Has anyone here upgraded their C5 OT to Mercury Magnetics

[FullMetalHippie]

I was wondering if anyone here has upgraded their output transformer to the Mercury Magnetics one and added the choke? I've seen people writing good things about them, but the upgrade could cost more than the head.

I would be willing to do enough research to buy the OT & choke and do the work myself, but I understand that techs get a much better price, so factoring that in it might be better to have it done by a pro. I wish I could A/B a stock and upgraded C5 to know if the cost makes sense.

Fargen quoted me the same price as for a Vox 15 Watt NT which is $500.00 (and he replaces caps and bits) and my head only cost $295! I am waiting to hear back from Bill at Austin Vintage Guitars for his quote and suggestions.

*I will be running a pedalboard in front with a Wah, Tuner, Dynacomp, and Shaky Jimi Vibe (I love that thing!) with the thing dimed, so the difference would need to be heard though that chain, as opposed to a purist straight to amp tone.

Thanks in advance for your advice!

[surfnorthwest]

I think the iron Marshall uses today in there amps is very good. Mercury makes a good transformer but IMO I don't think it would be money well spent on a C5. Another words I don't think you would hear a tone improvement over the stock transformer.

You could always try the MM tranny, the mod should not be that much. Ben can do it for you or you can contact my friend Curt Granger at Granger amps, he does great work at a fair price. You could pump up the watts also it you wanted to get a bigger transformer.

[FullMetalHippie]

You're probably right there Surf. I'll be posting some sound samples here in a few days.

[ClassicRock88]

Surf I am intrigued, now. How would you increase the actual power output of the amp with a larger transformer? I understand the basics of the interplay between tubes and transformers but I thought that 5 watts was the theoretical RMS limit for a single EL84 in Class A. Isn't that why all of the single power tube amps out there run at 4-7 watts?

If you can give a C5 a noticeable power increase from an upgraded transformer I'm all ears.

[FullMetalHippie]

You'd probably have to add additional power tubes until you had the desired watts, then the transformer upgrade.

But I need my amp to be low watt so I'm set. And with the EL844 power tube I really love the sound as is!