E188CC/7308/6922

Siemans/RCA made in W. Germany had steel pons and so did Valvo.

- Wrong. There are no Western European made E88CC or E188CC tubes with steel pins. If you have seen one, you are probably confusing it with some rebranded US or E. Euro (Tesla, Tungsram, Russian etc) or fakes with bogus labels. Only ECC88/6DJ8 tubes from Siemens, Mullard etc had steel pins.

With one exception of CV4109/E188CC flying alloy leads made by Mullard. These tubes are wire ended and do not have pins per se.

right you are, I misread the E88CC as ECC88 as you noted.

I've got the tube delivered. 6 of them with the same codes on them.

G A C

7 4 E

On another thread, someone said they were Philips made in Hitachi, Japan. Had them in my Premier 16 CJ pre for maybe 20 hrs now. Probably not broken it yet, but they have less gain than my Amperex 6922 Green label. Less vibrant in the upper mids, with deeper and less focused bass. I would let them in for a while but just received Siemens 7308 which I'm dying to try.

Hi
Take a look at the Phillips codes here:
http://www.audiotubes.com/PhilipsCodeList.pdf

Those tubes are Ecc88 AKA 6dj8, not 7308 AKA E188cc.