Finally found an OD that sounds good with my 5e3

DrCornelius

I know I’m probably teaching most of you to suck eggs but as someone who loves a clean 5e3 but finds a HB equipped guitar too muddy and middy when it’s cranked I’ve tried loads of pedals to thin it out a bit .

Finally tried a King of Clone this week and it’s the absolute biz. Cuts a lot of those stodgy frequencies but retains all the good stuff.

Highly recommended for those who have never tried a a blues breaker style pedal with their tweed deluxe.

Apologies if this is Tweed Amp knowledge page 1 for you :-)

Winny_Pooh

Interesting. I found a KOT fizzy and bland into clean amps but might try again.

My current favourite with my 5e3 is a BMF GB Boost. 

Wazmeister

The real KOT strength, imho, is that it really works will ALL amps 

Alex2678

When I had a 5e3 ish amp my favourite was a Timmy, never tried a KOT

Winny_Pooh

Wazmeister said:

The real KOT strength, imho, is that it really works will ALL amps 

Hmm...I tried it into a SF Champ and Spitfire. Sounded rubbish IMO.

pluckbuddy

I could never get any ODs to work with the 5e3 I built. Hated the TS, Klones and the Zendrive i tried with it. All midrange. Never tried a KoT. I bet a Barbershop would be great.

Lebarque

Fuzzface with guitar volume rolled back a bit.

gatheredinsong

Winny_Pooh said:

Interesting. I found a KOT fizzy and bland into clean amps but might try again.

My current favourite with my 5e3 is a BMF GB Boost. 

@Jeebas is selling one of these silly cheap:
https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/236623/fs-tonall-recall-260-warped-vinyl-2-walrus-drybell-victory-zvex-bmf-ckk/p1

gatheredinsong

Although I've just realised you were happy with your find and everyone else is just recommending alternatives anyway  

dazzajl

I don’t really understand this thread. It’s a 5e3… you plug in the nearest guitar you see and turn everything up till the gloriousness starts, right?? 

What is this ‘diluting’ the experience stuff all about??

57Deluxe

Alex2678 said:

When I had a 5e3 ish amp my favourite was a Timmy, never tried a KOT

The Dano Cool Cat Trans Drive is a Timmy clone and that works with mine too. Snobs will hate this admission...

57Deluxe

dazzajl said:

I don’t really understand this thread. It’s a 5e3… you plug in the nearest guitar you see and turn everything up till the gloriousness starts, right?? 

What is this ‘diluting’ the experience stuff all about??

not in real world - only in Disneyland

dazzajl

57Deluxe said:

dazzajl said:

I don’t really understand this thread. It’s a 5e3… you plug in the nearest guitar you see and turn everything up till the gloriousness starts, right?? 

What is this ‘diluting’ the experience stuff all about??

not in real world - only in Disneyland

To be fair, that is where I play mostly now. 

Although the best guitar sound I ever had live was a CS Gretsch Annie straight into my Vyse 5e3. 

DrCornelius

dazzajl said:

I don’t really understand this thread. It’s a 5e3… you plug in the nearest guitar you see and turn everything up till the gloriousness starts, right?? 

What is this ‘diluting’ the experience stuff all about??

That sounded great with single coils but with Humbuckers (even Filtertrons) the amp had too much bass and lower mids even on the bright channel and tone full up. The KOC means I can get the amp to edge of breakup and add gain without it turning to sludge 

Tbf I’m talking here about my Weinbrock which although 5e3 flavoured is a bit different 

Dominic

Hear,Hear
My Gartone Bluesman is the best tweed tone I ever heard when  reasonably turned up using Humbuckers ...thick,fat ,middy which is what I like but it can be a bit stodgy ,bassy and undefined .
 By accident I found the left side of a Browne Protein ( a slightly thin KOT ) worked perfectly 

Petepassion

DrCornelius said:

dazzajl said:

I don’t really understand this thread. It’s a 5e3… you plug in the nearest guitar you see and turn everything up till the gloriousness starts, right?? 

What is this ‘diluting’ the experience stuff all about??

That sounded great with single coils but with Humbuckers (even Filtertrons) the amp had too much bass and lower mids even on the bright channel and tone full up. The KOC means I can get the amp to edge of breakup and add gain without it turning to sludge 

Tbf I’m talking here about my Weinbrock which although 5e3 flavoured is a bit different 

I found exactly the same with my one. It loved the Strat but the 335 only excelled on the neck pick up with the volume rolled down for that woody, bluesy sound.

pluckbuddy

I can see the point about plugging straight in. I've had two 5e3s though and never been able to get that amp in meltdown action that so many others seem to. The results were always cleaner sounding than I expected.

To be fair I was using a Tele with low output pickups, a 12ay7 in v1 however and a Celestion Gold, which is loud compared to other speakers I had. So maybe to be expected. Tried different nos rectifiers too. 

I came to the conclusion that the transformers I was using were probably overpowered, providing too much current so they just didn't sag like vintage examples.

cathodyne

@DrCornelius I know you haven’t asked, but if you wanted to change the sound & response of the amp more permanently you might like to try experimenting with reducing the value of the coupling caps in your 5E3 (e.g. replacing 0.1µF with 0.022µF).

This should reduce a bit of the bass that I suspect you are finding "muddy".

(Obviously try this with a friendly engineer unless you’re confident working on valve amps safely).

DrCornelius

cathodyne said:

@DrCornelius I know you haven’t asked, but if you wanted to change the sound & response of the amp more permanently you might like to try experimenting with reducing the value of the coupling caps in your 5E3 (e.g. replacing 0.1µF with 0.022µF).

This should reduce a bit of the bass that I suspect you are finding "muddy".

(Obviously try this with a friendly engineer unless you’re confident working on valve amps safely).

Thanks Cath but if I tried that you’d see the resulting fire from your place - I’m not in the slightest bit practical !

I actually like the fat lower mids when playing clean or with single coils cranked , it’s just the HBs and amp drive that causes the ‘problem’

thomasw88

The  correct answer to this, as to virtually all 'which overdrive' pedal question  is -  a Barber Gain Changer.

Keefy

I’m sure Leo built his amps so that his guitars would sound great through them, and as a fairly regular live user of a 5E3 I’ll almost always play a Strat or Tele. I’m normally playing rock’n’roll or country so I don’t really want ‘overdrive’, just a louder and more ‘pushed’ sound - RD Compact with the blend dialled back does this for me.

I’m not trying to convert anyone here though - use what works for you.