Sweetening 5E3 overdrive

[Rhodesplyr]

OK cool.. I would say that you should never need a 1M grid stopper resistor on the 5e3 PI so.... I don't know what the actual problem was and probably still is.
Regardless, I live by this rule:
#1 What ever sounds good, is good.

A big part of my business is fixing organs, which are often fairly complicated; if I can somehow miss a problem in a circuit as simple as a Fender Tweed Deluxe, I should just put a gun to my head and be done with it :-)

The 1 Meg resistor addition fixed the initial complaint, which matched the description exactly of the sound of an overdriven cathodyne phase-splitter on the Valve Wizard site. That complaint was resolved with the Jensen whizzer-cone speaker still installed. That speaker, however, still had some odd higher frequency resonances that I'd wager are part of the whizzer cone, and the amp sounded better matched to most other speakers. It's possible that the whizzer cone accentuated the behavior of an overdriven phase inverter.

[Steve Conner]

My feeling is that the story goes like this.

Guitarist of younger generation builds a 5E3 kit.
To test it he plugs in a cheap guitar with overwound humbuckers and bashes out some power chords.
The poor 5E3, dragged into the 21st century, protests with a noise like a diarrhea stricken pig.
Another "Farty distortion in 5E3 plz help" thread appears on the MEF.

A whizzer cone certainly won't help matters either.

[Trout]

Just curious, was there any specific reason that the bypass cap was left off the 1.5K resistor on V2? I read back twice and saw no mention of it.

[deci belle]

The poor 5E3, dragged into the 21st century, protests with a noise like a diarrhea stricken pig.

hahaha!!!

[RC99]

OK cool.. I would say that you should never need a 1M grid stopper resistor on the 5e3 PI so.... I don't know what the actual problem was and probably still is.
Regardless, I live by this rule:
#1 What ever sounds good, is good.

..which can unfortunately often be right before the amp dies.

[rockybottom16]

Just to clarify, are you guys talking about putting a 1M resistor on pin 7 of V2? (I know this is a very old thread, but I just came across it!) Thanks.