5150 tubes

[kmanick]

Re: 5150 tubes

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mine came with Sovtek power ane chinnese branded preamp.
OUT THEY WENT! I've got JJ's in there now and it sounds much sweeter.

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I changed them all to JJ's.
You might want to experiment with different tubes in the
V1 position as this amp is pretty responsive to different
tubes. the JJ's in my combo get me a real good 80's type of
distortion on the rythm channel with the crunch on or off
(a little bluesier with it off) and the guitar pickups you
use make these sound different as well.
I like this amp much better with my GMW with the duncan
custom in it than I do my soloist with the JB in it.
with my GMW with the crunch off I can get a eal good VH
brown sound out of it, and
with my soloist with the crunch on I can get a real good
Megadeth rust in peace tone. I don't even really use the
lead channel. To me it sounds like it's voiced much thinner
than the rhythm channel.
If I stick an EQ into the loop I can get the lead channel
to sound the way I like, which is probably how I'd use this amp if I played out with it.
I would just kick the EQ on and off as I switched back
and forth between channels.

[Cleveland Metal]

Re: 5150 tubes

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cleve, i bought a bunch of different preamp tubes, and at band volumes the EH tubes sound best to me. at lower volumes i prefered the JJs by far, but they were too dark at high volume, and as a result i had a hard time fighting the other dude's jmp1 rack setup. i don't like sovteks at all, way too fuzzy, and the SED preamp tubes are rather dull and undefined for heavy metal - i'm sure these are great rock or blues preamp tubes.

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Sounds reasonable.

I hate the Sovteks too.

The EHs have their place for sure. They were way too hairy for use in the CAE3+se. Even just using one in one of my lead channel sockets, I lost a LOT of definition with them although they were EXTREMELY cool for rhythm and low end chugging. they had a seriously nice chug and low end grind. But got a bit messy on quick intricate stuff. But that CAE really is sensitive to tubes. I hear things like cords, tubes, wireless, effects, very intensly in that thing that I NEVER noticed before in other preamps or amps. Ugh... Sort of a bummer.

I'm "basically" running JJs in it now. They are clear and chug "ok" but am still not all that happy with them. I had a mix of NOS stuff in there before and it sounded better. But have recently had great success swapping an old NOS Telefunkin and RCA 7025 into a couple spots.

I'm thinking that I've never tried the Wing C preamp tubes, I had higher hopes for them though. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] Unless you mean just the longtime waited for Svet preamp tubes which I have tried and thought they sucked. Most were crappy buzzy squeally, and the few that were ok still sounded not so great. I got some of the early ones and I hear the later ones are 'somewhat" better, haha..

Of course, the 5150 and the CAE are two different animals. They will respond quite differently I'm sure. I just ran NOS Chinese cheese grater getter styles in mine for the most part when I owned 5150s. Passable...

[VoiceX3]

Re: 5150 tubes

I went with the integrated quad full retube set of JJ's from Eurotubes. I got the set that came with the preamp tubes as well. I play with just the head thru 2 oldes style peavey cabs each loaded with 4 x 75 watt celestian speakers. You know the old cabs that look identical to the old Peavey "butcher" cabs except the "Peavey" emblems are silver instead of gold/tan. I gotta tell you that the whole sound tightenned up substantially, it gained miles and miles of headroom. The Distorted channel has much more USABLE gain now without getting washed out, plus you can add loads of bottom end successfully. On top of all that, the cleans are phenominal. This is all with the plug and play kit without the bias mod. Don't be afraid to snip off the retaining clips to fit the 2 KT-88 tubes, I travel with the head a lot, and I've never had to reseat a tube yet. This is an incredible low dollar mod that takes the rather sterile sound of a stock 5150 and gives it a whole different dimension. This is my opinion, and I would personally suggest it as well as loading some nice celestians in your cab if you don't want to just buy a cab off EBAY.

[Orchid]

Re: 5150 tubes

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Orchid; your dissapointment could have a lot to do with your speaker cab. I pulled a dead speaker in a cheap crate cabinet, and I couldn't believe how small the magnet was, Almost anything would be better, -amazingly cheap looking speakers in there.

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Haha you hit dead on the spot. I'm running this through a cheap GLX Crate Cab, and I KNOW that's like 85% of problem of the lack of tone.

[jimbilly]

Re: 5150 tubes

Orchid: there's some great 2x12 around used for low $$, keep an eye out for one of those old 2x12 Tube Works cabs, -HUGE sounding. Good used cabs are dirt cheap these days.

[Orchid]

Re: 5150 tubes

Yeah I'll check it out, but I was searching more for a 4x12, and I'm looking into the matching cabs used.