called the next day to check if I wanted to change the shipping to a cheaper option - I had selected Fedex ground and they switched it to USPS, which was about half the cost. So maybe they've been working on their customer service.

[joesatch]

I've been a big fan of Hammond for years, especially after I found Hawkusa.com with their fast shipping, and great customer service.

I've used Heyboer transformers in the past, and would use them more -- except that the only outlet I know of is Mojo, and I've had poor customer service from them on a number of occasions.  Is there a more reliable vendor for Heyboer?

Hawk prices on hammond not great anymore
Amp Parts Direct for Heyboer.

anyone know who makes Ruby iron?  https://rubytubes.com/collections/transformers

[dogburn]

For the Ruby transformers, going by the EIA codes, some are made by Heyboer (996) and others by Transformer Manufacturers (1052), which has the most generic name possible, but I tracked them down:
https://www.tmitransformers.com/about/

But for some of their transformers, I can't tell. So if you order from them, it's probably best to ask in advance.

[joesatch]

For the Ruby transformers, going by the EIA codes, some are made by Heyboer (996) and others by Transformer Manufacturers (1052), which has the most generic name possible, but I tracked them down:
https://www.tmitransformers.com/about/

But for some of their transformers, I can't tell. So if you order from them, it's probably best to ask in advance.

had a couple in cart was going to buy but the shipping charge killed the deal

[AlNewman]

It's interesting.  I left it for a while to see if costs would settle or something, but me being Canadian, I can order Hammond products through a Canadian distributor, and they are comparable prices compared to what I've paid in the past.  I would imagine I could special order products, and they would still be comparable to what an American distributor could have offered before the Tariffs.

If I were to order Hammond products through an American distributor, like Mouser, I pay the 25% duty, likely as well as profit on top of the duty, and then taxes applied to that amount. 

I guess the Tariffs do open opportunity for Canadian distributors to supply products to the Canadian market.  It probably doesn't help for American buyers, except for the fact that the Canadian dollar is undervalued in comparison.

It is hard to imagine another transformer company able to provide the amount of products, inventory, and quality that Hammond is already set up to produce.



If I search Heyboar or Edcor in the Mouser website, nothing comes up for comparison.