Bought a new Marshall Class 5

[upnorthbacon]

Started getting into blues and more classic rock so I sold my 6505+ and picked up a Marshall Class 5.  It's a fun little amp but has no bottom end with it turned up!  I have the high and mid knobs dimed and have the low on zero.  If I turn it past about 1 or 2 with the master volume all the way up it gets super muddy sounding bass.  Almost sounds like I'm playing with a big muff on or something?  Luckily it still sounds killer with the bass down but I do miss the low end of the Peavey.  Granted I've been playing minimum 12" speakers for several years but I don't remember a 10" speaker sounding so thin?  I plugged it into my 15" bass cabinet just for a few seconds and then I could dime the bass and got a really full sound so I'm assuming the little speaker just can't handle that much juice.  Now I'm on a mission to find a used speaker on ebay and build my own 12" cabinet.  The lower power output switch is a nice feature but again you have to turn the bass all the way down or it farts out really bad.  One last thing is man this thing is super loud!!!  I could not believe how loud it is all the way up!  I ordered a Rat pedal and I'm curious to see how it sounds about halfway up and running the pedal in front.  I'm hoping for a nice 80's crunch.  This would be the ultimate class A combo amp if they had put it in a 12" cabinet instead of 10".  And for comparison I've owned a Jet City, Blackheart, Vox Night Train, 6505+, and tried a couple Bugera combos as well.  I'm super happy with my latest purchase for sure!

 

[AutoBat]

http://www.tedweber.com/ probably has a speaker for you. You can fine tune your sound if you know what you're looking for.
Ceramic, AlNiCo, different wattages, ohms.

If it helps any they're hand built in Kokomo, Indiana.

 

[bagman67]

They're built in China, if memory serves, but I got a Vox 1x12 cab to go with my Vox AC4TV and it really makes a huge difference (although the native 10-inch speaker is not half bad). 


There's some kinda celestion in there, and they go for $170USD  just about everywhere online.

 

[pabloman]

Get a Valve Jr. Cab. Comes with a nice little eminence in it. About $100 I think.  :headbang1:

 

[vjm]

The rat in front should fill out the bottom end. I bought a rat pedal around 84 or 85 and it has been a mainstay on my pedal board. Thickens up any amp by adjusting the filter.

 

[fdesalvo]

Awesome little amp.  Besides the speaker bottleneck, you are looking at the typical bottom end charachteristic  of an overdriven 6BQ5. 

Running a larger, more efficient speaker is one way to get a lil' more low end from your amp, but with a 5w amp, you are going to run out of clean headroom/tight lows really quickly.  The upgraded speaker will def go a long ways towards getting you there.  With some minor tweaks, you can really tighten things up of you don't plan on heavy palm muting. 

If  (after the speaker upgrade) you find the low end a little too flabby "at volume"  and are handy with a soldering iron with competent mechanical skills, you can tweak some of the bypass caps in the preamp to help tighten things up a bit.  Sweet amp!

 

[upnorthbacon]

When I get some time I'll try and upload some clips to hear it.  With the volume dimed it has such a great old school marshall sound.  I never found a combination I liked in the 6505, but this thing has "it".  I did play an Egnater Tweaker and that had a really great crunch sound too.  The marshall setting reminded me a lot of the class 5.

 

[thebutcher85]

Get a Valve Jr. Cab. Comes with a nice little eminence in it. About $100 I think.  :headbang1:

Try an Eminencr speaker, it did wonders for me when I had a Marshall  :icon_thumright:

 

[upnorthbacon]

I picked up a 12" celestion cheap on ebay, trying to stay on a halfway cheapskate budget.  I'm going to build a cabinet tomorrow, trying to find plans, any suggestions on dimensions for a 1x12 cabinet, looking for good bottom end.

 

[bagman67]

I picked up a 12" celestion cheap on ebay, trying to stay on a halfway cheapskate budget.  I'm going to build a cabinet tomorrow, trying to find plans, any suggestions on dimensions for a 1x12 cabinet, looking for good bottom end.

These folks have some ideas:


http://www.ax84.com/corecabinets.html

 

[bagman67]

Also, just to be a little snarky:


http://lmgtfy.com/?q=1x12+cabinet+plans

 

[upnorthbacon]

I'm really tempted to make the cabinet an actual combo and put the amp in there as well, but I do like the portability of the small combo now.  I've googled a bunch and going 24"x21"x11"  I'm going to make to back panels, one closed and one open to see which one works the best.  I'll take some pics in the next couple days while I'm making it.  I won't be able to complete it until I get the speaker in the mail though.