Don't put SED Winged C 6L6's in your 5150 III

I honestly have no idea. But my guess is that it's on the cold side. I'm debating wether or not to have it biased a little warmer. I might do it on the black one I keep at rehearsal and see if I like it befor doing it to my ivory one I use for gigging.
 
i think factory bias is 18-22ma, can't measure it at home tho

there are so many factors with preamp tubes+power tubes in the mix, not always straightforward to pinpoint what is best, i've read some guys using a warmer bias only to go back to the 'cold' factory, tighter apparantely, i can just say i'm preferring the stock tube layout to the other preamp combos i tried
 
on another note what you think about the 5150 iii 50w `? =0



fast forward to 4minutes...

cmon part II

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looks really interesting for the size alone, but shared gain between channels 1 and 2 it seems? , bye bye clean channel
 
university81":1fsi8nry said:
on another note what you think about the 5150 iii 50w `? =0

fast forward to 4minutes...

cmon part II

//

looks really interesting for the size alone, but shared gain between channels 1 and 2 it seems? , bye bye clean channel
Click to expand...

Looks great, but they should have shared the gain between red and blue. I miss the 3 presences. That's one of the major + of the big 5153.
 
so i put in the JJ kt66's a few hours ago. I did a bunch of experimenting, first i started with a jan 5751 in v1 and tung sol 12ax7's in all other preamp positions with the bias set at about 20 ma and it sounded almost like it did with the JJ 6L6's but a little more sterile and flat if that makes any sense. So then i increased the bias to about 35-36 ma and i was loving the first channel, it was a little warmer and fatter sounding and more 3 dimensional, now the second channel is useless to me as it doesnt really suit anything that i play so i cant really tell you anything about that channel. The third channel sounded great to me but i didnt feel i was getting the most brutal tone i could so i took out the 5751 and popped in a tung sol 12ax7 and i think thats how im gonna keep it for a bit anyways. the third channel now gives me a crazy brutal thrash tone (ive always been chasing Gary Holts Atrocity Ehxhibition : Exhibit A tone and this is the closest ive gotten) and the first channel is still sounding beautiful. All of that being said I dont think the difference between this setup and the 5751 in v1 and jj 6l6's is monumental or anything but it is definitely a little bit sweeter.
 
deadweight":te3s4t4c said:
so i put in the JJ kt66's a few hours ago. I did a bunch of experimenting, first i started with a jan 5751 in v1 and tung sol 12ax7's in all other preamp positions with the bias set at about 20 ma and it sounded almost like it did with the JJ 6L6's but a little more sterile and flat if that makes any sense. So then i increased the bias to about 35-36 ma and i was loving the first channel, it was a little warmer and fatter sounding and more 3 dimensional, now the second channel is useless to me as it doesnt really suit anything that i play so i cant really tell you anything about that channel. The third channel sounded great to me but i didnt feel i was getting the most brutal tone i could so i took out the 5751 and popped in a tung sol 12ax7 and i think thats how im gonna keep it for a bit anyways. the third channel now gives me a crazy brutal thrash tone (ive always been chasing Gary Holts Atrocity Ehxhibition : Exhibit A tone and this is the closest ive gotten) and the first channel is still sounding beautiful. All of that being said I dont think the difference between this setup and the 5751 in v1 and jj 6l6's is monumental or anything but it is definitely a little bit sweeter.
Click to expand...

thanks for the update,

sounds good, try the kt66s with the stock pres (sovtek/EH) if you get the time =0 , good to hear it works in any case, i'd like to try that at some stage definitely, the amp lacks a certain something stock for me, a bit too bright and not enough mids, if tubes can fix it that'd be great, it's an EQ fix for me for now
 
the4thlast1":3pjhvt3h said:
A small 50 watt version..... I am so down for that... Wonder what the price tag will be ?
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from TGP apparantely 999$... which is sick, i'm just not so sure about losing the clean channel so to speak (ch1/2 sharing knobs), if they added two separate gain knobs for ch1-ch2 that would be a sure sale
 
university81":2g3y40sk said:
deadweight":2g3y40sk said:
so i put in the JJ kt66's a few hours ago. I did a bunch of experimenting, first i started with a jan 5751 in v1 and tung sol 12ax7's in all other preamp positions with the bias set at about 20 ma and it sounded almost like it did with the JJ 6L6's but a little more sterile and flat if that makes any sense. So then i increased the bias to about 35-36 ma and i was loving the first channel, it was a little warmer and fatter sounding and more 3 dimensional, now the second channel is useless to me as it doesnt really suit anything that i play so i cant really tell you anything about that channel. The third channel sounded great to me but i didnt feel i was getting the most brutal tone i could so i took out the 5751 and popped in a tung sol 12ax7 and i think thats how im gonna keep it for a bit anyways. the third channel now gives me a crazy brutal thrash tone (ive always been chasing Gary Holts Atrocity Ehxhibition : Exhibit A tone and this is the closest ive gotten) and the first channel is still sounding beautiful. All of that being said I dont think the difference between this setup and the 5751 in v1 and jj 6l6's is monumental or anything but it is definitely a little bit sweeter.
Click to expand...

thanks for the update,

sounds good, try the kt66s with the stock pres (sovtek/EH) if you get the time =0 , good to hear it works in any case, i'd like to try that at some stage definitely, the amp lacks a certain something stock for me, a bit too bright and not enough mids, if tubes can fix it that'd be great, it's an EQ fix for me for now
Click to expand...

Bright and not enough mids ? My 5153 sounds a bit on the dark side and has a good midrange..... Doesnt sound scooped to me, I wouldnt say it is an amp that is very focused in the mids but more of an even eq.
 
the4thlast1":1y8f91fo said:
Bright and not enough mids ? My 5153 sounds a bit on the dark side and has a good midrange..... Doesnt sound scooped to me, I wouldnt say it is an amp that is very focused in the mids but more of an even eq.
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hmm, what serial number is yours? or is it also one of the earlier models with sovtek/eh pres?

before using the eq i've had to keep the treble around 9 and presence about 10 or 11, this is only on channels 2 + 3 , brightness in a clean channel doesn't really bother me

it depends probably on the guitar as well, but both my mahogany ibanez with humbuckers and my fender thinline telecaster are both pretty bright through it, the tele more so but that is to be expected, the sound in my head is quite mid heavy so to speak so i guess my perception of mids lacking has something to do with it, but the amp is definitely bright sounding to me,

i will add i bought it used, serial number 600 , still the original tubes in it, i doubt the power tubes would make it sound brighter than usual, i spent a long time with various combos of tung sols/jj/5751 only to return to the original pres
 
i also always run a presonus eq in front of the amp with the mids boosted quite a bit and drop them all out on the amp (just another thing i do to try to sound like holt)
 
Just received the sovtek's and EH's and played around a bit today, and Im gonna have to agree with you guys. The original combination of tubes for this amp seem to sound best to me as well. Ive got enough tubes to last me years now!
 
deadweight":o9nlv4jr said:
Just received the sovtek's and EH's and played around a bit today, and Im gonna have to agree with you guys. The original combination of tubes for this amp seem to sound best to me as well. Ive got enough tubes to last me years now!
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Glad you found a combination that you like. :thumbsup:

I always wondered why they changed to JJ's. Probably got a good contract with them and Fender saved a lot of money. I feel that there must have been a good (sonic) reason that EVH and Fender went with that original combination of tubes in the first place.

You may want to keep a bunch of the extra pre amp tubes. This amp has been known to blow them. I've blown a couple over the past 4 years. However, I haven't blown one since I started plugging into a power regulator. Don't know if this has anything to do with it but hopefully I won't blow anymore for a long time (knock on wood).
 
deadweight":2jkr95qi said:
Just received the sovtek's and EH's and played around a bit today, and Im gonna have to agree with you guys. The original combination of tubes for this amp seem to sound best to me as well. Ive got enough tubes to last me years now!
Click to expand...


as it's been a little while and you've had more time to play with it,
just wondering how's the KT66 working out ?


glad you like the original tubes, they really work with the amp, if/when i replace tubes I'll probably replace with the same tubes although KT66s sound interesting, albeit just to be different lol
 
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