hail all the mighy 5751 works wonders in 18 watts !

[sgtoverdrive]

sgt overdrive here i wanted to share this with the folks that have not had the opportunity to try an amazing preamp tube in their amps! a friend of mine up in silicon valley is a big tube buff and dealer and he sent me a bell labled 5751 early 70s production.he does not play guitar and has little interest in amps either.but on his suggestion i popped one of these in v1 and saw some interesting things no other tube ive used produced.bell was one of the mullard factorys in india of all places,stands to reason as british influence is still there after a couple of hundred years. and the four number thing indicates military application in most cases either british us or nato.they wanted a very clean quiet 12ax7 substitute, i have a dst marwatt that requires an au7 in that position i use a mullard at7 with decent results.anyway me and another member of this board were stunned at the blues tone this thing gets and the total increase in clean headroom that 18s so sadly lack in most cases,yet without losing the signature of the amps tone.chords reminded me of malcom youngs tone.easy to read and just plain good.when i went home i put it in v2 as a sub for the at in there .blew the sgts stripes off and my shorts landed on my helmet.is it good? is a frogs ass water tight? can you get two racoon nuts in a tea cup? yes and rivals the best mullard pres or anyother high dollar euro stuff with ease.them british fellers musta hollered at all the swamis 24 7 because this tube is built for the dance and very collectable.cheapest ive seen these is about 25 bucks online. ive got em with a all around gurantee for 20 a pop or two for 35 if interested let me know the sgt is shootin you guys straight .on a scale its between and ax and a,t and thats allright with me.it turned a marshall type plexi into an older sweeter plexi with no other mod but pullin and poppin a tube.thanks for reading .now get out them irons and commence .ive got four builds going at once!!! if interested feel free to pm me.

[JonFrum]

Doesn't this post belong in the classified forum?

[kinmike]

Jon,

I think this one is a grey area. I like reading the Sarge....good info even if it is a plug...

Mike

[sgtoverdrive]

if i buy a tube that works well im going to mention it here especially tubes that work well in 18 watts so yes its a plug to add color and variation on and amp that could use some head room .as far as a plug for money .that it aint.if i wanted to grease top dollar out of tubes it wouldnt be here with players .id open an ebay account and cipher off some fancy mutual conductance numbers on some antiquated tube tester.instead of burning 10 to 20 percent of anything i buy to the ground, makin sure they work in a live circuit with 300 plus volts.id just like to see some awareness that its not just caps and speakers and build qualtiy that hold these things together, or they would be called cap amps, buildqualtiy amps, speaker amps.m.but they are called tube amps .next time ya lay out 10 dollars a pop on inferior tubes id like to have given some people a choice at somethin a little cheaper and a lot better. and im suprised as hell how unaware many people are that there is a good cheap substitute.and el84s have to be the worst thing to peddle in the tube market .the moneys in the audiophile department perfect triode preamps 200 to 400 a crack thats what most of these tube dealers clean up on.catering to guitarplayers aint profitible in the least but its nice to hear some>? hey man those are great i see the difference.if i thought i was jackin people around id never mention it.and i do understand why alot of the younger guys dont know.they were not around when the good stuff was down at corner electronics store.hell im old i remember.regards sgt od ...the carnival hocker!!! lol

[ab3640au]

I enjoy Sarge's posts (any of them .. lol), but especially the ones on tubes He knows his stuff .. no doubt. I've bought some NOS EL84's from him (Amperex and RCA Black Plates) at GREAT prices .. but's what's more is they sounded even better than how he described them!!! The Sarge has "been around" a long time (no offence meant Sarge) and he's pretty much on the money when he says something sounds good. I just appreciate that he's sharing these tubes and givin guys like me the opportunity to learn and experience something new .. thanks Sarge
The great thing about this forum is that all of us have something to offer .. some of us have the EE "know how", other's have built lots of amps over lots of time (and have good practical experience), some have played through lots of amps and know what great tone is all about, others are innovative and have new ideas .. and there's many more shades in between. Anyway .. enough of my rant

Barry M

[79strat]

OK, sgt and I are friends (met on the plexipalace board) and it's been cool - got me back into playing (bass), thinking about music again and playing vs. building amps (which is also COOL) and yes, he's MAKING me think about tubes. Not that I couldn't hear the difference before but I was fine with JJs, partly I guess because the 18W amps sound SO good that I didn't need any more. But I've heard them all...

Mullard EL84 - not the tube for this amp. Not bad obviously but nothing like what happens when you install EL34s in a 50W.

Early Russian (pre-86' I believe) EL84 - don't remember how sgt refers to these but their great and are what I'm running in my amp. They sound as good as anything else we tried (which included Amperex and I think Telenfunken but don't quote me). All these tubes sound different but "good" different. These were cool, no grain on the top end (often hear this in new production tubes), well-babalnced, fun to play and, even at 380+ volts, they just seemed to be idling.

Bell 7591 - I'm buying mine before sgt starts selling them... GREAT tube and it did change the character of the amp. I'll say it turned it into more of a blues amp but I wasn't playing it, sgt was and since he was playing (great) blues, it sounded like a blues amp to me! What I did hear was a smoothness, i.e. a lot less grind (more singing) and the tube (which was in V1) was DEAD QUIET.

I don't remember everything else we tried but if sgt says it's good, it is. Yes we've become friends but I'll tell you two things about him - he is a VERY good guitar player and one of the most gifted (and prolific) songwriters I've ever met, and he has a GREAT set of ears. Now, if we could just get him going on punctuation!

[pigman]

SGT, I sent you an E-mail, Thanks Pigman

[T-bones]

I agree, the Sarge can talk the talk and walk the walk and no doubt I have to agree this site is to spread the word on the real things that we all love about playing and tone. In my experiences woith many of these vintage clowns is they listen with there eyes and not with there ears. I love all the classic blues and rock stuff from Page, Hendrix and the rest, but lets face it there are so many great new players out today that are just as good and with tone to the bone regardless of what amp or tube you use. You got to listen to non commercial radio. I remember seeing Brad Paisley when he was new on the scean and quite frankly he blew away all the big boys into the weeds. A country boy. I must say the big guitar hero's are hero's for the reasons we all know. But I have seen them all and live they just don't make it happen like they do on the records or CD's. Like Stevie Ray the perfect example this is live and when you can deliver like that that's what it's all about for me. You don't need a $1,000,000,000,000,000 burst or some other overpriced piece of wood or some $15,000 Marshall etc. to make it happen. Don't get me wrong I love these vintage guy's they put money in my pockets. In all honesty there are a hole lot of great sounding tubes out there, you have to experiment and what ever works for you is what counts not what worked for Clapton. But as a choice I love the old Mullards and Tungsols and RCA's and the G.E. etc. But given a new tube it's still going to sound like me, I don't want to be any freaking guitar hero now or ever. Wow do I have a attitude " Rock N Roll Is Bigger Than All Of Us " T-bones.

[MichaelJ1965]

Doesn't this post belong in the classified forum?

IMHO he can post it wherever he wants. After reading his reviews I was convinced that they were worth trying. Since I don't have the financial backing to just try everything that comes along I would have stayed with the same old tubeskies that I had been using. So these technical reviews are very helpful. They are also damned entertaining! Its good to hear from someone that has been there before...
On the downside though, I was promised that these tubes would help me leap tall buildings (among other things)....anyone got an aspirin?

[Plexi]

Yeah its good to hear about tubes,and expanations. I don't think is he a dealer of sorts. Be glad he is offering some good deals.

I agree with Tbones,

"""many of these vintage clowns is they listen with there eyes and not with there ears.""""

I like vintage gear,but sometimes its like anything if its not in good shape or good repair,it can be not that great..hey but they can be fixed!!

And what Tbones said,same can be said for the current made gear,sometimes people buy something to seem to be more in with the crowd,than really listening or trying different things. Kinda like everyone wanting to wear the same Nike shoes,or clothes. But then there are also the things that are proven to be great gear,and alot of people use it. I had about 4 sleeves of NOS Philips Jan 5751 that only maybe 3 were good enough to use because of Microphonics..

Richie

[BDC]

I have a couple of the same tubes as Ritchie-I prefer the gain of a 12-ax7 myself...

[toyota_tim]

Bell 7591 - I'm buying mine before sgt starts selling them... GREAT tube and it did change the character of the amp. I'll say it turned it into more of a blues amp but I wasn't playing it, sgt was and since he was playing (great) blues, it sounded like a blues amp to me! What I did hear was a smoothness, i.e. a lot less grind (more singing) and the tube (which was in V1) was DEAD QUIET.

I think you meant 5751 here.

[79strat]

Oops - memory is a terrible thing to lose.

[bigblues]

Well, I'm gettina couple from SGT. Life's a crapshoot, ya gotta take chances once in awhile !!!