Machine Head 5150s ... help maybe?

[ibznorange]

mmhmm. gotta love it. its not like you get it, and then on to find something else to do. Always giving you a good means to have fun and be broke
honestly, 5150 retube = kill all fizz. if not, something is south in your guitar or cab

 

[Slayer89]

Alan, since this 5150 you bought is used, most likely the tubes might be a little beat... that should be your first order of business right there, next step i would try is a tube screamer (nothing too over the top if you only want to add some clarity, the Maxon VOP9 is perfect for this). maybe try out some different pickups too if you still find things not to your liking.

yeah, alot of this stuff will add up ($), but that's the fun in owning a tube amp! there's always things you can do to enhance and improve them.

Got any recomendation for tubes? I plan on getting that Tung Sol, that you suggested, but what about for the other tubes? It will probably be a while before I buy them, but I guess it'd be good to get my game plan in order.

 

[budda]

JJ retube kit from Eurotubes that's what I'd do.

you could buy power amp tubes now.. and preamp tubes later. or do it all at once, your call.

No, I meant the tone. All the tones I've dialed in have had a fair amount of noticeable fizz on them when it came to the higher pitched notes.

what do you have the gain at? chances are it's got enough gain on 3 for metal. i run the gain on 3 on my ultra channel on the jsx, and its Overkill lol.

 

[Slayer89]

I have the gain right around (or maybe a little above) 3 actually, haha. I try to avoid the fizz, haha. I have a friend who thinks you can't get a good tone without the gain being at least set at 3/4s of the max. Drives me insane, haha.

 

[budda]

are you on the lead channel or the clean channel on crunch mode? clean channel on crunch mode is the place to be

i stick with my eurotubes recommendation

 

[Edroz]

Got any recomendation for tubes? I plan on getting that Tung Sol, that you suggested, but what about for the other tubes? It will probably be a while before I buy them, but I guess it'd be good to get my game plan in order.

budda's JJ recommendation should do. they've always served me well in my peavey XXX. you'll wan't four JJ 6L6GCs for the powe section. for the preamp section, i would still definitely get the Tung-Sol Gold Pin 12AX7 for V1, for the remaining 4 slots, i'm sure the JJ 12AX7s are fine. i've had good results with the regular Tung-Sol 12AX7s as well.

i'm about due for a full retube in my Brunetti, i'm hearing good things about Electro Harmonix, so i think i'm going for a set of the 6L6s and in addtion to the Tung-Sol Gold Pin i already have in there, a quad of EH 12AX7s.

 

[ibznorange]

dude, EHX power tubes are awesome (el34s and the like at least, dont think they make any kt types. MAYBE kt88s). i really like their 12AH7's too. the 12ax7's are meh. get something else for those, at least the gain stages. They arent bad, better than sovteks and shit, but nothing great in the gain stages etc. They ARE good for buffers/returns on fx loops, reverb tanks, inverters etc. Id grab some jj gold pins or something for your Gain tubes though

 

[Rick]

I fucking love their tone.

 

[warlock7strEMG]

Machine Head is one of my all time favorite bands and I love their tone, especially on "The More Things Change.." and " Through The Ashes Of Empires". Ive always heard that they get their tone by using the Rhythm channel on their 5150s boosted with a TS9 and their clean channel is actually the Lead channel with the gain turned way down.

Notice on the pics of Robbs rig here, the tape with "clean" written on it is above the Lead channels gain knob and its barely up.

Notice also the piece of tape with "main" written on it is above the Rhythm channels volume(which looks to be turned up decently loud) and if you look to the far left end of the panel where the Rhythm gain knob is, its cranked up enough to where it can by pushed into high gain with a TS9.

As far as any mods that might have been done to the amps as well im not sure though.

 

[Slayer89]

Okay, thanks for all the info. Hopefully this Friday (payday for me) I'll be ordering the preamp tubes. I'll get the Tung Sol gold pin, and then JJ's. One thing is in almost all of Eurotubes' 5150 sets they put a "balanced" 12ax7 in for V5. Should I order one of these, and what effect does that really have on the tone?

 

[zimbloth]

I see no mention of biasing the amp. Make sure to do that, as it's critical to an amp's performance. Eurotubes can fill you in on how to do that

 

[Slayer89]

I've heard a ton about people "biasing" amps. What exactly is that?

 

[zimbloth]

I've heard a ton about people "biasing" amps. What exactly is that?

Read this..

That should really explain it better than I can, I'm too lazy to type up paragraphs on it at this moment. All you need to know is after the amp is properly biased, your tone and response will improve dramatically. Most tube amps come stock set cold, which is why I never judge an amp before I can get new tubes in it properly biased.

Most Mesa and Peavey amps have a 'fixed' bias which is set very cold, which sucks, their rationale for doing it that way is so that you can just go plug 'n play with tubes without running into issues. A one size fits all type approach. For people who are really concerned with their tone, this won't cut it. You can still get around the fixed bias though and make it adjustable, just talk to Bob at EuroTubes if you can.

 

[Slayer89]

Thanks much for the link.

Well, I'll check into that, but I'm honestly not sure there are any local places that I'd trust to do that sort of work (I normally walk out of local shops wishing I hadn't even bothered asking the employees technical questions), and shipping would cost a bitch and a half. So, hopefully I can find a new, reliable place.

 

[zimbloth]

Dude it's super easy to do it yourself. You just get a bias probe and a digital multimeter and that's all you need. All you have to do once you get it set up is to adjust the 'trim pot' on your amp to the appropriate level, it's so easy. I didn't know anything about how to do it either, until I spoke to them and they hooked me up. They even have videos on how to do it on their website.

 

[Slayer89]

Okay. My only concern is that I've heard 5150's don't have a trim pot stock, and that you have to install one. There are no videos on the Eurotubes page involving a 5150, so that part leaves me a bit out of the loop.

 

[the KĪCK AЯSE AussĪe 3.0]

Hi i am just wondering the exact amp and the exact mods and who modded robb flynn used during burn my eyes and the more things change and the exact things logan mader used during burn my eyes and the more things change

 

[lewis]

they run chorus hard infront of the amp right? rather than Efx Loop.

Their old searing Rhythm/lead tones were just stunning. Made drop B sound groovier and heavier than it probably ever had at that point.

I was obsessed with this band back then. Modded my Epi flying v to look exactly like his ESP/Gibson copy flying V. Just wish my epi had 24 frets.

 

[Flappydoodle]

Thread resurrection from 2008, wow. But here's some good content. Robb's actual amp settings. He uses the rhythm channel of the 5150, boosted with an SD-1. He uses the lead channel with the gain all the way down as a clean.

 

[HeHasTheJazzHands]

He uses the rhythm channel of the 5150, boosted with an SD-1. He uses the lead channel with the gain all the way down as a clean.

...That's one way to do it.