GT doesn’t make its own valves, no; the suffixes “S”, “R” and “C” refer to Slovakia (ie, JJ Tesla), Russia (the Saratov factory owned by New Sensor – Sovtek, EH and the rest) and China (usually Shuguang but they use others) respectively. For many people, the price markup is very high considering GT only screen them, match them for current and do that “distortion level” numbering.

OTOH, GT has got involved in working with factories to reproduce classic tubes. They do a replica GE 6L6, Mullard xf2 EL34 and Mullard ECC83. Unlike New Sensor, wich just sticks “Mullard” and “TungSol” labels on plainly standard Sovtek fare, Aspen really did make an effort to get these things looking like the originals and even Aspen-dislikers rate the EL34M as the closest attempt to replicate the original.

I read Aspen’s letter and it looks like FMIC wants to put its muscle into what GT already does, rather than any big change to its business.

Hmmm, seems odd to me, myfoot. I don’t see what Fender get out of it (GTs are expensive and push up their amp price if fitted as OEM) and it’s a slightly limited market for GT (6V6, EL84, 6L6, 12AX7 and that’s about it), even though Fender shift a lot of amps. I think you’re right; Aspen’s got his pension.