5150 retubing and tube retailers

[Sickan]

Hey guys!
I'm about to buy a (used) 5150 and the tubes in it is pretty old.
I'm thinking of buying a set of new tubes so it can reach it's full potential (I don't want to struggle to get a good tone).
My questions:
Which is the "best" place to buy new tubes in europe (or shipping to europe)?
I've been checking out JJ's at Eurotubes (yeah, I know thats american - but they ship here anyway)... which leads me to the next question;
What tubes would you recommend me?
Are the "Peavey 5150 and 6505 Full Retube Kits" at Eurotubes any good? In that case, which kit should I get?

My budjet is maximum 250 USD.

Searched around here a bit, didn't really find an answer to my questions.

 

[::XeS::]

http://www.tube-town.net/index.html

 

[Force666]

I know a lot of people will steer you away from filling it up with JJs (which is all eurotubes sell, and all they will recommend obviously).

I've been searching as well and seems like the consensus is:


JJ or SED "Winged C" 6L6 powertubes

9th generation chinese 12ax7 preamp tubes
maybe some Tung Sol or EHX preamp tubes

Personally, I was going to pickup from Dougstubes.com but when I went to order they were out of the 9th gens and the JJ 6L6. I'll probably wait and see if he gets them in stock since i'm not in a huge hurry either way. But whatever you choose to do, let me know how it goes, maybe you'll stumble across something awesome and change my mind as well.

 

[JMarz]

Hey Force, what's your opinion on Groove Tubes?

 

[Force666]

Truthfully AFAIK Groovetubes just relabels their tubes. In an old band of mine, we used some "mullard reissue groovetubes" in a Peavey Rockmaster preamp and it sounded ballsy as fuck.

That and i'm definitly not a tube guru by any means. The tubes I listed seemed to get pretty good reviews from my research on this forum so that influenced my decision.

 

[FJA Mods]

Tube Amp Doctor 6L6WGC-STR or Tungsol 6L6GC STR. I hate the JJ's.
Jerry

 

[TheWinterSnow]

Most people are going to say stay away from JJ's. IMO hey are very well balanced in tone. Smooth high end with good amount of sizzle. Chinese 12ax7's and EH are bright/top heavy which is fine if you want fuzz. I personally like my tone to be refined and balanced. I have foudn that with JJ pretubes. Can't really comment on power tubes though. I heard the JJ 6L6's have massive low end and balls to them and the winged c's are edgier.

 

[53Crëw]

I think the winged C 6L6's are a great tube. I agree with what Winter Snow said. The JJ 6l6's have a bit more low end, Winged C's are a little more crisp and have a nice clarity to them. The Ruby 6l6GCMSTR's are a pretty good aggressive sounding tube, as well.

Personally, I like the Chinese 12aX7's and if I need to tame the highs a bit in certain amps, I just put a Tung Sol or something a little smoother in the V1 slot. A full complement of JJ's in the preamp of any amp will make it sound pretty dark.

 

[Metaltastic]

Winged C power tubes fucking rule, and I love Shuguang 9th gen 12AX7's!

 

[Sickan]

I have done alot of lurking and I may have figured out what I want (from tube-town):

V1: TT 12AX7 / ECC83 Classic V1
V2: JJ 12AX7 / ECC83S
V5: JJ 12AX7 / ECC83S
V3: JJ 12AX7 / ECC83S
V4: Sovtek 12AX7 / ECC83 LPS

POWER: 4x JJ 6L6 Red Label - TT XMatching

Would that work?

I think I'll bias-mod it aswell - with the help of my father (electrician background) and one of his colleagues, I read some bias-howto's I think we'll manage that just fine. (I would call his colleague somwhat of a luthier, with knowledge of amps)

 

[TheWinterSnow]

A full complement of JJ's in the preamp of any amp will make it sound pretty dark.

I have a full set of JJ's in my 5150. While they are dark, getting the presence knob past 7 gets the highs in there. I noticed though that with darker tubes, that when you being the highs up, they are tmaed a lot better and aren't so shrill. Hell of a lot mroe musical.

They definately give the amp more warmth and punch with some sacrifice to the highs, but like i said its easily correctable and sounds great, like i said beofre, way more refined and really well balanced.

I have done alot of lurking and I may have figured out what I want (from tube-town):

V1: TT 12AX7 / ECC83 Classic V1
V2: JJ 12AX7 / ECC83S
V5: JJ 12AX7 / ECC83S
V3: JJ 12AX7 / ECC83S
V4: Sovtek 12AX7 / ECC83 LPS

POWER: 4x JJ 6L6 Red Label - TT XMatching

Would that work?

I think I'll bias-mod it aswell - with the help of my father (electrician background) and one of his colleagues, I read some bias-howto's I think we'll manage that just fine. (I would call his colleague somwhat of a luthier, with knowledge of amps)

Sounds like a good setup. Be sure to experiment with the order. I highly reccomend that you get a balanced pretube for the V4 slot and its usually a good idea to get a warmer darker and smoother tube for the V4 especially if you have a bright V1 (a bright V1 being great for tighter articulation)

The bias mod is an eay thing to do. Google search 5150 bias mod and the first link should be a PDF of jerry's how to. Pretty simple mod to so if you are well with a soldering iron. I went as far as getting a rotary pot that I would install onto the chassis so that i don't have to remove the chassis from the box every time to bias the amp. be warned that the bias mod will again sacrifice even more highs, but what is there will be more musical as well as the amp will be stronger, have more balls and have a tigheter more solid low end.

 

[Sickan]

Bumpage

As for the bias modding, will these do?:
Potentiometer, resistor and bias-probe.

 

[Force666]

I haven't done the mod, but I think the "mini-pots" like Jerry (FJA) uses would probably be a little safer and is plastic instead of metal on the outside so if that thing happens to come loose for some reason doesn't instantly spell catastophe.

Everything else looks good!

 

[TheWinterSnow]

the plastic pots are for if you are keeping the bias adjustment inside the chassis. If youa re going external then the only way its going to fall is if you are trying to remove the pot when the amp is on and in that case you deserve whatever happens. Anyways, the recommended rating for the resistor should be 5.1 K but 6 should be fine, the whole bias will just be set lower, you will still be able to get hot, unless you had KT88's which the 5150 can't do, some tubes likw them will not be able to pull enough current with a higher resistor, but then again that shouldn't be a problem with 6L6's

everything you listed looks fine to me. Just be aware that that pot is meant to be outside the amp, meaning you have to drill a hole in the chassis for it to be installed.

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

Tube Amp Doctor 6L6WGC-STR or Tungsol 6L6GC STR. I hate the JJ's.
Jerry

Take it from this guy he knows his shit.

Especially 5150.


.... Jerry is the noise reduction mod only on the red ch. or does it do both?

 

[Melodeath]

I have a full set of JJ's in my 5150. While they are dark, getting the presence knob past 7 gets the highs in there. I noticed though that with darker tubes, that when you being the highs up, they are tmaed a lot better and aren't so shrill. Hell of a lot mroe musical.

They definately give the amp more warmth and punch with some sacrifice to the highs, but like i said its easily correctable and sounds great, like i said beofre, way more refined and really well balanced.



Sounds like a good setup. Be sure to experiment with the order. I highly reccomend that you get a balanced pretube for the V4 slot and its usually a good idea to get a warmer darker and smoother tube for the V4 especially if you have a bright V1 (a bright V1 being great for tighter articulation)

The bias mod is an eay thing to do. Google search 5150 bias mod and the first link should be a PDF of jerry's how to. Pretty simple mod to so if you are well with a soldering iron. I went as far as getting a rotary pot that I would install onto the chassis so that i don't have to remove the chassis from the box every time to bias the amp. be warned that the bias mod will again sacrifice even more highs, but what is there will be more musical as well as the amp will be stronger, have more balls and have a tigheter more solid low end.

The bias mod itself doesn't sacrifice more highs does it? You can always just bias the tubes back to how they were, and the tone should be exactly the same as before, right?

 

[Sickan]

All right, thanks guys!
I have checked some different bias-mod guides (they're practically the same) but I missed the part about the mini pots and it seems pretty logical to use a 5K(ish) resistor since the original is 15K.
I changed the resistor, will this pot work? I've read reccomendations that the power rating (of both resistor and pot) should be 1/2 W or more.

Take it from this guy he knows his shit.

Especially 5150.

Do you have any clips of his 5150?
The tubes I wrote was recommended by Lasse in some old thread, and I more than like his tones.

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

All right, thanks guys!
I have checked some different bias-mod guides (they're practically the same) but I missed the part about the mini pots and it seems pretty logical to use a 5K(ish) resistor since the original is 15K.
I changed the resistor, will this pot work? I've read reccomendations that the power rating (of both resistor and pot) should be 1/2 W or more.


Do you have any clips of his 5150?
The tubes I wrote was recommended by Lasse in some old thread, and I more than like his tones.

I have a 5150 that has his bias mod. However I am no where near my amp right now so no idea what he stuck in there when he did it.

I don't think my tones are all that special honestly. But I suppose I could throw something together if you want.

BTW if you visit www.FJAmods.com you can check his work there. I think his 5150 mods are cooler than Trace's at Voodoo.

 

[GuitarHack]

..... I've read reccomendations that the power rating (of both resistor and pot) should be 1/2 W or more.

The original is only 1/4W from memory isn't it? (I honestly can't remember)

I put a 6k8 in series with a 10k pot from memory, can't recall the Wattages. After some tweaking and burning out Grid resistors, tubes and flyback diodes, I went back to stock biasing. The difference is far from huge overall. If the standard bias is good enough for Mr Sneap, well I am convinced. Have you heard what he can do with a 5150? New Devildriver for instance...........

 

[Sickan]

I don't think my tones are all that special honestly. But I suppose I could throw something together if you want.

BTW if you visit www.FJAmods.com you can check his work there. I think his 5150 mods are cooler than Trace's at Voodoo.

Is it possible that you record a clip with standard bias setting and one with modified?
I'll check his work out!

The original is only 1/4W from memory isn't it? (I honestly can't remember)

I put a 6k8 in series with a 10k pot from memory, can't recall the Wattages. After some tweaking and burning out Grid resistors, tubes and flyback diodes, I went back to stock biasing. The difference is far from huge overall. If the standard bias is good enough for Mr Sneap, well I am convinced. Have you heard what he can do with a 5150? New Devildriver for instance...........

Could you be a saint and check the original wattage?
I saw a dude who bias-modded with 1/4W and he didn't seem to have any problems.

What kind of tweaking are we talking about? Does the bias-mod "break" easily?

Well I am no Mr Sneap or Mr GuitarHack
Glenn and Lasse seems to enjoy their mods, I want one too
Gz to 1000 posts btw!