Another Amp Question for G3456
I just bought an Ampeg VL-502 head. You know the one that Lee Jackson designed. It's probably 10 to 12 years old. I am running it through a Marshall JCM 800 1960A cab @ 16 ohms. The head is set to 16 ohms. The amps tone sounds good on both the clean and lead channel, however, it doesn't seem to be as loud as it should be. Even with the power attenuater off. Probably about as loud as my Marshall JTM 30 but not nearly as loud as my JCM 800. Which as you know is ridiculously loud. It was suppose to have new JJ EL34's. I have a brand new set of Mullard EL34's in my JCM 800 to try out, but haven't had a chance to swap them for comparison.
Is this lower volume a characteristic of the amp or do you think there may be a problem with it? What baffles me is the tone is very good and there are no drops in power. And, at high gain settings, the amp does make some hissing noise but not more than you would expect from something that high gain. My experience has been 50 watts of all tube power is enough to make your ears bleed.
By the way, thanks for your response to my last message regarding modding the JCM. I decided to leave it stock. I have used it running a number of different peddles though it. Getting alot of killer tones out of it. I have been using a modeler for so long, I forget what it was like to crank a good old tube amp.
Let me know what you think.
Schaf
Is this lower volume a characteristic of the amp or do you think there may be a problem with it? What baffles me is the tone is very good and there are no drops in power. And, at high gain settings, the amp does make some hissing noise but not more than you would expect from something that high gain. My experience has been 50 watts of all tube power is enough to make your ears bleed.
By the way, thanks for your response to my last message regarding modding the JCM. I decided to leave it stock. I have used it running a number of different peddles though it. Getting alot of killer tones out of it. I have been using a modeler for so long, I forget what it was like to crank a good old tube amp.
Let me know what you think.
Schaf
Comments
I would try other tube offerings just to be sure. JJ's are some the best and I recommend them due to reliability and less chances on microphonics due to transit. Again, reviews are mixed depending on the style of the player using the 502. If weak overdrive.. it's most likely the design itself. Send me some samples of the tone and I can help you further. Without actually hearing it I can only assume it falls in the \"not the best for HG\" category. Comparing to the JTM30 is about equivalent vol wise.