Bugera V5 Schematic?

[cebreez]

Fuller more rounded tone (more bottom and top end) and better headroom. What makes the Bugera V5 sound so much better than the Crate V5? The Crate V5 has an op-amp in front of the 12AX7 preamp tube I assume for conditioning the incoming signal but it also contains the tone circuit which sucks. I like the op-amp being there because I can work around it while leaving the tube portion of the circuit pretty much intact. I hope I'm saying that right.

[tunghaichuan***]

Fuller more rounded tone (more bottom and top end) and better headroom. What makes the Bugera V5 sound so much better than the Crate V5? The Crate V5 has an op-amp in front of the 12AX7 preamp tube I assume for conditioning the incoming signal but it also contains the tone circuit which sucks. I like the op-amp being there because I can work around it while leaving the tube portion of the circuit pretty much intact. I hope I'm saying that right.

The op amp is for preamp gain. It takes the place of a 12AX7. You might try upgrading the speaker, but that might be a tall order with a 10" speaker. I haven't heard a single ten that I've liked. They tend to be bright and lacking in bottom end, especially in small cabinets.

Part of the problem is the EL84 tube. They tend to be bright, even a tad shrill in single ended circuits. They also are very sensitive. A single cascaded 12AX7 preamp tube puts out more than enough signal to drive the EL84 to full power. That is why there are voltage divider resistors in the Valve Junior. The Blackheart Little Giant gets around this by suing a three band EQ that eats up a lot of the signal.

Because the amp is PCB based, without a lot of experience, it can be hard to physically modify the amp. So You're stuck with component values changes to the circuit.

You might try a lower gain tube swap for the 12AX7. A 5751 or a 12AY7/6072 are both similar to 12AX7s but lower gain. Other types are lower gain, like the 12AT7 and 12AU7, but they're really not in the 12AX7 family. But you could try them to see if you like the tone, however.

Hopefully, Jim P. will weigh in. He is the man when it comes to Crate V5 mods.