I am a tube experimenter. I stop when I find the "right" recipe that suits my ears. But I have to admit, I like "personalizing" the tone of an amp that I already like to one that I can really love. I've done this to a number of my Boogies and Fenders. It is a time-consuming task, and also takes a willingness to "eat it" as experiments don't always pan out. But when they do ...it's a homerun!
So that said, after some judicious swapping and trial/error, I found a few things about my 5:25.
The Stock Mesa EL84s are ok. Not great, but not horrible. It's a high-gainer tube, and with it comes punch, sizzle, and highs that can lop the head off Gulliver. I didn't find mine "unpleasing" as much as I just compensated for it by rolling off treb at the amp and guitar (strat and tele, typically). But if you want smoother top end with "rounder' overall tone and solid firm bass, a pair of NOS RCA tubes are gorgeous!
Couple this with a NOS Mullard in V2 (the first gain stage on the express), and the whole amp just feels more "bouncy" and lively with "fendery BF" feel. The gain is less, to be sure, which seems to not only attenuate the highs, but also lend a cleaner and more defined punch to the lows more than the stock tubes. I also had a USA NOS ax7 I popped ito V1. Can't say I noticed much in the V1 swap, though. But the Mullard in the V2 was definitely more note detail and punchy without the hard highs. BTW, whereas I had the treb on the amp around 8:00 or so, now I can actually bring up the treb knob to what I think are more "useful" settings like closer to 11:00 to 12:00 depending on single coils or buckers.
I like the TungSol ReIssue 12AX7s in general ...just a good, pleasing tube IMHO that is rounder (again, less "edge" than the Mesa stock ones ...but the nice thing is I don't seem to sacrifice any gain whatsoever with these TS RI ones. I popped them into V3 and V4 and seemed to add another small increment of "less icepick" ...but not the same dramatic improvement with the Mullard into V2.
Overall, my semiclean tones are rich, full-bodied, and lush. The single biggest plus to me was taking the edge off the highs to make the whole personality of the amp less aggressive, even with the OD cranked in Crunch channel …just nicer all around. The one trade off you will make, of course, is less overall gain on tap. Metal and uber-gain users will not make use of this recipe, but for all other playing/style, I like the significant improvement!
Reverb: I think the express has way too much verb on tap, and that makes the reverb on tap a very sensitive knob in the fist 30% of its range. Enter a 12at7 here in V5. I happen to use a NOS Mullard 12at7 (same as a CV4024) but I tried it also with another 12at7: same results so a NOS doesn’t necessarily help in this case. What I ended up with though, is less reverb overall, which gives a better usable range on the knob, and also less touchy. But the best thing about the at7 here is the reverb’s decay is shorter than with the ax7. So you can still dial in a lot of verb, but it will decay faster, which is a plus, to me, when live. Notes are clearer, and not muddied by long decay of delay.
Bottom line is you gotta try some of this. You may hate it : afterall, we’re dealing with personal tone impressions here. But if you are not a super high-gain player (still easily reaches ACDC or EVH levels of saturation), then you just may want to try this. Just food for thought since I have just come off playing for hours. The 5:25 I “liked” when I first got it I now really love because its tone/dynamics fits my style better. Hope this helps someone out there
Edward
So that said, after some judicious swapping and trial/error, I found a few things about my 5:25.
The Stock Mesa EL84s are ok. Not great, but not horrible. It's a high-gainer tube, and with it comes punch, sizzle, and highs that can lop the head off Gulliver. I didn't find mine "unpleasing" as much as I just compensated for it by rolling off treb at the amp and guitar (strat and tele, typically). But if you want smoother top end with "rounder' overall tone and solid firm bass, a pair of NOS RCA tubes are gorgeous!
Couple this with a NOS Mullard in V2 (the first gain stage on the express), and the whole amp just feels more "bouncy" and lively with "fendery BF" feel. The gain is less, to be sure, which seems to not only attenuate the highs, but also lend a cleaner and more defined punch to the lows more than the stock tubes. I also had a USA NOS ax7 I popped ito V1. Can't say I noticed much in the V1 swap, though. But the Mullard in the V2 was definitely more note detail and punchy without the hard highs. BTW, whereas I had the treb on the amp around 8:00 or so, now I can actually bring up the treb knob to what I think are more "useful" settings like closer to 11:00 to 12:00 depending on single coils or buckers.
I like the TungSol ReIssue 12AX7s in general ...just a good, pleasing tube IMHO that is rounder (again, less "edge" than the Mesa stock ones ...but the nice thing is I don't seem to sacrifice any gain whatsoever with these TS RI ones. I popped them into V3 and V4 and seemed to add another small increment of "less icepick" ...but not the same dramatic improvement with the Mullard into V2.
Overall, my semiclean tones are rich, full-bodied, and lush. The single biggest plus to me was taking the edge off the highs to make the whole personality of the amp less aggressive, even with the OD cranked in Crunch channel …just nicer all around. The one trade off you will make, of course, is less overall gain on tap. Metal and uber-gain users will not make use of this recipe, but for all other playing/style, I like the significant improvement!
Reverb: I think the express has way too much verb on tap, and that makes the reverb on tap a very sensitive knob in the fist 30% of its range. Enter a 12at7 here in V5. I happen to use a NOS Mullard 12at7 (same as a CV4024) but I tried it also with another 12at7: same results so a NOS doesn’t necessarily help in this case. What I ended up with though, is less reverb overall, which gives a better usable range on the knob, and also less touchy. But the best thing about the at7 here is the reverb’s decay is shorter than with the ax7. So you can still dial in a lot of verb, but it will decay faster, which is a plus, to me, when live. Notes are clearer, and not muddied by long decay of delay.
Bottom line is you gotta try some of this. You may hate it : afterall, we’re dealing with personal tone impressions here. But if you are not a super high-gain player (still easily reaches ACDC or EVH levels of saturation), then you just may want to try this. Just food for thought since I have just come off playing for hours. The 5:25 I “liked” when I first got it I now really love because its tone/dynamics fits my style better. Hope this helps someone out there
Edward
