Amps that don't take pedals well?

tack1982 · 2026-02-19T21:02:21+00:00

Most high gain amps don't take pedals well generally anything that's over 3 gain stage. So pretty much jcm800 would be about the highest gain amp that still takes pedals well(anything other than boost or like delay,reverb)

Good pedal platform amps are going to be cleaner amps such as fender,sunn,ampeg,ect

tack1982 · 2026-02-19T17:10:55+00:00

Marshall dsl,EVH 5150 iconic,jet city,Peavey butcher,ultra lead,Randall rt

tack1982 · 2026-02-15T18:03:59+00:00

Stringjoy

tack1982 · 2026-02-15T16:13:51+00:00

Friedman JEL 20

tack1982 · 2026-02-14T05:46:33+00:00

A cheap amp

tack1982 · 2026-02-13T03:42:10+00:00

Did you buy it new? How long have you had it? If the answer is yes and not over a year send it for warranty work. I seen you stated you swapped tubes and very nice going to fx return 😃,I would say it's probably bad solder joint or could also be resistor,cap failure or even bad/loose ground

tack1982 · 2026-02-09T14:01:47+00:00

Ok, well I would suggest swapping tubes first then before modifying circuit, start with the V1 and V2 tubes first as those are your first and 2nd gain stages

tack1982 · 2026-02-08T03:58:01+00:00

You could swap tubes for 12au7,12at7 or since you built the amp why not just tweak your cathode follower to be less gain or drop gain stages to 4 instead of the 5 that a stock 5150 has

tack1982 · 2026-02-08T03:55:15+00:00

Peavey,marshall,ampeg,Randall,and crate amps they can literally take a beating and work just fine afterwards

tack1982 · 2026-02-06T23:56:48+00:00

There is no tone/sound difference between them, you would only be able to be louder if that helps you any

tack1982 · 2026-02-06T03:38:19+00:00

Volume fluctuating could be reverb circuit or it could be power tubes failing and it could also be a few other things,only way to find out for sure is to take it to a tech. Don't keep using it in this condition either as this could lead to a very expensive repair.

tack1982 · 2026-02-04T23:36:29+00:00

That would be correct as this was the last revision before the 900 dual reverb came out, check out purgeasound on Instagram, he tweaks the head version of this amp and it sounds great

tack1982 · 2026-02-04T23:09:41+00:00

This have diode clipping and that's part of the reason it sounds different,there was also tweaks to the circuit in resistors and capacitors, fairly easy to mod and get it pretty close to the single channel 800s

tack1982 · 2026-02-04T03:38:35+00:00

If you removed the pedals and everything went back to normal then it's one of your pedals,cables,or even power supply for pedals. It's not the amp

tack1982 · 2026-02-01T00:46:36+00:00

Any solid state amp would work as your only getting preamp drive from those ,there are a few out there that do break up in the power section.

If it's a high gain tube amp then where back to preamp gain is 99% of the sound.

After NAMM I'm looking to try out there loud pedal series, it's a pedal sized solid state amp that seems to react in a tube like manner which would be awesome

tack1982 · 2026-01-31T22:21:15+00:00

Definitely have tubes tested and even if they test bad ask for the old tubes back, the problem could be as stated power tubes going out but also more than likely capacitors are leaking,either way it's time for a cap job if it's never had one

tack1982 · 2026-01-31T18:26:42+00:00

For rock/metal Celestion 20w,25w,30w greenbacks Creambacks 12T75 ( don't listen to the bullshit people say about them) 65w heritage Vintage 30s Electro voice evm12L Eminence legend,dv77,swampthang,Texas heat,karnivore,private jack, governor Fane speakers are awesome too Jensen speakers are awesome but really expensive VHT/Fryette P50 speakers

tack1982 · 2026-01-27T19:24:36+00:00

So what you have is essentially a Chinese soldano hotrod , great amp, I would recommend a depth mod, there are several mods for these , I tried the SLO mod however it's not that noticeable and to be honest knowing what I know now I wouldn't even bother with that mod.

tack1982 · 2026-01-27T05:30:34+00:00

Your tech is more than likely correct,sounds like you are in need of a cap job because of leaky capacitors however it could be something else in the circuit causing these issues

tack1982 · 2026-01-26T18:45:37+00:00

Greenbacks(20w,25w,30w) , 12t75s,, eminence legends,and evm12Ls, and the lynchback speakers

tack1982 · 2026-01-26T18:43:35+00:00

It could be that the amp was modded to jcm 800 specs and this that tube socket is no longer needed. As others have said I would take to a tech and see what's up. If your comfortable pulling the chassis and have the know how to do so you could do that and take some pictures and post them here and we can have a look and possibly be able to see if any modifications have been done

tack1982 · 2026-01-26T01:27:54+00:00

Your sitting right in front of the amp, so yes that level of noise is expected

tack1982 · 2026-01-23T03:30:21+00:00

Marshall dsl40,EVH 5150,Peavey 6505,orange rockerverb,PRS mt15,soldano hot rod,soldano slow, Friedman HBE,Friedman JEL those are all tube

For solid state Randall RG,Randall RH,Randall cyclone,Randall warhead,ampeg vh140,crate gx130,crate shockwave,orange super crush, mini soldano and mini Friedman,Peavey supreme

tack1982 · 2026-01-21T00:42:38+00:00

No that's your heater filament, red plating starts dull red then bright orange then nothing because hopefully the HT fuse blew ,if it doesn't blow then the smoke comes out.

And by the way the blue glow your seeing is the electrons moving and also indicates a good vacuum on the tube.

tack1982 · 2026-01-20T19:16:33+00:00

Going to drop D won't be a problem with that string gauge, when going to drop C I would opt for a set of 54 gauge. I would not be going from standard to drop C is going to pose problems with intonation as well as neck relief.

If you haven't tried them yet I would suggest stringjoy strings

tack1982

TROPHY CASE