Woofy 5e3....

[tylerrussell]

....Hi, all. With all the help from this site, my 5e3 is working rather well. My only concern now that it seems to be running fine is the "woofiness" at higher volumes. Speaker choices are limited. Running a K&M (Eminence) 65-8. I've read that changing the .1 caps (from pins and 6) of the first pre-amp tube might solve this issue. Does anyone feel that moving to a .022 or .047 helps a lot? Seems like an inexpensive and simple adjustment. Plus it would eliminate trying to gather funds for a different speaker. Yay or Nay?
Thanks again for all your wonderful support.

[HotBluePlates]

... My only concern now that it seems to be running fine is the "woofiness" at higher volumes. Speaker choices are limited. Running a K&M (Eminence) 65-8. I've read that changing the .1 caps (from pins and 6) of the first pre-amp tube might solve this issue. Does anyone feel that moving to a .022 or .047 helps a lot? ...

Yes.

I'd recommend changing the 0.1uF caps at the phase inverter first. There's a couple reasons for this:

• Most guitar amps seem to have the largest coupling caps towards the input, and smallest feeding the output tubes.
• More importantly, if you have big coupling caps at the output tube grids, then when they get pushed hard into distortion the large caps have a charging effect that results in blocking distortion.

You might shotgun the amp and switch all 4 0.1uF caps to 0.022uF; if this is too thin in the bass (as determined at high volume), then raise the 2 in the preamp to 0.047uF.

Be sure to form your opinion at high volume and/or with a band. We all tend to dial in too much bass when we play alone (because we're trying to create a full sound in a solo situation). And the negative efefct of too much bass makes itself apparent when the amp is pushed hard.

... Plus it would eliminate trying to gather funds for a different speaker. ...

You can't understate the impact of having the right speaker. But since there is generally no such thing as a perfectly flat speaker, there's nothing wrong with tweaking the amp's sound to mate well with the speaker you have.

[tylerrussell]

Thanks HPB. Yeah, the woofiness was apparent in a band setting. Which two (of the four .1's) should be .022/.047? I'm not amp literate; all I know (besides how to safely discharge the caps) is two .1's are tied to V1 pins 1 and 6; and the other two .1's are tied to v2 pins 6 and 8. Also, I'm running a 12AX7 in V1.
Thank you.

[HotBluePlates]

Buy a handful of 0.022uF's and 0.047uF's. Maybe some electrolytic caps around 1-5uF @ 25-50v.

Start by replacing the 0.1uF caps connected to V2. See if you want more bass trimmed. If so, swap out the other two 0.1uF's. Sometimes swapping a 1-5uF bypass cap in place of the existing 25uF bypass cap (there are 2 of them). Try one, try the other, etc. You'll know when you settle in on the right sound.

[tylerrussell]

Wow; thanks so very much! I'll give that a try, drive it in a band setting and report back.

[terminalgs]

You can  even go as far as a .001 coupling cap instead of the first .1 caps (following the 12AY7).  I did for that a friend's 5E3.  He uses humbuckers exclusively and plays the 5E3 @ 10 with an Alnico Weber.  I think the .001 lets the guitar register with a lot more clarity.  Still lots of overdrive, of course (it is a 5E3 after all).

HPB's advice is spot on, but if you try a .047 and you think there is more low end to drop, don't be afraid to go higher to .001.  you have two channels, you can even do .001 on one and .047 (or whatever) on the other...

[chocopower]

I don´t have a pure 5E3, but in my amp, who in simple terms is a EF86 front 5E3, i put a switch in the tone stack to change the 500pf bypass cap to a 250pf. With single coils the 500pf is perfect, but with humbuckers i found the 250pf give me a more scooped sound. It cut the low-mids in a very nice way.

Just my 2 cents.

[tubeswell]

Lots of people put .022uF or .047uF in as the first coupling caps (after V1) in 5E3 builds.