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Another valve junior question on tubes & Speaker


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Hi there i have seen and read alot about tubes in general recently and the only thing i am unsure on is that if change my stock tube from my V3 for say a 5751 will the overdrive of the amp be similar to the stock tube just it will break up later meaning slightly louder clean volume?

 

Hope ive worded it well enough.

 

Whilst im here..................... The stock emeinence speaker sounds nice to me but at full volume is obviously struggling. Would it be advisable to get a louder rated speaker or a bigger speaker? Or is it wise to pick up a epi cab to suite? (The normal one that go's with the epi head) I play at near max normally.

 

My speaker prob isnt broken in yet prob with only about 4 hours of good solid play as normally have to play quiet when everyone is in lol. Will it sound a lot different once its broken in??

 

As i say i am very happy with it stock just thinking of the tube change.

 

Would you say certain tubes are better for humbuckler guitars like my Les Paul? Single coils sound better through this amp i think.

 

Thanks for any help

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Lower gain preamp tubes will give you later breakup (more clean headroom), and will tame the distortion down when it does break up. Experiment with different tubes to see what sounds and works best for you. Some like an AT7 there...I don't care for the frequency response of that tube in comparison to an ax7, but it definitely does drop the gain significantly, as would a 5751.

 

Give the speaker 25-30 hours before you decide what to do with it. If you still don't like it, try a Celesion G12H (some like the Vintage 30, but I find it very harsh, personally...YMMV) or a couple of the Weber offerings...either a ceramic blue or silver. The higher the wattage rating on the speaker, the more bottom end and punch you'll get. I generally prefer speakers at or above 50w, but again, YMMV. The Celesion alnico blue is an incredible sounding speaker, but it's also only 15 watts, and doesn't have a whole lot of bottom end going on.

 

Also, closed cabinets tend to be a bit louder and have more bottom end than open, FWIW.

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With it as stock do you think its the tube causing the last bit of distortion or the speaker vibrating as it cant quite handle it?Sounds to me ok at 80% volume but once you go to max sounds like a speaker thing thats why i ask about an upgraded speaker. On the V3 i thought the speaker was rated really loud about 70 watts or something? Any idea on how loud would be good? With 8 inch speaker is there a limit before it sounds crap in the combo enclosure and when its better to get a bigger cab like the std epi stand alone valve cab?

 

Plan on keeping it std for a while to break it in.

 

Thanks

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I assume you've got the head, since you said "Eminence." That speaker is far more than enough to handle anything that a 5 watt amp could ever throw at it. I can't tell by your description what it is that you're hearing. It could be something that would disappear after the speaker is broken in.

 

That said, the speaker is the final point of the signal path, and arguably the most important. Regardless of what you've got in front of it, if the speaker is crap, it's going to sound like crap. I personally haven't heard that this particular speaker is "crap," but in my experience, every stock amp can benefit tremendously from the right speaker upgrade. Which one is "right" is entirely subjective, however.

 

As for the combo version, I can only speak to a stock 8" speaker, and can only compare to an old vibro champ that I have. I believe that the combo vjr probably has a much better OE speaker. The stock speaker in the champs/vibro champs is complete crapola. Think '74 Buick rear deck speakers. The single most important "mod" that a person with one of these amps can make is to replace that POS speaker with a Weber alnico. I was, and continue to be (5 years later) astonished at how much better that amp sounds with that speaker. The stock Oxford is tucked safely away for posterity, but it will never see the inside of that amp again as long as I own it.

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