5E3 (tweed deluxe) kit is here!!!

exhausted

well, actually it's been sitting at the post office for a week but i only got the delivery card today. stupid mail service.

anyway.

looks very good. JJ(!!!) power tubes, ehx and jj pre and phase inverter, and sovtek rectifier tube. nice beefy transformers. excellent cabinet. i went unlacquered. may do that myself. we'll see. also went with the jensen ceramic to start. basically a stock kit. marsh sort of tweaks and resells mojo kits by offering more speaker and transformer choices.

http://www3.telus.net/exhausted/5E3/5E3_front.JPG
http://www3.telus.net/exhausted/5E3/5E3_back.JPG
http://www3.telus.net/exhausted/5E3/5E3_kit.JPG


this will be a slow project as i'm going to really take my time but i am excited.

All Those Yesterdays

Very cool, keep up posted.

Pacomc79

looks awesome.

who's_pearljam?

Haha,,, you're really moving up in the world of electronics since I've known you! That's awesome. I'm still trying to get around to fixing the switch on my Ibanez delay for the last 4 years! Probably a 5 minute job that I haven't gotten to so I stomp the hell out of it evey time I use it,,, and here you are building amps!

Good luck and it looks like a great set up there!

exhausted

it's come at the cost of my playing unfortunately.

but, i can build amps without waking the kid. i can't play though. :(

but i'm learning a lot.

exhausted

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=21345&l=7a1dd&id=668580992

that's the photo album. i finished the eyelet board tonight.

Anon

exhausted wrote:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=21345&l=7a1dd&id=668580992

that's the photo album. i finished the eyelet board tonight.

hehe looking awesome! I thought you said this was gonna take some time! Holy crapola

exhausted

unfortuantely, that was the easy part. the rest is going to be like building a ship in a bottle.

when i post pictures of the chassis you'll see why. it's tiny and i've got like 50 wires to connect.

lucylespian

Hey, now I know why you are exhausted. Never sit still, do ya !

Great pics, and neat project. I think amp building could be addictive. Luckily I'm a t no risk of being good at it, so I'll stay well away from that particular babysitter, but I'll be following your progress wiht interest.
Whenever there is a thread aboput bhoutique amps anywhere, there is always a pic of an immaculately wired eyelet board. Doesn't seem so exclusive now.

exhausted

well it's done and works but i've got a hum problem i need to solve.

edit: well that was easy. a key piece of information was missing from the instructions. but it was on the marsh website. now i know what those two extra resistors were for.

anyway, it's nice and quiet now.

will finish pictures and a test drive tomorrow.

exhausted

done. all pictures updated.

sounds freakin' awesome. just what i hoped for.

i have some tube rattle that i need to chase down but i don't think it's related to my building quality. i think it's related to it simply being a small, resonant combo with a big speaker.

SteveMurray

very very cool. good work man

Anon

exhausted wrote:

sounds freakin' awesome. just what i hoped for.

Doesn't get any better than that then. Awesome work. You should feel really pumped and proud of yourself!

exhausted

found the tube rattle. the rectifier tube has a rattle in it. even just light hand shaking and you can hear it. replacement tomorrow.

All Those Yesterdays

exhausted wrote:

found the tube rattle. the rectifier tube has a rattle in it. even just light hand shaking and you can hear it. replacement tomorrow.

Very cool, what preamp tubes are you running?

exhausted

a JJ 12AX7 and an EHX 12AY7.

exhausted

well, i went side by side with the 3x the price fender reissue today and did quite well.

the alnico speaker in the fender seems a bit middier with tighter bass than the ceramic in mine but it really boils down to taste.

i prefer the ceramic's generally so i'm happy i went that way even though it's not vintage "correct". it's looser and bassier but the highs are still there. the guys at the shop seemed pretty impressed that i built it myself.

this amp has so much bass response i'm scared it's going to shake itself apart.

Pacomc79

exhausted wrote:

well, i went side by side with the 3x the price fender reissue today and did quite well.

the alnico speaker in the fender seems a bit middier with tighter bass than the ceramic in mine but it really boils down to taste.

i prefer the ceramic's generally so i'm happy i went that way even though it's not vintage "correct". it's looser and bassier but the highs are still there. the guys at the shop seemed pretty impressed that i built it myself.

this amp has so much bass response i'm scared it's going to shake itself apart.

the ceramic mojo tone (greenback copy) sounds dynamite in that style amp

exhausted

i'm thinking of going with a greenback for the valve junior at some point. something a little darker anyway.

Pacomc79

exhausted wrote:

i'm thinking of going with a greenback for the valve junior at some point. something a little darker anyway.

nice, you know you owe it to your self to crank the 5E3 up one night, chain a few OD's toegther and rock some Neil Young.

exhausted

i did it last night with an an octaver and a box of rock through the fender reverb.

thus the comment about almost shaking the amp apart. but it's got bass to spare well before you kick the octave down on.

at least the new rectifier tube held together.

Pacomc79

exhausted wrote:

i did it last night with an an octaver and a box of rock through the fender reverb.

thus the comment about almost shaking the amp apart. but it's got bass to spare well before you kick the octave down on.

at least the new rectifier tube held together.

freaking awesome. I loved having an octave fuzz so much I have to go buy one.

How long did it take you to build it?

exhausted

all told, probably 10 hours. plus maybe a couple hours of chasing rattles etc. it wasn't as bad as i thought it would be timewise.

the kit was really well laid out, each component value was in it's own little bag and i had the original fender layout along with the weber and ceriatone layouts for confirmation when needed.

i still can't figure it out because it's a mojotone kit but he's offering more options etc. and selling them for significantly less.

the instructions were a help, though they weren't well written. i had a little trouble with the filament wiring because the instructions assumed a slightly different power transformer but i got it sorted.

exhausted

i found the biggest source of rattle. it's the power tubes. apparently JJs have a real rattle problem in some combo amps.

so i'm trying the ghetto version of this:
http://thetubestore.com/tuberings.html

i wrapped a band of teflon tape around each tube. may have done the trick. will know tomorrow when i can turn it up again.

but as an aside, the sound of a 5E3 breaking up at half volume or so is the sound i've been hearing in my head all these years as pedal after pedal disappoints me.

All Those Yesterdays

exhausted wrote:

i found the biggest source of rattle. it's the power tubes. apparently JJs have a real rattle problem in some combo amps.

so i'm trying the ghetto version of this:
http://thetubestore.com/tuberings.html

i wrapped a band of teflon tape around each tube. may have done the trick. will know tomorrow when i can turn it up again.

but as an aside, the sound of a 5E3 breaking up at half volume or so is the sound i've been hearing in my head all these years as pedal after pedal disappoints me.

Always a combo amp problem, rattleing the tubes etc.

Greenback or a vintage 30 for the Valve Junior and a Weber Anlico for the 5E3 sounds like a good combination in my mind.

exhausted

put a set of EH 6V6s in there that i had kicking around. rattle pretty much gone.

the teflon tape worked on the JJs as well. and i think the JJs sound better.

exhausted

exhausted wrote:

this amp has so much bass response i'm scared it's going to shake itself apart.

i finally solved this problem. replaced the .1uF input coupling caps on each channel with .022s.

took out all the boominess but still left enough balls in the low end to grind.

the cabinet doesn't shake and shudder anymore either. it takes the amp to another level as you're no longer afraid to hold back for fear of the rumbling.