Holy Shit - My 5150 Story! - I AM A DUMBASS!!

guitarguru777

Member
Nov 13, 2003
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www.jasonconstantine.com
So when I bought my new 5150 least year off craigslist I asked the guy who sold it what kind of tubes were in it. He told me JJ's and I could see JJ's in the power section and was happy with the answer.

Over the last year I have listened to a billion and one 5150 clips and always wondered why mine sounded different. Everyone has always said they really enjoy my 5150 tones and that they seem smoother then others. I attributed it to the age of my Mesa Cab and getting really lucky on mic position.

Well Thursday night at a show I blew one of the internal fuses, so I opened up the chassis for the first time and noticed something.....

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Classic fucking NOS Ei Tubes in the preamp, so I did some research and found out these fuckers are super rare, and they are similar to a JJ but more smooth in the top end. 6 months ago just to have as backups I bought a set of JJ's and put them in just to see if I could hear the difference and OMG the highs are so fucking harsh ...lol


Well I finally found the reason this amp sounds so fucking amazing, and I am extremely happy, so the JJ's are up for sale as I am buying a quad of these Ei tubes as a backup off ebay.

This is what happens when you just take someones word for it and don't bother to check yourself. Luckily this time it worked out in my favor. I swear if this amp gets any more mojo from something I am gonna freak ...lol


Ok so to all you tube amp Gurus, does it look like any mods were made? Figured I would snap some shots while the chassis was open and ask:

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It's all photo shopped, Lol. Nah, It looks sick. Glad to hear there's smoother and richer tubes than the JJ's. I didn't even know about those or have even heard of 'em before!
Too bad I just got them EL34 tubes in my head :( *sigh*
 
The Ei tubes sound good, but a high percentage of them can be microphonic. I bought a some a while back and only about half were usable. Sounds like you got some good ones, though.

I used to have a couple in my old Super Lead and they sounded good in that, too.
 
So JJ are harsh sounding? Really?
I have retubed my Engl with JJ instead of the TADs I had and I'm very happy with them, no harsh sounding -not too smooth neither-... and even discovered a new world of low frecuencies.

Anyway I will have to check those Ei.