My Two 5E3s
Posted: Thu Oct 01, 2020 12:40 pm
This is my first and second foray into amp building. I am a software engineer by trade, but I have always wanted to understand and be able to work with and repair electronics, specifically guitar amplifiers. Before I started the first of the two 5E3s, I had barely any experience operating a soldering iron for more than a rapid/hasty repair to a jack.
Now look at me. I still don't know anything, but I did get better at soldering and I have a couple of amplifiers that sound pretty darn good.
I built two 5E3 amps, one of which I proceeded to take apart and put back together four times so far adding/removing mods and the other I plan to keep vanilla (or close to it).
I am not a woodworker by any stretch. I make more firewood than anything, but I derive a lot of pleasure operating dangerous power tools, so the trial and error is okay with me.
I wanted the cabinets to kind of match the attitude of each amp.
The purple one is a simplified Tweedle-Dee (layout from Rob Robinette's site) with a post-phase-inverter master volume, switched negative feedback, cascaded channels, and the normal channel has been converted to a high-gain lead channel. I covered it in vinyl gator skin I bought a Joann's. The cabinet houses 2 10" celestion creambacks.
The vanilla one I made the mistake of trying Minwax PolyShades which I found very unruly and I hate the outcome. I will be painting it piano black. Ultimately what I was going for was a more "dignified" or "conservative" look to match it's more traditional tone. The circuit is a vanilla with an added switched negative feedback and post phase inverter master volume. The cabinet houses a celestion G12H anniversary.
For the heads, I had to figure something out to attach the chassis to the cabinet, so I attached a couple of bolts to the mounting holes and then used wingnuts to attach the chassis to the head face-plate. I think what I would rather do is weld a nut to the inside of the chassis so I can put a screw in from the front and not have those weird looking wingnuts there.
Now look at me. I still don't know anything, but I did get better at soldering and I have a couple of amplifiers that sound pretty darn good.
I built two 5E3 amps, one of which I proceeded to take apart and put back together four times so far adding/removing mods and the other I plan to keep vanilla (or close to it).
I am not a woodworker by any stretch. I make more firewood than anything, but I derive a lot of pleasure operating dangerous power tools, so the trial and error is okay with me.
I wanted the cabinets to kind of match the attitude of each amp.
The purple one is a simplified Tweedle-Dee (layout from Rob Robinette's site) with a post-phase-inverter master volume, switched negative feedback, cascaded channels, and the normal channel has been converted to a high-gain lead channel. I covered it in vinyl gator skin I bought a Joann's. The cabinet houses 2 10" celestion creambacks.
The vanilla one I made the mistake of trying Minwax PolyShades which I found very unruly and I hate the outcome. I will be painting it piano black. Ultimately what I was going for was a more "dignified" or "conservative" look to match it's more traditional tone. The circuit is a vanilla with an added switched negative feedback and post phase inverter master volume. The cabinet houses a celestion G12H anniversary.
For the heads, I had to figure something out to attach the chassis to the cabinet, so I attached a couple of bolts to the mounting holes and then used wingnuts to attach the chassis to the head face-plate. I think what I would rather do is weld a nut to the inside of the chassis so I can put a screw in from the front and not have those weird looking wingnuts there.