best way to increase volume on a 5E5

[AndreasA]

The current setup of my 5E3 clone is:
12AY7 General Electric
RCA 12AX7A Short Plate
Sylvania 6V6GTA Silvertop
5V4
speaker: weber 12A125

I play a strat straight into the amp in bright vol. 1. I turn the bright vol to 9-10, normal vol. half way up for max mids/gain, and set the tone somewhere between 6 and 10. I then back a bit up on the guitar vol.

The amp sounds amazing for the kind of music I play (blues ala T-Birds, Jr. Watson, Holmstrom, Hollywood Fats, Johnny Guitar Watson etc.) however, I could use 15-20% more volume from it. At the local blues joint on a semi-crowded day it just lacks the last bit to keep up. I am not talking big changes, I would just like it to be able to keep up with lets say a fender pro jr. At the club fender blues jr's seems a little to powerfull to really crank for power amp saturation, pro jr's seems just right but my 5E3 (that sounds way better than these amps) is a step behind volume wise.

I don't want to alter the sound of the amp to much, e.g. by putting in a modern speaker like an EV. I have gone through threads here, at thegearpage and several other places and it seems that the possibilities are the following:

1) Change to a more efficient speaker. How much will a 12A150 increase volume and how much will it change the sound?

2) Switching to 6L6s. Will that give me more volume or will it just push the speaker to more speaker distortion?

3) fixed bias, e.g. by installing a kit like this

I assume that one of the reasons that a pro jr./blues jr. keeps up a bit better is due to the fixed bias. Any experiences with this mod on a 5E3?

4) Changing OT to something more powerfull. I wonder if this will give me too much volume as I don't want the amp to be as loud as lets say a deluxe reverb on 7.

I would really appreciate any advice on this.

Andreas A, Copenhagen

[tubeboy]

The current setup of my 5E3 clone is:
12AY7 General Electric
RCA 12AX7A Short Plate
Sylvania 6V6GTA Silvertop
5V4
speaker: weber 12A125

I play a strat straight into the amp in bright vol. 1. I turn the bright vol to 9-10, normal vol. half way up for max mids/gain, and set the tone somewhere between 6 and 10. I then back a bit up on the guitar vol.

The amp sounds amazing for the kind of music I play (blues ala T-Birds, Jr. Watson, Holmstrom, Hollywood Fats, Johnny Guitar Watson etc.) however, I could use 15-20% more volume from it. At the local blues joint on a semi-crowded day it just lacks the last bit to keep up. I am not talking big changes, I would just like it to be able to keep up with lets say a fender pro jr. At the club fender blues jr's seems a little to powerfull to really crank for power amp saturation, pro jr's seems just right but my 5E3 (that sounds way better than these amps) is a step behind volume wise.

I don't want to alter the sound of the amp to much, e.g. by putting in a modern speaker like an EV. I have gone through threads here, at thegearpage and several other places and it seems that the possibilities are the following:

1) Change to a more efficient speaker. How much will a 12A150 increase volume and how much will it change the sound?

2) Switching to 6L6s. Will that give me more volume or will it just push the speaker to more speaker distortion?

3) fixed bias, e.g. by installing a kit like this

I assume that one of the reasons that a pro jr./blues jr. keeps up a bit better is due to the fixed bias. Any experiences with this mod on a 5E3?

4) Changing OT to something more powerfull. I wonder if this will give me too much volume as I don't want the amp to be as loud as lets say a deluxe reverb on 7.

I would really appreciate any advice on this.

Andreas A, Copenhagen

Your tone is in a large part due to the self bias amp your playing. The 5E3 remains in class A for a large percentage of output power. I would hesitate to modify your bias circuit in the quest for 1 or 2 watts. Consider 2 lower wattage speakers as an option. I would personally ask Ted Weber for his suggestions.

[Bruce / Mission Amps]

I would hesitate to modify your bias circuit in the quest for 1 or 2 watts. Consider 2 lower wattage speakers as an option. I would personally ask Ted Weber for his suggestions.

Why Ted Weber?
Is this a Weber Kit?
#1... Get a better output transformer in there with a 4 and 8 ohm tap.
Wire an extension jack inside your 5E3 cabinet, not the chassis and solder it right to the speaker lugs.
Then when you use an 8 ohm extension cabinet you just move the internal speaker plug over to the OT's 4 ohm jack and plug the aux 8 ohm cabinet into the new jack installed in the 5E3 cabinet... two 12" with a total of 4 ohms.

[Enzo]

I thought me meant ask Ted for a speaker recommendation.

[Gee]

The speaker you have is an inefficient one. I have a Weber 12A125S 30Watt and I know the efficiency is 97dB. The 20W version of the same speaker is 98dB.

So the obvious way would be to change or use a more efficient speaker. From memory, the Celestion Blue and Red Fang are about 103dB which should make a very noticeable increase to the volume output.

[tubeboy]

Why Ted Weber?
Is this a Weber Kit?
#1... Get a better output transformer in there with a 4 and 8 ohm tap.
Wire an extension jack inside your 5E3 cabinet, not the chassis and solder it right to the speaker lugs.
Then when you use an 8 ohm extension cabinet you just move the internal speaker plug over to the OT's 4 ohm jack and plug the aux 8 ohm cabinet into the new jack installed in the 5E3 cabinet... two 12" with a total of 4 ohms.

I only mention Ted Weber because he was currently using a Weber speaker. Ted is very honest and will even recommend other speaker manufacturers depending on the application. Changing speakers is the quickest and easiest way to increase volume but you should not expect the same tone when you're done. Bruce, you are obviously a respected amp builder, are you equally capable with speakers?

Chris

[clyde]

Would it be possible to mic amp and run it through the house pa system?