Marshall Class 5 = Pure Mud

[slagg]

Open it up to see the guts,someone dorked with it I'm sure.

 

[LPV]

You do have a cab to test with. Just hook up the green back while in the traynor to test. It sure sounds like a screwed up speaker.

 

[MCAN]

You do have a cab to test with. Just hook up the green back while in the traynor to test. It sure sounds like a screwed up speaker.

Do you mean hook up the output of the Marshall into the input of the Traynor? Or do you mean take the Greenback out of the Traynor and put it in the Marshall?

 

[wormburner]

OP, I had the same complaint about my AC15 until I swapped out the speaker for an Eminence Wizard.

 

[corbo]

Do you mean hook up the output of the Marshall into the input of the Traynor? Or do you mean take the Greenback out of the Traynor and put it in the Marshall?

probably means unhook the lead from the traynor,s speaker and plug it into the marshall speaker out.

as few have mentioned , would start with tubes , one bad tube can cause havoc

 

[LPV]

Do you mean hook up the output of the Marshall into the input of the Traynor? Or do you mean take the Greenback out of the Traynor and put it in the Marshall?

Hook the output of the class 5 into the green back. Just run a wire of any speaker gauge or heavier from the marshall to the traynor. Its only a test so just secure it with electrical tape if needed. You'll have to unplug the terminals of the marshall's speaker and wrap the wire around them and then connect the other end to the traynor's green back. Cut up an old extension cord if need be. This is a quick and cheap test and will rule out allot of possibilities. I'd only look at tubes AFTER doing that test. Unless of course you have a bunch of tubes just laying around. If the speaker in the traynor is a 4 ohm (I doubt it) then don't do this but 8 or 16 is fine. a slight mismatch won't hurt for a quick test. Just make certain there is a speaker attached when the amp is on.

 

[MCAN]

Ok I'll give it a try. It might be hard since the Traynor is one of those amps that is kind of all locked up and hard work on but I'll give it a try. Thanks

 

[David Corrales]

I find the Class 5 is dark/opaque sounding until you pass 5-6. After that it opens up nicely.

Here's a demo I recorded of it:
[SC]https://soundcloud.com/davidcorrales/class-5-demo[/SC].

The solos are using a TS clone by Joyo (Vintage Overdrive) and it's the head into a Marshall 2x12" 1936 with one GT75 and one WGS Retro 30.

My settings usually are Bass 2-3, Mids 10, Treble 8-10 and Volume on 6. At that point it has a very nice crunch itself and takes pedals better than other amps I've heard.

There are some mods you can do to lower the bassy character of the team, listed on the Class 5 mods thread.

 

[rjwilson37]

This is why I purchased my Blackheart Handsome Devil, I did the side by side comparison when I was tube amp shopping and the Class 5 just got muddy/flabby as the volume went up. I also liked that the Blackheart was $100 less and was 7/15w switchable compared to just 5w. I did find out later that my Blackheart also got flabby as the volume went up at outdoor giggable levels, so I swapped out the stock speaker for a better one and that problem was solved.

What size speaker is in your Traynor? There is only a 10" speaker in the Class 5 Combo.

 

[studio1087]

You shouldn't have to change the speaker. There is a nice 10" real Celestion in the Class 5 combo. Thousands of users are playing the stock Celestion and they love it. I love mine.

Swapping the speaker or plugging into a huge cab shouldn't be necessary. Something is screwy in your tubes or chassis.

 

[Chondropython]

I've got the head, and I tend to agree with the OP... I'm not a big fan of this amp... not very versatile at all, and very muddy sounding overall. Then again, it looks cool, and what do you really expect for $350 (which is what I paid for it, although I see they are now $499 at Musician's Friend...! When did that happen? Definitely not worth $499).

 

[sixty2strat]

In 30 years it's the only marshall I ever sold. Almost usless, It has 2 volumes clean I can't hear it and over driven I can it better.No classsic cleans or in betweeens( call me the Rev. Jackson) Cabs did nada.....Vintage cabs H and Ms , the Who and Hendrix ri cabs even EV SRO's. I even triedan 8x10. I notice that GC online now has a ton of them for sale and valve jr. too.

 

[970harris]

Open it up to see the guts,someone dorked with it I'm sure.

This.

Especially if running the Class 5 using your Traynor's speaker doesn't help.

If you look at the length of this thread (which a couple of other folks mentioned in earlier posts as well)...

http://www.mylespaul.com/forums/squawk-box/123816-some-mods-marshall-class-5-a.html

... you get the sense that there are a lot of modded Class 5's out there. Maybe there was something done to this one that wasn't quite right. (Part of the reason that thread went so long is because some folks initially misfired doing the mods themselves.)

Or it could be, as tuckermde suggested earlier, something in the stock electronics is just not right.

Regardless, I think it'd make sense to have a tech that you trust go over the thing to try to figure out what's wrong.

For what it's worth, I now own both the combo (which has had most of the afore-mentioned mods done to it) and the head (which is in the shop having the same mods done to it). The Class 5 is kind of a one trick pony, and I only use it for crunch tones (I switch to another amp entirely for cleans).

And yeah, the combo sounded better after I changed out the stock tubes and had the mods done to it. But both it and the head sounded pretty good stock, certainly not muddy.

And yeah, both it and the head sound better through a beefier cab / speaker setup, but I still gig the combo with the stock 10" Celestion...

I really do hope you get our issue figured out.

 

[Shades of Blue]

Could be a lemon. I have gigged my Class 5 for years and love that little amp. I play mainly a strat through it at about 75% power and lower the volume on my guitar to about 6-7. I do keep the bass low. Now, it is going to still be a pretty muddy sounding amp, so it could just be an amp that doesn't agree with your ears.

 

[blamo]

check out Lyle's mod thread. Makes it a much better amp.

 

[Iron Broadsword]

Speaker just needs to break in, trust me. Crank it up and pound out some tunes and it'll be like night and day. Takes a while but is worth the wait, and the stock tubes are ideal. Keep the bass almost off, that'll help.

 

[blamo]

my stock power tube was a JJ's rebranded to Marshall..

although it was rattly. i replaced it with a new JJ and rattle be gone.

 

[Iron Broadsword]

On the other hand, power tube saturation sounds very different than modern preamp gain so maybe it's just not what you were looking for?

 

[Iron Broadsword]

Just thought of this thread after recording this..
http://ghostsauce.net/random/__My God.m4a

That's my guitar straight into the stock class 5 (tubes too), cranked to 10 in front of my computer's built-in mic. Pardon the sloppy playing but this is what a class 5 should sound like. @ the op - if yours doesn't then it's either the speaker or an issue with it.

 

[MCAN]

This issue has persisted in the back of my mind for the past few months. The amp pretty much sits there unused so I better fix it or dump it.

I'm considering getting a set of new tubes to see if that does anything. $50 set, nothing fancy.

@Iron Broadsword: Listened to your clip. My C5 is nowhere near as clear at yours. Not even close.