Bruce /Mission Amps 5E3 Q's

[leucein]

Bruce,
If you don't mind me asking, What mods did you say you have made to your personal 5E3? I think I remember reading it in a reply that you made somewhere, but at the moment I can't find it.
Thanks

[Bruce / Mission Amps]

For starts, I use:
.047uF/630v axial polyprop coupling caps in all four spots and keep the stock .022uF driving the phase inverter.
Split the 12AY7 cathodes, the first preamp tubes and use, 2.2uF on the bright channel cathode and 4.7uF on the normal channel cathode.
I also wire in the MA tone vol mod kit in because I like the response and it does very slightly increase the brightness and reduces the gainy sound of the 12AY7... until you turn the volume up to 5-8 range.

[leucein]

What is your opinion on coupling caps? Orange drop 715/716 Mallory 150's?

[Bruce / Mission Amps]

The O'Drops, or any polypropylene or polystyrene cap, can slightly enhance the absolute brightness of the tweed amps and some players like it better.
I find the Mallory 150s are very good, and musical sounding but rather neutral in color...I like that in most of my builds and use them most of the time in the tweed amps.
If I know a player is only using humbucker pickups, or jsut has a darker sounding guitar, I suggest the polypropylene or polystyrene caps.
In reality, and my honest opinon...
the only real donkey caps are cheap 200v-500v ceramic caps used in tone controls or when used to couple audio to other stages.