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But I finally got my JCA50H preamp converted to JCM800 specs. Fired it up, and it sounded pretty good, then the next day nothing. I was sure I had soldered something poorly, and I went back and touched up all the solder joints on the components I had replaced. Still nothing, so I started measuring voltages. I had over 300 volts at the cathode of V1, and when I pulled the shield off V1, I found a cloudy top and a crack in the side. And it brought me right back to something I always read here. When you have a problem with a tube amp, it's most likely the tubes. I was so frustrated with removing and replacing the chassis from the headshell that it took me a week or more to figure this out.
So how does it sound, you ask? Pretty great, I think. It's continuing the break in on the Hellatone 60 (i.e. Vintage 30) I got a couple of weeks ago, and it finally sounds like a Marshall, because, well, now it is a Marshall, with EL34s to boot. It's a lot less noisy as well, for some reason, (metal film resistors may be helping here?), and it doesn't need to be as loud to sound good. The highs aren't nearly as harsh, the presence and treble knobs don't need to be at zero to be tolerable, and the mids are big and bold, like I've wanted since I bought (and started piecemeal mods on) the amp. And I still have a second channel with stupid amounts of gain for those days.
The big difference is when I pick up the guitar, I'm not trying to figure out what's wrong with my tone, and playing just got a lot more fun.
So how does it sound, you ask? Pretty great, I think. It's continuing the break in on the Hellatone 60 (i.e. Vintage 30) I got a couple of weeks ago, and it finally sounds like a Marshall, because, well, now it is a Marshall, with EL34s to boot. It's a lot less noisy as well, for some reason, (metal film resistors may be helping here?), and it doesn't need to be as loud to sound good. The highs aren't nearly as harsh, the presence and treble knobs don't need to be at zero to be tolerable, and the mids are big and bold, like I've wanted since I bought (and started piecemeal mods on) the amp. And I still have a second channel with stupid amounts of gain for those days.
The big difference is when I pick up the guitar, I'm not trying to figure out what's wrong with my tone, and playing just got a lot more fun.