Surprising what a simple tube change will do...

[mystixboi]

For the past few years, I've been loving the green and blue channels of my 5150 III 50 watt. The red seemed a bit too over the top... I always wished for a voicing similar to the blue channel that I could set differently for leads.

I contacted the designer, Howard Kaplan, from Fender on what he suggets to tame the red channel.He told me that the red channel, in addition to having more gain, has a sustain character that the blue channel doesn't have. If I wanted to lower the gain, I should try at 12AU7 in V2 and V3... and I did just that. I got a set of JJ's and I tried the amp today.

Holy balls!!! What a world of difference!!!

The gain was diminished quite a bit. I used to have to set the gain around 11 or 12 noon to get a good bit of satchuration. Anything more wasn't really needed. Now, I have to set the gain to 3 or 4 o'clock, but even then, the voicing sounds similar to the blue channel. After messing with the EQ for a bit and driving it with a Bad Monkey to tighten up the lead tones, I found some killer killer tone.

I played and played and played. It sounded huge with a nice bit of teeth, but not buzzy at all.

So now, I have a 4 channel amp!!!!

- Channel 1: Clean
- Channel 2: Clean channel with a Bad Monkey for a bit of dirt
- Channel 3: Blue Channel for Hot Rodded Marshall tones - TC Spark to tighten it up when needed
- Channel 4: Liquid lead tone

I love this amp!!! It just keeps on giving!

 

[mudf00t]

What amp are we discussing?

 

[hammered]

I'm guessing the 5150 50 watt

 

[SpiderWars]

I assumed the 5150 III mini in sig.

I agree though! Sometimes a 5751 is enough to tame some gnarliness (new word). Or switching from something like a Shuguang 12AX7A (or B) to a JJ ECC83S. Both good 12AX7s imo but at opposite ends of the tone spectrum.

 

[Racerxrated]

Good for you man. I never gave much thought to tube rolling, until I found the Internet and eBay lol...now it's fun swapping pre/power tubes to hear the results. The 2555x I have can run any combination of pairs of octal tubes..34s/6550s, kt88s/6L6 etc..I've got 6550s with KT90s and its one metal mfer with a double boost...

 

[mystixboi]

What amp are we discussing?

Sorry. EVH 5150 III 50 watt

 

[cecilbag]

Now it's time for the NOS rabbit hole