Telecaster Guitar Forum - View Single Post - Anyone try the new Epiphone Blues Custom?

Bloozcat · August 9th, 2006, 04:37 PM

Two nights ago I replaced the tubes in mine with all NOS. It was too late to crank it up, so I just turned it on at low volume to make sure it worked. It did, so last night night I gave it a workout. The tubes I put in the amp are as follows:
Starting with the pre-amp tubes, V-1 got an RCA blackplate 12AX7A, V-2 got a BEL 12AX7 (Indian made Mullard Blackburn), V-3, V-4, and V-5 each got a GE 12AX7WA.
I replaced the puny Sovtek 5AR4 with a Philips 5AR4 that looks to be a third again the size of the Sovtek.
I replaced the miserable Sovtek "5881's" with a pair of Philips 6L6WGB's.

As delivered I found the amp to be trebly, bright, and ice picky on channel two, and pretty decent on channel one. The differences between the class A and class AB modes was not as pronounced as I had expected. The bass response overall was very disappointing.

Well, what a difference a re-tubing made! The amp has come to life now. It's still a little on the bright side, but the icepick to the ears is gone, and the bass is deeper, fuller, and a little more rounded, but with a very punchy quality to it. There isn't any dark, flabby, or muddy tones, just crisp bass notes that seem to jump from the amp.

The EQ is much more responsive now with the slightest of tweaks adding nuances to the tone. I think it's going to take a considerable amount of time to explore and catalog the various tonal subleties that are possible with this versatile amp. There is now a noticable difference between the class A and AB modes of the amp. The class A setting is very pick attack sensitive, and delivers some great tones at moderate to low volumes. In the AB mode this amp goes from crunchy to really sharp, edgy lead tones. The sustain is beautiful. I found myself playing with a much lighter touch on lead runs and the notes just seemed to flow out of the amp like a liquid.

I used two of my home made Strat clones and a re-wired Agile with Highorder humbuckers in it to test the amp out. These three guitars sound great through my 65 Bandmaster, my Ampeg V-2, my Crate VC 30, and my other Epiphone...the little Valve Jr. They sound just as good through this BC 30, but there is a very different quality to the tone of this amp. I was expecting something on the order of tweed or brownface tone with this amp, given it's tube configuration. While there is some of that on the clean channel, the OD channel reminded me more of an AC30 at times...like the difference between a broadsword and a rapier. The Strats sounded decent before the tube change, and a whole lot better now. The Agile LP sounds worlds apart with the new tubes as opposed to the OEM's. With just a little tweaking of the EQ, I was able to go from Allman Brothers tone to heavy AC/DC crunch. I even stumbled upon a little of that hollow/middy Jimmy Paige tone thrown in.

The reverb was very good as first reviewed, and is the pretty much the same now. Deep, lucious, dripping reverb tone that you can only get from a tube driven spring reverb. It does stop a little short of classic Fender reverb, but it's as close as any other to it (well, maybe not as close as Ampegs ).

It's a common notion that a rectifier tube has no bearing on an amps tone. It's just there to convert voltage. Where the difference is heard though, is in the sag and how it relates to the tone. The Philips 5AR4 that I used in place of the OEM Sovtek is as different as if I had gone from a solid state rectifier to tube.

Another thing that was and to a degree remains difficult to evaluate are the speakers. While I couldn't tell to what degree the speakers contributed to or detracted from the tone in the stock mode, I can now hear that the speakers are reproducing the rather versatile tonal ranges quite well. In all fairness, the speakers will need several more hours before they're broken in, but I have no qualms that they'll be up to the task. In fact, I believe that they are very well matched to this amps circuit.

I did make one change to the pre-amp line-up listed in my previous post. I put an NOS GE 5751 in the V-2 slot and moved the BEL 12AX7 to V-3, dropping one of the three remaining GE 12AX7's down to two (in V-3 and V-4). The GE 5751 did tame the OD just enough.

So, my earlier apprehension has decidedly changed to elation after testing the amp with it's new tube complement. Now I can't wait to get home to see what other tone I can squeeze out of this little jewel....

BTW: I'm still trying to get more information on this amps plate voltage and the voltage limits of the reissue Tung-Sol 5881's. If these two do turn out to be compatible, I'd surely like to try a pair. It still seems that those tubes and this amp would make a perfect match. More to come....

August 9th, 2006, 04:37 PM	#14 (permalink)
Bloozcat TDPRI Member Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Jensen Beach, Florida Posts: 90	Two nights ago I replaced the tubes in mine with all NOS. It was too late to crank it up, so I just turned it on at low volume to make sure it worked. It did, so last night night I gave it a workout. The tubes I put in the amp are as follows: Starting with the pre-amp tubes, V-1 got an RCA blackplate 12AX7A, V-2 got a BEL 12AX7 (Indian made Mullard Blackburn), V-3, V-4, and V-5 each got a GE 12AX7WA. I replaced the puny Sovtek 5AR4 with a Philips 5AR4 that looks to be a third again the size of the Sovtek. I replaced the miserable Sovtek "5881's" with a pair of Philips 6L6WGB's. As delivered I found the amp to be trebly, bright, and ice picky on channel two, and pretty decent on channel one. The differences between the class A and class AB modes was not as pronounced as I had expected. The bass response overall was very disappointing. Well, what a difference a re-tubing made! The amp has come to life now. It's still a little on the bright side, but the icepick to the ears is gone, and the bass is deeper, fuller, and a little more rounded, but with a very punchy quality to it. There isn't any dark, flabby, or muddy tones, just crisp bass notes that seem to jump from the amp. The EQ is much more responsive now with the slightest of tweaks adding nuances to the tone. I think it's going to take a considerable amount of time to explore and catalog the various tonal subleties that are possible with this versatile amp. There is now a noticable difference between the class A and AB modes of the amp. The class A setting is very pick attack sensitive, and delivers some great tones at moderate to low volumes. In the AB mode this amp goes from crunchy to really sharp, edgy lead tones. The sustain is beautiful. I found myself playing with a much lighter touch on lead runs and the notes just seemed to flow out of the amp like a liquid. I used two of my home made Strat clones and a re-wired Agile with Highorder humbuckers in it to test the amp out. These three guitars sound great through my 65 Bandmaster, my Ampeg V-2, my Crate VC 30, and my other Epiphone...the little Valve Jr. They sound just as good through this BC 30, but there is a very different quality to the tone of this amp. I was expecting something on the order of tweed or brownface tone with this amp, given it's tube configuration. While there is some of that on the clean channel, the OD channel reminded me more of an AC30 at times...like the difference between a broadsword and a rapier. The Strats sounded decent before the tube change, and a whole lot better now. The Agile LP sounds worlds apart with the new tubes as opposed to the OEM's. With just a little tweaking of the EQ, I was able to go from Allman Brothers tone to heavy AC/DC crunch. I even stumbled upon a little of that hollow/middy Jimmy Paige tone thrown in. The reverb was very good as first reviewed, and is the pretty much the same now. Deep, lucious, dripping reverb tone that you can only get from a tube driven spring reverb. It does stop a little short of classic Fender reverb, but it's as close as any other to it (well, maybe not as close as Ampegs ). It's a common notion that a rectifier tube has no bearing on an amps tone. It's just there to convert voltage. Where the difference is heard though, is in the sag and how it relates to the tone. The Philips 5AR4 that I used in place of the OEM Sovtek is as different as if I had gone from a solid state rectifier to tube. Another thing that was and to a degree remains difficult to evaluate are the speakers. While I couldn't tell to what degree the speakers contributed to or detracted from the tone in the stock mode, I can now hear that the speakers are reproducing the rather versatile tonal ranges quite well. In all fairness, the speakers will need several more hours before they're broken in, but I have no qualms that they'll be up to the task. In fact, I believe that they are very well matched to this amps circuit. I did make one change to the pre-amp line-up listed in my previous post. I put an NOS GE 5751 in the V-2 slot and moved the BEL 12AX7 to V-3, dropping one of the three remaining GE 12AX7's down to two (in V-3 and V-4). The GE 5751 did tame the OD just enough. So, my earlier apprehension has decidedly changed to elation after testing the amp with it's new tube complement. Now I can't wait to get home to see what other tone I can squeeze out of this little jewel.... BTW: I'm still trying to get more information on this amps plate voltage and the voltage limits of the reissue Tung-Sol 5881's. If these two do turn out to be compatible, I'd surely like to try a pair. It still seems that those tubes and this amp would make a perfect match. More to come....