EVH 5150 50w el34, help not sure if it's me or issue with amp.

Re: EVH 5150 50w el34, help not sure if it's me or issue with amp.

aiaosu said:
Your cart looks like the right stuff.

Yes, the difference is the two power tubes. EL34's supposedly have a different sound and feel than 6L6s (I've only used EL84's and EL34's) and EL34's are supposedly what EVH used with Van Halen back in the day.

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Thanks for your help man! I really appreciate it. I will let you know how it goes. It's kinda funny though. That amp is $100 more than the 6l6 model, and the only difference is the tubes. Kind of a rip off then lol.
 
Re: EVH 5150 50w el34, help not sure if it's me or issue with amp.

No problem, hope it works out. Whether it's worth it or not is subjective. If you really like the sound and feel of EL34's, then it could be worth the money. If it helps inspire you, go for it and don't look back.

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Re: EVH 5150 50w el34, help not sure if it's me or issue with amp.

aiaosu said:
No problem, hope it works out. Whether it's worth it or not is subjective. If you really like the sound and feel of EL34's, then it could be worth the money. If it helps inspire you, go for it and don't look back.

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Ok so I got the shipping update, everything is coming Friday. :usa2:

So, just to confirm, I'm going to unplug everything, unscrew the top/back, (I'm going to wear some thin electricians gloves) and I just pop tube out, pop tube in. I don't have to do it in any specific order correct? Also, once I turn it back on should I let it warm up in standby for a good half hour or so?
 
Re: EVH 5150 50w el34, help not sure if it's me or issue with amp.

Correct on the procedure for pulling out and pressing in tubes. When putting tubes in, they only go in 1 way, so look at the pins and look at the tube sockets to make sure that they line up correctly.

As for warming up, you don't have to wait that long. After the first 30-60 seconds, once full sound is passing through, just play and listen for any pops, noise, etc. But, hopefully, you're good to go.

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Re: EVH 5150 50w el34, help not sure if it's me or issue with amp.

aiaosu said:
Your cart looks like the right stuff.

Yes, the difference is the two power tubes. EL34's supposedly have a different sound and feel than 6L6s (I've only used EL84's and EL34's) and EL34's are supposedly what EVH used with Van Halen back in the day.

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I read somewhere he had 6CA7s in his original recording amp? Brighter and tighter, which might explain the 6L6 choice for a production version.

Also, if changing the power tubes, they’ll need to be biased to work and sound right.
 
Re: EVH 5150 50w el34, help not sure if it's me or issue with amp.

beaubrummels said:
I read somewhere he had 6CA7s in his original recording amp? Brighter and tighter, which might explain the 6L6 choice for a production version.

Also, if changing the power tubes, they’ll need to be biased to work and sound right.
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Chillytouch has the EL34 version of the EVH Amp and is replacing EL34's with EL34's, so he shouldn't have to re bias.

I want this to be clear as Chillytouch has been uncomfortable with changing tubes.

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Re: EVH 5150 50w el34, help not sure if it's me or issue with amp.

aiaosu said:
Chillytouch has the EL34 version of the EVH Amp and is replacing EL34's with EL34's, so he shouldn't have to re bias.

I want this to be clear as Chillytouch has been uncomfortable with changing tubes.

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So I got the EL34-IIs. Do I need to rebias for them?
 
Re: EVH 5150 50w el34, help not sure if it's me or issue with amp.

aiaosu said:
Chillytouch has the EL34 version of the EVH Amp and is replacing EL34's with EL34's, so he shouldn't have to re bias.

I want this to be clear as Chillytouch has been uncomfortable with changing tubes.

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Hmm, IME even changing like for like tubes they aren’t all identical and would need the bias checked, but ok.
 
Re: EVH 5150 50w el34, help not sure if it's me or issue with amp.

beaubrummels said:
Hmm, IME even changing like for like tubes they aren’t all identical and would need the bias checked, but ok.
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If it does need biasing, it won't like, explode or anything right? I can at least try and see if it sounds ok, and if there is a sound discrepancy I can try and find somewhere that will bias it? All my tubes came today so I'm going to try it today.
 
Re: EVH 5150 50w el34, help not sure if it's me or issue with amp.

you should be ok since you are swapping el34 to el34 but it may not be optimal. put the tubes in and watch them for a few minutes. the filaments should glow and thats normal, if you see the plates starting to get red then the amp is biased too hot for these tubes.
red-plate.jpg

the circled one is red plating, the others are fine
 
Re: EVH 5150 50w el34, help not sure if it's me or issue with amp.

jeremy said:
you should be ok since you are swapping el34 to el34 but it may not be optimal. put the tubes in and watch them for a few minutes. the filaments should glow and thats normal, if you see the plates starting to get red then the amp is biased too hot for these tubes.
View attachment 102235

the circled one is red plating, the others are fine
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Thanks for the reassurance. I swapped them successfully and tried to out. It sounds good so far. I will do the test you just mentioned. Thanks again all. Also, when I took out all the tubes, i didnt see any obvious signs of one of the tubes being damaged. They actually looked pretty good. Given I dont know what to look for. I will have to wait and see if the issue presents itself again but hopefully not!

Thanks again all
 
Re: EVH 5150 50w el34, help not sure if it's me or issue with amp.

they could just be worn out. just like tires on your car, they need replacing every so often
 
EVH 5150 50w el34, help not sure if it's me or issue with amp.

chillytouch said:
If it does need biasing, it won't like, explode or anything right? I can at least try and see if it sounds ok, and if there is a sound discrepancy I can try and find somewhere that will bias it? All my tubes came today so I'm going to try it today.
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It’s like changing all the tires and wheels on your car and not doing an alignment. It will drive, but won’t work as well as it could and the new wheels won’t last as long. The new tubes will work, may not sound as great as they could and may not last as long, IME. But if you’re happy, rock on.
 
Re: EVH 5150 50w el34, help not sure if it's me or issue with amp.

This thread piqued my curiosity so I researched the bias settings of the 5153 50 watt amps. They are adjustable. However, most report that bias is set rather cold at the factory. Around 50 % max plate dissipation. This should give a fairly wide margin for error if a set of tubes are installed that want to run hotter.

Another interesting thing is that the 50 watt 5153 amps run plate voltages pushing 500 volts. The average plate voltage reported is about 490 maybe dipping into the 480s with a hot bias setting. With EL34s, 50% plate dissipation would be around 26 ma per tube but 70% would still only be 35 ma. With 6L6GCs the range would be wider, about 30 ma (50%) to 43 ma (70%).

I'm posting this not to scare the OP, but as general information for those that own 5153 50 watt amps. The bias setting is probably safe with different EL34s in this case, but to really fine tune these amps and to get the best performance it would be better to learn how to set the bias or have a tech do it.
 
Re: EVH 5150 50w el34, help not sure if it's me or issue with amp.

JMP/HBE said:
I wouldn't expect perfection from a mass produced amp from Mexico or wherever they're made this month.

Might try swapping some preamps tubes with known good tubes.
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booooo
 
Re: EVH 5150 50w el34, help not sure if it's me or issue with amp.

Yes thank you all for the advice throughout this. I've been using the amp for 1-2 hour sessions these past few days and all seems well. I actually do notice a difference in sound quality. I'm not sure if it's just because the stock tubes were 1+ years old or because the EL-34IIs sound different, but the amp sounds great now and I haven't encountered the issue of it losing volume yet. I also checked the plates after running it for 30 minutes and the plates were not red.

I will say, the original complaint I had (about how there doesn't sound like there's much sustain on the blue channel), I think that's just how the channel is, because I've read similar complaints on other sites in regards to this amp. I put a tube screamer in front of it now which fixes that issue.

Oh one other thing. I noticed when I changed the tubes, the power tubes currently in the amp were JJ brand as well. Does that mean that someone changed the tubes on this already? Because I thought I read that the amp comes with EVH branded tubes or something like that.

Thanks again.
 
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