Are these NKT275s red dot real or fakes?

[atodovax]

Hello everyone, i just recieved these transistors from Langrex and someone told me they were fake. What do you think?

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[simonm]

i think Langrex are pretty reliable, they have a good reputation, i don't see anything indicating possible fakery, plus if they were fakes they'd have more than 25 in stock...

[simonm]

for comparison - NKT274s:

Newmarket also used a slightly diff package and/or a narrower font, e.g. these 213s:

[atodovax]

Thank you very much for the input. I also have some Nkt211 and 212 with that same font that are awesome.. For some reason y could not find other NKT275 with the same font as the ones i recieved. Some used in Sunfaces look pretty similar. Maybe they are from early 70s?

[simonm]

At least some of the earlier FFs have 275s with the narrow lettering, but it seems like they also used the blocky font not much later - see pics on Nick's great site here https://fuzzboxes.org/fuzzface (these ones don't look like they have a date code though - seems like Newmarket started adding those in the 70s - maybe Electric Warrior will chip in.)

So, yours aren't exactly the same as the early FF transistors, but that doesn't mean they're fake. If you are getting your info from TGP, I'd take some of it with a pinch of salt.

[Lee]

They look real to me I have a lot of spare NKT275 first version and the later version as these are. There are tells to be able to see. I have fallen victim and bought fake ones before also. Lesson learned but helped me be more cautious

[Doc Holliday]

I’ve heard from a source who has bought them from Langrex that his were not real NKT275.
They they had been rebranded.
They tested and sounded good but we’re not the genuine 275 article.
Like you see sometimes with OC83’s.. I think mine were originally 81z’s or something that got rebranded to OC83’s.
Think Steve from pigdog had rebranded transistors in his monkey fingers also iirc.

[Doc Holliday]

If you look at the 3rd transistor it was a OC81Z that got rubbed out and rebranded

[simonm]

There are fake 275s out there, but when compared with originals you can usually see the differences.
A change from OC81 to OC83 is a different thing, it's down to re-testing and re-numbering at the factory, not someone faking an OC83 - probably OC81s are more sought after than OC83s anyway, aren't they? At the factory batches of transistors were made but specs were inconsistent and they were only graded and stamped with a number after testing.

[Doc Holliday]

Very true. I’m familiar with the process.
So when I say genuine article I merely mean that at some point they have been tampered with. Not necessarily fake.
Apologies.
Obviously this could of happened at the factory at the time of production which was common or somewhere else over the past 60 years.
But they are relabelled transistors or at least the ones my friend had were.