LeadedEL84
April 20th, 2010, 01:08 PM
I previously posted this to another forum but the site has really low traffic.My post only recieved one view in over 24 hours and I am afraid it may never get a reply there.I used to frequent "H-C" but now have trouble navigating and posting there. So I guess I am an H-C refugee. I found THE FRET and think it is a nice place. Please excuse the length of the post. I am reposting it "as written"because most of it is relavent to what I am trying to achieve with my V5.
Thanks for any help,
LeadedEL84
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
I just bought a new Crate V5. I have owned a V series 3112 for about a year and a half. It is the USA model,made by St.Louis Music,and came with the Celestion 70/80(made in Ipswich England). I have been very happy with the V-30. I had planned on replacing the speaker with a Vintage 30 when I bought the amp but was surprised to find I liked the 70/80 just fine. I recently re-tubed it with Tung Sol 12ax7s in the preamp and a matched quad of Electro Harmonix EL84s in the power amp. Not a huge difference in sound but it seems a little tighter at high volumes,the harmonics feel a little livelier,and the overdrive slightly warmer. Made a great amp better IMO.
I bought the V5 because I needed a low powered practice amp. I live in an apartment and the V30 is too loud for daily practice and noodling around at night. I had planned to get a small solid state amp. I checked out many at the local music shops but couldn't decide which to buy. On the short list were:Vox pathfinder,Marshall MG,Orange Crush,and Roland micro Cube. I had likes and dislikes about all.I was leaning towards the Vox. All were decent sounding toy amps and most were less than $100. I just don't like SS amps very much.
I was doing some price comparisons online and found a deal on the Crate V5. I got it New and shipped to my door for well under $100.I thought it would be cool to have a practice amp that is a miniture of my prized V-30 that I love so much. Unfortunately comparing the new line of foriegn made crate v-series amps to the now discontinued USA made v series amps is apples and oranges. They look similar but they sure do not sound the same! What has Crate done to the V series? This V5 sounds ok clean at low volume but turn it up a little and you get a shrill fizzy overdrive sound. Turn it up loud and it sounds like garbled fuzz with a farty low end. Total crap. Good thing it was cheap! This thing needs serious upgrades just to get as good a sound as the solid state amps I passed up to buy this one……How embarassing. I'm not telling the music shop guys what I did until I get it sounding good enough to deserve the name tube amp.
I was figuring that all the components have been cheapened but the biggest contributer to the crappy sound is the speaker. So I started looking for a replacement speaker with a few in mind. I was happy to see the modded V5s on Youtube. Tone Kings A-B comparison video gives me hope that I can coax some decent sounds from this thing with a speaker change. I also plan to do a tube swap. I had no trouble picking out the modded amp from Tone Kings video. The modded amp was so much smoother and warmer sounding.
I know what I want out of the amp and have a general idea of what to get. Now I have a few questions and need some opinions on tubes and speaker choices. Any help would be much appreciated…..
-SPEAKERS-
Before seeing Tone Kings mod video I was planning to buy a Celestion G10E Tube 10 speaker. I had a few reasons for choosing this speaker: 1-It is in the same family as the 70/80 speaker in my V30. 2- It shows a frequency response curve that is similar to my 70/80. 3-I have a line on a NOS tube 10 speaker that is British made and less than $50. 4-The tube 10 cost less than the China made 10 inch greenback or G10 Vintage speakers I was also considering. 5-The Tube 10s 30 watt rating seems more apropriate than the G10 vintages 60 watt rating.
Here are my speaker questions: How does the Tube 10 compare to the G10 Vintage soundwise? Is the Tube 10 a good choice for the V5?
-TUBES-
I have read that replacing the 12AX7 preamp tube with a 12AT7 improves the sound of the V5 overall and smooths out the distortion. My thought was to replace it with a JJ/tesla or Mullard style 12ax7 to hopefully smooth out the distortion yet allow it to achieve distortion at a relatively low volume level. My concern is that switching to the lower gain 12AT7 would require a higher volume setting to achieve overdrive. My goal is to achieve a good overdrive sound at low volume levels. I am not concerned with clean headroom. I normally set my amps to moderate to high gain settings and use my guitars volume control to clean it up or control distortion levels. Never using a 12AT7 in the tonestack section I am not sure what to expect in that regard. Because of the apartment situation I am trying to achieve the best low volume overdrive tone. This will be a dedicated home practice amp. I have the V30 and a Fender Deluxe Reverb to cover everything else. I will likely be using an EL84-EH for the power tube.
Here are my tube questions: 1- What preamp tube do I need to use to achieve my goals sound and volume wise? 2-Is there a better power tube to use in the V5 than the EH?
Thanks for any help you can provide.
LeadedEL84
Thanks for any help,
LeadedEL84
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
I just bought a new Crate V5. I have owned a V series 3112 for about a year and a half. It is the USA model,made by St.Louis Music,and came with the Celestion 70/80(made in Ipswich England). I have been very happy with the V-30. I had planned on replacing the speaker with a Vintage 30 when I bought the amp but was surprised to find I liked the 70/80 just fine. I recently re-tubed it with Tung Sol 12ax7s in the preamp and a matched quad of Electro Harmonix EL84s in the power amp. Not a huge difference in sound but it seems a little tighter at high volumes,the harmonics feel a little livelier,and the overdrive slightly warmer. Made a great amp better IMO.
I bought the V5 because I needed a low powered practice amp. I live in an apartment and the V30 is too loud for daily practice and noodling around at night. I had planned to get a small solid state amp. I checked out many at the local music shops but couldn't decide which to buy. On the short list were:Vox pathfinder,Marshall MG,Orange Crush,and Roland micro Cube. I had likes and dislikes about all.I was leaning towards the Vox. All were decent sounding toy amps and most were less than $100. I just don't like SS amps very much.
I was doing some price comparisons online and found a deal on the Crate V5. I got it New and shipped to my door for well under $100.I thought it would be cool to have a practice amp that is a miniture of my prized V-30 that I love so much. Unfortunately comparing the new line of foriegn made crate v-series amps to the now discontinued USA made v series amps is apples and oranges. They look similar but they sure do not sound the same! What has Crate done to the V series? This V5 sounds ok clean at low volume but turn it up a little and you get a shrill fizzy overdrive sound. Turn it up loud and it sounds like garbled fuzz with a farty low end. Total crap. Good thing it was cheap! This thing needs serious upgrades just to get as good a sound as the solid state amps I passed up to buy this one……How embarassing. I'm not telling the music shop guys what I did until I get it sounding good enough to deserve the name tube amp.
I was figuring that all the components have been cheapened but the biggest contributer to the crappy sound is the speaker. So I started looking for a replacement speaker with a few in mind. I was happy to see the modded V5s on Youtube. Tone Kings A-B comparison video gives me hope that I can coax some decent sounds from this thing with a speaker change. I also plan to do a tube swap. I had no trouble picking out the modded amp from Tone Kings video. The modded amp was so much smoother and warmer sounding.
I know what I want out of the amp and have a general idea of what to get. Now I have a few questions and need some opinions on tubes and speaker choices. Any help would be much appreciated…..
-SPEAKERS-
Before seeing Tone Kings mod video I was planning to buy a Celestion G10E Tube 10 speaker. I had a few reasons for choosing this speaker: 1-It is in the same family as the 70/80 speaker in my V30. 2- It shows a frequency response curve that is similar to my 70/80. 3-I have a line on a NOS tube 10 speaker that is British made and less than $50. 4-The tube 10 cost less than the China made 10 inch greenback or G10 Vintage speakers I was also considering. 5-The Tube 10s 30 watt rating seems more apropriate than the G10 vintages 60 watt rating.
Here are my speaker questions: How does the Tube 10 compare to the G10 Vintage soundwise? Is the Tube 10 a good choice for the V5?
-TUBES-
I have read that replacing the 12AX7 preamp tube with a 12AT7 improves the sound of the V5 overall and smooths out the distortion. My thought was to replace it with a JJ/tesla or Mullard style 12ax7 to hopefully smooth out the distortion yet allow it to achieve distortion at a relatively low volume level. My concern is that switching to the lower gain 12AT7 would require a higher volume setting to achieve overdrive. My goal is to achieve a good overdrive sound at low volume levels. I am not concerned with clean headroom. I normally set my amps to moderate to high gain settings and use my guitars volume control to clean it up or control distortion levels. Never using a 12AT7 in the tonestack section I am not sure what to expect in that regard. Because of the apartment situation I am trying to achieve the best low volume overdrive tone. This will be a dedicated home practice amp. I have the V30 and a Fender Deluxe Reverb to cover everything else. I will likely be using an EL84-EH for the power tube.
Here are my tube questions: 1- What preamp tube do I need to use to achieve my goals sound and volume wise? 2-Is there a better power tube to use in the V5 than the EH?
Thanks for any help you can provide.
LeadedEL84