Valve Advise

Discussion - HT-5 amplifiers.
Salraine
Posts: 7
Joined: Sun Aug 05, 2012 12:00 am
Location: North East England

Sun Aug 05, 2012 1:13 am

I have recently bought an HT5RH and a Orange 112 to replace my old Roland cube. I am liking the amp a lot but find its missing some warmth and can be rather harsh and with a lot of treble even with the treble rolled off fully.

After reading a few posts on here it seems replacing the valves could be the answer for a relatively small amount of cash. I am after advice on what valves to buy to give me a all over improvement over the valves supplied with the amp.

I have seen this set of valves for sale specifically for the HT5 series and would like to know what people think of these. Price is £36.90 for both valves.

1 Specially Selected Harma ECC83 Retro
1 Specially Selected Sylvania 12BH7A


Thanks in advance.

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MetalOctane
Posts: 97
Joined: Fri Oct 28, 2011 12:00 am

Sun Aug 05, 2012 5:25 am

Welcome Salraine!

What are the rest of your settings? What style of music do you play? Single coils or humbuckers? My cube has way more treble and harshness than my HT-5RH. In fact, I need to use a boost to get the high mids to pop the way I want with HT5. Tungsol preamp tube, stock power tube.

KKND
Posts: 770
Joined: Sat May 01, 2010 12:00 am
Location: Oman

Sun Aug 05, 2012 5:49 am

Welcome on board.....any tube upgrade will be an enhancement to your tone. but for your specific tonal needs, I may suggest the Groove Tubes 12AX7R (Russian). I found that the JJ did a pretty good job smoothing the amp. Moreover, try an eq in the loop will help.


Salraine
Posts: 7
Joined: Sun Aug 05, 2012 12:00 am
Location: North East England

Sun Aug 05, 2012 11:53 am


Hi

I mainly use a Gibson Les Paul Traditional and a Fender USA Strat. Of the two, the LP sounds best through my Blackstar but the Strat is very harsh especially on the bridge pickup. I have the treble off, mid to 3 o clock and bass full. It still sounds rather harsh and has too much treble. My Cube I can set to 12 o clock on all controls and get a good sound out of it with no harshness at all. Seems like each HT5 is different as I have read posts with the problem I have and at least one with the problem of having too much bass.

My tastes range from classic rock through to modern high gain metal amongst others. I am looking for the tube upgrade to give me a warmer, fuller more natural tone throughout the frequencies.

Cheers

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ronnie robinson
Posts: 430
Joined: Sat Aug 14, 2010 12:00 am
Location: North East, UK

Sun Aug 05, 2012 4:25 pm

This Amp should also sound good with tone knobs around about 12

This might seem obvious but this is a common complaint with Strats in that the treble pickup can be way too harsh, if it has a tone knob turn it down to 6 ... Can u use the middle pick up perhaps

Also what volume are u at? As its a tube type amp it needs to be at a certain volume to sound its best

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MetalOctane
Posts: 97
Joined: Fri Oct 28, 2011 12:00 am

Sun Aug 05, 2012 6:39 pm

Salraine wrote: Hi

I mainly use a Gibson Les Paul Traditional and a Fender USA Strat. Of the two, the LP sounds best through my Blackstar but the Strat is very harsh especially on the bridge pickup. I have the treble off, mid to 3 o clock and bass full. It still sounds rather harsh and has too much treble. My Cube I can set to 12 o clock on all controls and get a good sound out of it with no harshness at all. Seems like each HT5 is different as I have read posts with the problem I have and at least one with the problem of having too much bass.

My tastes range from classic rock through to modern high gain metal amongst others. I am looking for the tube upgrade to give me a warmer, fuller more natural tone throughout the frequencies.

Cheers
Yeah, bridge single coils can be harsh at times. I would also reccomend JJ for a pre-amp tube because they do seem to be warmer than most others. Another thought, what speaker is in your Orange cabinet? Is the cabinet closed or open back?

On another note: You are right, user's descriptions of the tone from these amps tend to be all over the place. From too much bass, to way too harsh. Mine falls somewhere in the middle. I wonder what would be found if we all checked what our amps were biased at.

Salraine
Posts: 7
Joined: Sun Aug 05, 2012 12:00 am
Location: North East England

Sun Aug 05, 2012 7:15 pm

MetalOctane wrote:
Salraine wrote: Hi

I mainly use a Gibson Les Paul Traditional and a Fender USA Strat. Of the two, the LP sounds best through my Blackstar but the Strat is very harsh especially on the bridge pickup. I have the treble off, mid to 3 o clock and bass full. It still sounds rather harsh and has too much treble. My Cube I can set to 12 o clock on all controls and get a good sound out of it with no harshness at all. Seems like each HT5 is different as I have read posts with the problem I have and at least one with the problem of having too much bass.

My tastes range from classic rock through to modern high gain metal amongst others. I am looking for the tube upgrade to give me a warmer, fuller more natural tone throughout the frequencies.

Cheers
Yeah, bridge single coils can be harsh at times. I would also reccomend JJ for a pre-amp tube because they do seem to be warmer than most others. Another thought, what speaker is in your Orange cabinet? Is the cabinet closed or open back?

On another note: You are right, user's descriptions of the tone from these amps tend to be all over the place. From too much bass, to way too harsh. Mine falls somewhere in the middle. I wonder what would be found if we all checked what our amps were biased at.

With both my LP and Strat the only usable tone is with the treble off and bass full up. Aye the Strat bridge is obviously the worst of them but its piercing and much worse than any other amp ive played through recently. I cant hear much of a difference playing with the mid control tbh. Its the brightest amp I have ever played through. Unfortunately, as much as I tried I could not try one to demo in my area so went with reviews, recommendations and dozens of youtube vids before settling on the HT5 head. I have watched demos of the HT5 using the full range of the controls and was impressed at how whatever the EQ section was set at, it still was a very usable tone. Not with mine though.

I have a Orange 1x12 with a Celestion V30 which is the speaker I always go for. I know its brand new and will take a few months to break in but doubt even when it is the amp will sound that much better.

So, I am now looking at throwing more cash at it to try and solve a problem I shouldn't really have. New tubes are a cheap option and as its at least 15 years since I had a valve amp I really am lost at what to buy and the reviews online vary enormously. I ordered a Xotic EP Boost pedal, which I did order before getting my new amp so I'm hoping that might improve things somewhat when it eventually turns up.

Had solid state amps for a while as I found valve amps too heavy and prone to things going wrong. But after buying a couple of good guitars it seemed criminal not having a decent valve amp to play them through.

Any advice is appreciated and thanks for the help so far.

a1terrier
Posts: 192
Joined: Sat Apr 30, 2011 12:00 am
Location: West Yorkshire, England

Sun Aug 05, 2012 7:46 pm

I put a 12AY7 (EH) in the preamp socket, def warmed up the tone and cut down on the massive amount of gain.
Re your Strat, mine doesnt sound too good through the BStar either, its OK but sounds a bit weak compared to my Epi Les Paul.
Recently bought a Fender Baja Tele and that is awesome through the HT5.

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MetalOctane
Posts: 97
Joined: Fri Oct 28, 2011 12:00 am

Mon Aug 06, 2012 4:02 am

You shouldn't have to throw a bunch of money at it to get decent tone. The newer V30's are known to sound harsh to some but that being said, they are a lot of guys favorite speaker with the HT-5. Something is not right with your amp. If I turned my treble any lower than about 11:00, it would sound like the speakers were covered with blanket and turned around facing the wall. Also, it would be horribly muddy with the bass dimed. Before opening it up and replacing anything, can you try it other cabs/speakers? Like a greenback or T-75? (just to see if it would have any affect on the harshness you are experiencing)

Salraine
Posts: 7
Joined: Sun Aug 05, 2012 12:00 am
Location: North East England

Tue Aug 07, 2012 5:50 pm

MetalOctane wrote:You shouldn't have to throw a bunch of money at it to get decent tone. The newer V30's are known to sound harsh to some but that being said, they are a lot of guys favorite speaker with the HT-5. Something is not right with your amp. If I turned my treble any lower than about 11:00, it would sound like the speakers were covered with blanket and turned around facing the wall. Also, it would be horribly muddy with the bass dimed. Before opening it up and replacing anything, can you try it other cabs/speakers? Like a greenback or T-75? (just to see if it would have any affect on the harshness you are experiencing)
Very true but I have good news.

I ordered an Xotic EP Boost pedal a few weeks ago. Before getting the amp, as I had read so many good reviews about it and was impressed by the youtube vids and it makes an enormous difference. Just using the vintage setting which doesn't really boost it, it just adds something, a bigger, fatter, warmer tone with natural harmonics which has tamed the beast known as HT5RH. I am well impressed tbh and cant recommend it enough. I can now play my strat with the EQ all set at 12 o clock and get a good tone. Dropping the treble down to 11 and the bass up to 1 and its pretty much my perfect guitar sound.

After some research I ordered a ECC83-STR/HARMA-DR250. This should come tomorrow and I cant wait to get it in the amp. I also ordered a 12BH7A/SYLVANIA but will not use that for now as I have since read about the power valve needing a bias change but the pre amp valve being ok to change. I always changed valves straight away in the old days and cant once remember having to re bias but will play safe.

When its in tomorrow night I will let you know what it is like...after annoying the neighbours with a few sloppy riffs first obviously ha.

Cheers

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