5150 tubes?

DirtySteve

DirtySteve

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Are any of you 5150 owners running anything special for preamp tubes? I have the 50 watt EL34 version. Serial Number look up tells me it's a 2010 model. I have no idea if the tubes are original or not so I'm thinking about doing a retube and I'm looking for opinions.

I read that replacing V2 with a 12AU7 reduces the gain on the red channel and makes the gain control sweep more useful. Anyone else heard of that?
 
Makes sense on this end. Didn't know you had one! Or fogot....
It tames the gain in ch 3 it would seem.
Did that with my Traynor YCV4050 for the gain boost function.
 
Original tubes have no markings what so ever on them, no label, no stamp, no nothing. I can only assume they are original. I read somewhere that they ship with chinese tubes, but no one seems to know what they are.

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DirtySteve said:
Original tubes have no markings what so ever on them, no label, no stamp, no nothing. I can only assume they are original. I read somewhere that they ship with chinese tubes, but no one seems to know what they are.

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The original tubes would have been branded with PV logo. It would have been "STR 395."
or, The Fender 5150 would have been branded with Groove Tubes logo. The Groove tubes used in production amps are Soviet not Chinese.
Groove Tubes Soviet were in the new Fender amps, and Groove Tubes Chinese were retail sold in music stores.
Soviet Groove Tubes were not for retail sales.

And so...I'm thinking probably not the original tubes.

"NOS" tubes:
the tubes are typically wasted old junk, and not really NOS at all. 8 out of 10 are defects and useless.
And so (a friendly warning) don't buy any "NOS" tubes, unless you KNOW they are brand new UN-used tubes.
real NOS, New Tubes, Which means these tubes come from reputable well known vendors...
Fake NOS is for sale everywhere, on ebay, Reverb etc...I would say watch out don't fall for it.
 
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5150 freak here
***** super key point..how hot or not your pickups are will greatly influence the pre amp. By far the best pre amp style amp have ever played. Low gain pups allow you to move that gain up a bit but keep clear.


Then go hotter & back gain down. 2 very distinct tones & super usable for layering.

Speakers- oh how dif these amps can sound with Celestion or Eminence.

My 5150 Block has all original tubes. It's a monster- has recto bottom end qualities without the flub & then the presence set can slice & dice where ever you want it to to. The aggression is in the presence knob on these with gain back a hair. Pretty fun to hear the dif. The Orange OR30 does this also.

EVH 5150 iconic el34- whatever JB did, amp never needs touched. Its like a JMP with all the usable gain M didn't have but still does classic NMV M style tone.

5150 Signature all original tubes also a hair brighter than the OG .
 
Mine is an EVH III. I didn't think it mattered which model I have so I didn't specify. I was under the impression the preamps were all the same.

Now I'm thinking I should just leave well enough alone and stop thinking of "improving" on it.

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DirtySteve said:
Mine is an EVH III. I didn't think it mattered which model I have so I didn't specify. I was under the impression the preamps were all the same.

Now I'm thinking I should just leave well enough alone and stop thinking of "improving" on it.

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The reason I changed up one of mine when I had a 5153 is that there was a fine line between just getting gainy enough and too compressed. It would squash the pick attack. Changing to a 12AU7 fixed that to some degree, made the preamp control a little easier to set. For me.
 
I'm partial to Mullard's in V1- V2 preamp slots and I like the EHX or Ruby's for power tubes for the EL34's. (All my amps)

I've run JJs with no issue, sovtek have always sounded great as well.
 
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