Pic of my latest build.

[sportster4eva]

Here's a shot of the back of my latest build. It's a 5e3 clone with a little tweak here and there. This little baby rocks! the change I made to the tone circuit makes it very versatile. I don't have any sound clips yet, because you guys would cringe if I recorded myself playing..lol I have a photobucket folder with pics of the build from start to finish if anyone wants to check it out.

http://s28.photobucket.com/albums/c247/ ... 3-project/

[strat57]

The link provided doesn't work...... I even did copy & paste, plus search on photobucket. No pic's yet?

[sportster4eva]

The link provided doesn't work...... I even did copy & paste, plus search on photobucket. No pic's yet?

My bad... Should work now.

[dehughes]

VERY nice work! Did you do the cabinet, also? About how much did the whole amp cost...?


david

[sportster4eva]

Yes, I did the cabinet also. I made a box joint jig out of maple that bolts to the miter gauge of my table saw. Gluing up that many fingers and getting it together, aligned, and clamped was a real treat....lol
The whole thing cost approx $310, including the $80 Freud stack dado I bought. I treated myself on that one, because I plan on building more.
I got the OT from Mojo, a Heyboer, and the chassis and speaker from Weber. Th grille cloth, handle and the cool yellow knobs and purple Jewel came from AES.
I scored 40 Switchcraft Jacks on ebay for a song.. as well as the NOS Cinch sockets. The rest was stuff I had in the parts bins.
Thanks for your compliment!
Paul

[dehughes]

Sweet man! I really like it... Very nice job!

[Allynmey]

Very Nice build indeed. aybe we can get together for a jam neighbor!

[Dave Lotek]

sportster4eva,

What a work of art!!! All I can say is Wowwwww! I'm drooling.

[strat57]

Sporster.... thanks for the pic's! (link worked this time!) I'm diggin those yellow "chicken heads" too! Everything looks great, nice package too!

[sportster4eva]

Sporster.... thanks for the pic's! (link worked this time!) I'm diggin those yellow "chicken heads" too! Everything looks great, nice package too!

I thought the yellow knobs and purple jewel would go better with the finish of the cab. The cab is made of poplar, which is kind of a pain to finish, but it's light and hard, and I like to work with it. I used shellac to finish it. Clear first to seal the wood, then amber, cut to 2 lb, to even the shade, because poplar has a kind of greenish color in places.

[mhuss]

That *is* pretty. I've often thought about poplar (for its nice weight/strength combination), but shied away because of the trouble to finish it.

--mark h

[sportster4eva]

That *is* pretty. I've often thought about poplar (for its nice weight/strength combination), but shied away because of the trouble to finish it.

--mark h

I agree, and Poly looks absolutely lousy on it. I've been checking out how the pro's finish different woods, and that's why I tried the amber shellac. It's similar to tinted laquer, but dries faster, and is actually non-toxic. It comes out nice if you wax it after the final coat. And if you cover the cab with Tolex, the finish is a non issue. Tasty!

[David Root]

Verrrrry nice!! Care to share your "tweaks" with us?

One of my distant future projects is to take the best of say three tweed circuits and try to put them together without the negatives of said circuits.
Probably 5F6A, 5E3 and 5E8, try to build the ultimate blues amp?!!

[sportster4eva]

Sure! Not much deviation from the stock circuit, but this is what I did.
I used a oil/paper/foil cap for the tone cap, of a larger value than original, and silver mica for the bright cap of a slightly smaller value than original.
The tone control on this circuit has such a wide range, and with the values I picked it has an almost "scooped" sound at about 7 on the dial. Going past that it gets really forward sounding with the upper mids favored.
Another thing I did was add 1k screen resistors, cuz they should be there.
The coupling caps are some NOS sprague PVC jobs that I had, and the .02-600v cap is a polypropylene.
The resistor from the screen supply cap to the preamp supply cap is slightly higher than stock. Keeps the little guys at around 300v
The standby switch grounds the center tap of the PT instead of switching B+.
I like it better that way.
That's it... nothing major, but the thing is sweet sounding.

[summitcity]

Way cool. I love the look of a nice wood.