Having a hard time bonding with my new Express 5:25+ combo

[ItsMeDave]

Hi,

Is anyone else finding the amp to be too bright? I've got to turn the treble way down in order to find it reasonably listenable. I'm playing a 2008 Les Paul Standard and a Fender Highway One through the amp, and believe it or not, the Les Paul gives me the biggest grief re: treble.

I've switched back to my Traynor YCV50, I'm able to get a good tone with the treble set to 11 o'clock, mid & bass at 12 o'clock.

cheers

David

 

[twally]

I would like to know your amp settings.

Please share.

TW

 

[edward]

Hi,

Is anyone else finding the amp to be too bright? I've got to turn the treble way down in order to find it reasonably listenable. I'm playing a 2008 Les Paul Standard and a Fender Highway One through the amp, and believe it or not, the Les Paul gives me the biggest grief re: treble.

I've switched back to my Traynor YCV50, I'm able to get a good tone with the treble set to 11 o'clock, mid & bass at 12 o'clock.

cheers

David

Which channel (of the 4) are you talking about, where's your gain set, where are your treb/mid/bass set, and is your contour on or off ...and where set if on? I assume your GEQ is out or set flat?

The Express "can" be bright, but no where even near what I would call a "bright amp" overall, by any stretch of the imagination. Moreover, I personally prefer my 525's tone for my LPs (where I tend to like my Strat on my DC5 (6L6 amp).

Edward

 

[bluestometal]

It can be resonably bright but, as nearly all Boogie's, tends to be dark and is far away from really bright amps. Settings? Do you use any effect? Tubes?

 

[Newysurfer]

Hi,

Is anyone else finding the amp to be too bright? I've got to turn the treble way down in order to find it reasonably listenable. I'm playing a 2008 Les Paul Standard and a Fender Highway One through the amp, and believe it or not, the Les Paul gives me the biggest grief re: treble.

I've switched back to my Traynor YCV50, I'm able to get a good tone with the treble set to 11 o'clock, mid & bass at 12 o'clock.

cheers
David

Well I've been on this forum over 3 yrs now.
In that time we've had guys on this forum say the Express amps are too flubby, too heavy, too light, too much gain, not enuf gain, too much reverb, too much EQ, not enuf EQ, too cheap, too expensive, too loud, not enuf headroom, too quiet, the speakers are poor, the speakers are great, the amps is well built, the amp is poorly built, the amps sounds like this, like that, like nothing, like everything, the amp is too dark............but this the first time it's been called too bright :mrgreen:

It is whatever you think it is.
Me.... hehehe i still luv it :lol:

 

[Krek13]

well the burn channel can actually be pretty bright/trebly/fuzzy on 5watt mode with low volume with certain speakers but when you crank it up it is nothing but bright and it sounds awesome...

 

[bluestometal]

well the burn channel can actually be pretty bright/trebly/fuzzy on 5watt mode with low volume with certain speakers but when you crank it up it is nothing but bright and it sounds awesome...

The more you crank it the more it gets full and warm. I've used it with bot v30's and c90's and none of them sounded trebly

Well I've been on this forum over 3 yrs now.
In that time we've had guys on this forum say the Express amps are too flubby, too heavy, too light, too much gain, not enuf gain, too much reverb, too much EQ, not enuf EQ, too cheap, too expensive, too loud, not enuf headroom, too quiet, the speakers are poor, the speakers are great, the amps is well built, the amp is poorly built, the amps sounds like this, like that, like nothing, like everything, the amp is too dark............but this the first time it's been called too bright :mrgreen:

It is whatever you think it is.
Me.... hehehe i still luv it :lol:

:lol:

 

[Krek13]

The more you crank it the more it gets full and warm. I've used it with bot v30's and c90's and none of them sounded trebly

have v30, and eminence legend gb128, v30 can be very harsh but notice that i'm talking about bedroom volume, other than that it's pretty neat...although, I have never tried a tube amp that sounds awesome on very low volume, tubes need to be cranked to get THE sound...

 

[bluestometal]

The more you crank it the more it gets full and warm. I've used it with bot v30's and c90's and none of them sounded trebly

have v30, and eminence legend gb128, v30 can be very harsh but notice that i'm talking about bedroom volume, other than that it's pretty neat...although, I have never tried a tube amp that sounds awesome on very low volume, tubes need to be cranked to get THE sound...

Even if you play amps like the H&K Tubemeister 18 you've to crank it up. I've a soundproof studio so I'm lucky enough my bedroom level's pretty loud. Ironically I play louder when I'm alone than when I'm with the most of the drummers... then there's that ONE, in love with my guitar tone, who beg me to turn it up even if I completely cover the drums

 

[twally]

I'd still like to see your EQ settings.
That just may shed some light on your problem.

TW

 

[uitar9]

Not sure where this is posted but this has taken the "too bright, too dull, too blah blah blah" out of the amp for me. I;ve got the old 5:25 express...was thinking about upgrading

This thing sounds different in every room I play in. Volume, gain, everything effects the output.

turn off your treb, mid and bass...start with low e string...start turning up bass until it kicks in...do the same for the g strung.mids and high e . treble. Gain and volume to taste

Cascading gain....important...everything adds to more gain...great if you want it

Seems to work for me. I Gotta do this for both modes I'll be playing that night.

An eg in the effects loop is also helpful. Pushes the power tubes and gives you that extra tonal variety

 

[FXR]

Until I got my Express 5:25 out of the bedroom, I couldn't find much love for it. I really don't think in retrospec there is any bedroom aspect to the amp. It likes to be on. There was no *** to mine either in the bedroom on low volume. Changing from bedroom volume to playing outside volume changes everything.

I got a Roland micro cube and a Fender Mustang 1 for the "bedroom". That Mesa 5 tube watts is not for the bedroom. hehe

 

[twally]

Even in 5 watt mode,the little sucker is pretty loud with the volume at 900. That is too loud for bedroom (at least mine). You can coax decent sounds out of it below that, but the amp (as do all tube amps) needs ome vomume to really shine. You can get all the bass you need and the treble spike goes away.

JMHO,

TW

 

[David Garner]

The more you crank it the more it gets full and warm. I've used it with bot v30's and c90's and none of them sounded trebly

This. I play my 5:25 at very low volumes sometimes. The tone on channel 1 in crunch mode is thin and awful. I have to either re-EQ it or just live with it until I can turn up.

But when you turn it up, it gets much more full. Anywhere from about 9:00 up on the master volume is good in my experience.

 

[sax4blues]

Every amp, 5w or 100w, has settings and environments where they sound great and settings that are not great. I have the 5:50 and have never thought of it as too bright, or even generally bright. But I'm sure I could find a guitar/pickup/room/volume setting that does not sound good with my amp. The question then becomes how often do I play in those conditions? If that is my primary set up where I want a tone I'm searching for, then I need a different amp. But then the flip side may happen, where the new amp sounds great in the bedroom at low volume, but does not work well in a bigger room with a band at volume.

Also I use all of the controls on my amp/guitar and feel that is what they are there for. So if I have to roll off the treble to get the sound I want, then I roll off the treble. If all the controls were supposed to be at noon, or 10, or where ever, then why have controls?

 

[Newysurfer]

Every amp, 5w or 100w, has settings and environments where they sound great and settings that are not great. I have the 5:50 and have never thought of it as too bright, or even generally bright. But I'm sure I could find a guitar/pickup/room/volume setting that does not sound good with my amp. The question then becomes how often do I play in those conditions? If that is my primary set up where I want a tone I'm searching for, then I need a different amp. But then the flip side may happen, where the new amp sounds great in the bedroom at low volume, but does not work well in a bigger room with a band at volume.

Also I use all of the controls on my amp/guitar and feel that is what they are there for. So if I have to roll off the treble to get the sound I want, then I roll off the treble. If all the controls were supposed to be at noon, or 10, or where ever, then why have controls?

Well you can grab any amp you like, max out the tone dial on your guitar, max out the amp treble, plug in a pedal and max out the treble on it and..........bingo....... I guarantee you can make ANY amp sound too bright. Or do the opposite and you can make any amp sound too dark :mrgreen:

I've heard these kind of too bright, too dark, too flubby, too whatever comments for decades and you wonder what settings people use.
Sometimes you get to actually see what they've dialed up on their amps & guitars and it never ceases to amaze.
You look at the settings, look at the guy and ask "Well what did you expect"

 

[amrose57]

Every amp, 5w or 100w, has settings and environments where they sound great and settings that are not great. I have the 5:50 and have never thought of it as too bright, or even generally bright. But I'm sure I could find a guitar/pickup/room/volume setting that does not sound good with my amp. The question then becomes how often do I play in those conditions? If that is my primary set up where I want a tone I'm searching for, then I need a different amp. But then the flip side may happen, where the new amp sounds great in the bedroom at low volume, but does not work well in a bigger room with a band at volume.

Also I use all of the controls on my amp/guitar and feel that is what they are there for. So if I have to roll off the treble to get the sound I want, then I roll off the treble. If all the controls were supposed to be at noon, or 10, or where ever, then why have controls?

Well you can grab any amp you like, max out the tone dial on your guitar, max out the amp treble, plug in a pedal and max out the treble on it and..........bingo....... I guarantee you can make ANY amp sound too bright. Or do the opposite and you can make any amp sound too dark :mrgreen:

I've heard these kind of too bright, too dark, too flubby, too whatever comments for decades and you wonder what settings people use.
Sometimes you get to actually see what they've dialed up on their amps & guitars and it never ceases to amaze.
You look at the settings, look at the guy and ask "Well what did you expect"

I agree. On another board a gentleman said that when he turned the master up his DC-5 combo's bass got real flubby. Then he said he had his bass on 7. Well, there you go.

Al

 

[Newysurfer]

Every amp, 5w or 100w, has settings and environments where they sound great and settings that are not great. I have the 5:50 and have never thought of it as too bright, or even generally bright. But I'm sure I could find a guitar/pickup/room/volume setting that does not sound good with my amp. The question then becomes how often do I play in those conditions? If that is my primary set up where I want a tone I'm searching for, then I need a different amp. But then the flip side may happen, where the new amp sounds great in the bedroom at low volume, but does not work well in a bigger room with a band at volume.

Also I use all of the controls on my amp/guitar and feel that is what they are there for. So if I have to roll off the treble to get the sound I want, then I roll off the treble. If all the controls were supposed to be at noon, or 10, or where ever, then why have controls?

Well you can grab any amp you like, max out the tone dial on your guitar, max out the amp treble, plug in a pedal and max out the treble on it and..........bingo....... I guarantee you can make ANY amp sound too bright. Or do the opposite and you can make any amp sound too dark :mrgreen:

I've heard these kind of too bright, too dark, too flubby, too whatever comments for decades and you wonder what settings people use.
Sometimes you get to actually see what they've dialed up on their amps & guitars and it never ceases to amaze.
You look at the settings, look at the guy and ask "Well what did you expect"

I agree. On another board a gentleman said that when he turned the master up his DC-5 combo's bass got real flubby. Then he said he had his bass on 7. Well, there you go.

Al

hehehehe yeah well - lost count of the number I've times i've seen similar.
I've seen some guys on modelling forums put 100w Mesa's and Marshalls in the loop of a cheap modeller, they then run it at bedroom volume with crazy EQ's thru headphones (hehe - yes no speaker cabinet) and then complain that tube amps are over-rated disappointments hehehe :mrgreen:

PS - I remember a few guys on one modelling forum did similar to above and started off by deliberately misleading readers on how they rigged it up. It took about 2 weeks of hard questioning to finally get them to explain what they'd really done. The objective of these frauds was to convince themselves that $2000-3000 tube amps are no match for a $500 dig modeller :lol:

 

[shaxis]

I just picked up a new + 5:25. Sounds great to me...

I am a novice but doesn't take away from the amps amazing sound. I even love the burn channel and feel it is better than the old version.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4_GF2rM2nk

 

[fredramsey]

Just got mine yesterday. I'm a hobbyist, but I like good gear.

In the store, I was never quite able to get the exact sound I was looking for, but I had faith in the amp and its versatility, so I took it home.

Once I got it in the bedroom, with carpeting, the bed, etc., I was able to get the exact smokey tone I wanted (Burn, low gain) with my Les Paul Studio. But too bright? With humbuckers? Perhaps you need to have someone look at it.