Stage 60 Upgrades

[Barreldog]

I've read in a lot of posts how people were swapping out there preamp tubes & getting good results. I figured I would give it a try, so I ordered some tubes & put them in today.
I used one Groove tubes 12AU7 & 2 Tung-Sol 12AX7's. The clean channel sounds pretty much the same. OD1 Sounds much better. It seems more full, Better & clearer sounds on the high & low end. OD2 was the biggest difference. Higher notes used to sound a little fizzy. Not anymore. Everything sounds better, No fizz & I had to turn the gain down from where I had it previously. I was very happy with the results, but I wasn't done yet.
I also ordered an Eminence Governor 16 ohm speaker. Ok, so after playing the amp with the new tubes in for a while I decided it was time to swap the speaker. Wow, I can't believe how incredible this sounds now, I know it's not broken in yet but it really sounds great. I was surprised at how good it sounds with the new speaker & one seventy 80. I'm going to leave it like this for now until the new one breaks in & then decide if I should replace the other one.

[KKND]

i completely agree with the tubes change, but in my case (2 JJ's 12ax7 and 1 JJ"s 12AU7) the clean channel sounded better, the OD1 is phenomenal and OD2 pretty much the same might get a tubg sol 12 ax7 for V2

Ok so Eminence Governor is the equivalent of a vintage 30 right? (i cant believe how many tines i am asking that question )

well thats great news mate, i am really glad that you are getting the best out of it, i am looking for a speaker swap so i will let you know

[KKND]

These are the speakers you got??

Red Coat Governor

[misterdistortion]

So far I've changed V1 and V2 for Tung-Sol 12AX7s and the ECC82 for a JJ version every thing seems a bit more responsive from the guitar controls

I also swapped out the stock 80/70s Celestions for a pair of Eminence Canabis Rex following rave response on TGP. They sound a little tight but are already an improvement to my ears, should be even better once they've been played in.

Weak link at the moment, literally, are the connectors to the FS-7 footswitch, particularly at the footswitch end. One of the retaining finger screws that fasten the connector to the pedal came loose and then snapped off, so currently I have no functioning footswitch

I heard mention on this Forum that the cabinets of the HT Venue amps are made of MDF or even particleboard but reviews that I've read in Guitarist magazine all claim that they are built from 9x plywood. the brackets that the speaker baffle and rear panel screw in to appear to be chipboard.

[DangerousR6]

Man, talk about night and day. I finally got a chance to swap out the preamp tubes with some JJ's, and this amp just came alive...Before the OD1 channel was kinda muddy. And OD2 was crunchy, but not super chunk crunchy. Now the OD1 is got some nice chimes in it and a bit more grit. And OD2 has some nice crunch now, like Capt'n Crunch crunch....