Tube Amp Archive

The current situation, whether affected by the rectifier change or some other wiring adjustment, is that the bright channel does no longer exhibit the volume drop between 11 and 12 on the dial. The normal channel still drops volume above 11. Previously, I think they both had problems above 10. I wil...

Yeah, that was my phone. A Samsung Galaxy A51

Over the weekend, I have been able to spend more time with the amp. The substitution of the 5Y3 for the 5U4 has resulted in more grit and overdrive. Power output (volume) seems to be fairly unchanged. It's pretty loud for 15W. I have been researching on YouTube for videos demonstrating the interacti...

I can see that the capacitor leads appear close to the pot bodies, but they are not touching. I have clipped/moved them so they are definitely not a problem. The connections to the pot lugs do appear that there may be a solder bridge to the pot body, but this slightly different view shows the gap. 2...

Thanks for taking a look. I'll check that volume pot tomorrow.

So far, I cannot see any incorrect wiring issues, or find any bad solder joints. I have found a 5Y3 rectifier and installed that. B+ is now 366V, but the amp seems just as loud. There may be some overdrive now but it's not significant. What I have noticed now is that when I attach probes to measure ...

I have taken some pictures of the amp. I know my wiring and soldering wont win any prizes, I'm hoping for serviceable, not necessarily pretty.

Jargon is fine, I'll get used to it.

Yes, pins 3 and 8 are jumpered. I will get to probing the volume pot wiring sometime over the weekend I hope.

First off, yes audio taper pots. I have to say that I am a Mechanical Engineer by profession and only dabble in electronics to suit my musical hobbies. Sometimes I have to think a bit about technical terms, more so with tubes than transistors. When I built the amp I generally followed the build inst...

The volume graduations go up to twelve (that's why it's loud :D). Up to 10 it's clean, when you go over 10, the volume drops significantly and there's much ugly distortion. The Carvin does cause some breakup, but it's not the best partner for the 5E3. I prefer the sound of my Partscaster Thinline Te...

So far, mostly P90's. Briefly some humbuckers, very briefly. I think I have a 5Y3 rectifier tube I could put in, I may give that a go, see what happens.

I have a Carvin with humbuckers and active tone controls. I'll give that a try, that should send a lot of signal in.

Thanks for the reply.

That's much as I expected the main reason for the higher voltage to be. I'm assuming that would be a big contributor to the higher than expected power output. I would consider making the change if anyone felt it would also contribute to other attributes being met

I have just completed my amp built to a 5E3 schematic. I detailed in another post some of the minor issues I had with the build, but all is running OK now. So, there are some often spoken facets to the performance of this circuit, some of which my build doesn't seem to exhibit. Like interaction betw...

Well it's taken me a few days to get back to my workbench, so I apologise to anyone looking for an update. I have found a poor joint in the cathode resistor for the second 12AX7. Where it is mounted across the 'bypass' capacitor one end was barely joined causing the resistor to be intermittently unc...

Thanks for all your inputs. I have reflowed many of the solder joints, but I plan on removing the chassis and giving it a thorough going over. I suspect one of the output tube sockets has a problem as one of the tubes did not 'light up' when I replaced it. Had to reinstall it.