Fender 5e3p from Wurlitzer organ amp

[Zombie_stomp]

How about this one? Wurlitzer 4200 Owner's Manual

Are you being sarcastic? I doubt that's going to contain a schematic, being intended for the end user who calls the repairman for minor problems. The organ came with a lot of paperwork, and I'm fairly certain it's all end-user material.

[jazbo8]

How about this one? Wurlitzer 4200 Owner's Manual

Are you being sarcastic? I doubt that's going to contain a schematic, being intended for the end user who calls the repairman for minor problems. The organ came with a lot of paperwork, and I'm fairly certain it's all end-user material.

Only $10 to find out...

[martin manning]

Unless I'm misremembering, back in the day it was not that unusual to find a schematic in the documentation for consumer electronics. You could always ask the seller, too.

[Zombie_stomp]

I'm going to go through all the papers I got with it when I get home. I won't need to spend on that most likely. They even saved the damn price tag for this thing.

[Phil_S]

If you didn't have good patience before, you will benefit from learning to have that now. Repurposing an old amp is a slow process. Solve one problem after another, in a certain order, one at a time.

I wanted to say it again. You see, others are saying this, too. That Philco you bought on ebait should be fine. Let's just see what that does.

I said this before, too. Once we know what sort of voltages you'll be seeing, you can decide on an amp design that works with what you have. Lots of us do this. It makes for an interesting project. It is, however, off the beaten path.

And, yes, I pointed you at the Weber site for the BOM, not the kit. If it was me, I wouldn't be ordering a kit. You've already got lots of goodies in that donor amp. Of course, it's your amp and you should do what you think is best.

Remember, if you are willing to take this one step at a time, you'll get people here to help guide you through the project, which will maximize your chances of a successful outcome. I can't speak for others, but I'll guess the feeling is shared...we love a good project at this forum. Yours has all the makings of a good project. Along the way, you'll be able to learn about amp building. That's a good thing, because it is an addictive hobby.

[Zombie_stomp]

Phil, yes, patience is being learned here.

I do remember you referring me to the bill of materials AND schematic. That's where I got slightly confused- you were saying something along the lines of I could maybe build that circuit design with the transformers and other goodies I have here. But you also seemed to say that battling with the Mouser catalog for all the other parts I'd need and winning would be daunting and that the stuff weber has wasn't the ultimate quality but it could all come from one place if I got it there, is that right? I'm going to eventually come up with a list of stuff I need and I have no problem waiting until the list is checked 5 times, but like you said, ordering it from one place and paying shipping once would be better. So my effort to order from weber was not to get a kit minus chassis and transformers, but I seemed to get the message from you that eventually I could order just the parts I needed and nothing extra, from weber, and see no option to do so other than editing down from a kit, further editing the contents than their site allows.

All I'm trying to do here is find reliable parts sources, and people are getting the wrong message. I know there must be several sources of parts typically used in guitar amp custom builds. My aim is to find as many of them as possible in one place, for when the time is right.

And when I was talking about capacitors, resistors: I used to be advised to use Orange Drop caps and have since heard it is better to use ones with axial leads to avoid bending them out at 90 degrees, and that there are certain ones that sound better and have axial leads anyway. So I was looking for a safe common brand or whatever to look for. That might be asking for it, the 'what oil is best to use' thread on motorcycle forums as an example of that type of can of worms. Whatever. Just solid materials suppliers, decent part quality. That's all I'm looking for.

Some may disagree on this, but besides tubes, sockets, pots, transformers, chassis, wire... What other goodies do I have? I'm talking about resistors. It's always been advised not to trust capacitors more than 20 years old. None of these appear to be wax or leaking, ceramic caps look solid, but recently I've heard not to trust these resistors either. Hmmm.

[Zombie_stomp]

How about this one? Wurlitzer 4200 Owner's Manual

Are you being sarcastic? I doubt that's going to contain a schematic, being intended for the end user who calls the repairman for minor problems. The organ came with a lot of paperwork, and I'm fairly certain it's all end-user material.

Only $10 to find out...

No schematic. I'm not surprised. $10 would have been willy-nilly spending.

[Zombie_stomp]

I wanted to cut down on dust so I took fine steel wool to the chassis and wiped it down with 409. Nasty smell and dust for a while, but now I don't have to feel like washing my hands every time I go to mess with something. Now I'm observing the inputs and volume control area of the circuit. I'm observing how the phono, bass, and treble inputs are all linked together. There's a resistor here and there near the chassis and I haven't evaluated that yet, but the 'swell' plug, which goes to the minor volume pedal cord seems to tie in with the volume adjustment pot on the primitive PCB. This is where it gets difficult to see what things on the bottom of the circuit board tie in to the tube sockets and capacitors on the upper part of the circuit board. I tried searching for schematics online for this model 7039 Wurlitzer amplifier, nothing can be found. My best bet if I'm to use it as is is to tie in to any one of the inputs and have the one volume control on the circuit board.

[jazbo8]

Schematics cost a bit more here. Full service manual cost more but is available here. Good luck with your advanture.

[Phil_S]

Mouser is a good supplier. I didn't mean to imply otherwise. However, I find, as do others, that the catalog and be frustrating to navigate. I feel that a noob would do better elsewhere.

For a first build, I feel like Weber should have everything you need in their regular stock. The ship quickly. The prices are reasonable. You get a very narrow selection, which simplifies the task. You can just take the BOM and work your way through an order.

I suggest that it isn't necessary to dwell on whether you want OD caps or something else. I've used the generic yellow barrel caps (axial) from Weber and I think they are fine, easy to work, with and priced right. As I noted, some things from Weber are not cork-sniffer level. So what? This is a guitar amp, not a living room hi-fi.

In any case, I do not believe you are yet at the point of ordering anything. So you don't waste your money, just wait for the rectifier tube and see what happens.

What are the dimensions of the existing chassis? I'm asking to be sure it really is something to discard or maybe it can be retained and used. I'm thinking it is the wrong size, but facts will help.

[Structo]

I wouldn't use steel wool on an amp.

Since it is conductive and there is always fine steel fibers that get into things like pots, sockets, etc.

[Zombie_stomp]

Well, I see what you're saying about the steel wool. It's done, not really many pots in it but I'll just vacuum it out. I wouldn't normally use it either, I'd use a scotch brite pad, I just had steel wool at the amp garage.

I don't really care too much about caps either, even the cheap ones will last a lot longer than the old ones. I don't want to order anything too high quality, I'm in this for a raw primitive garage rock amp, and side effects to a certain extent are sometimes appreciated. Too clean, no character, bad.

I got an email from weber. They pointed out that there are part numbers on the BOM and I can use them to order parts individually.

I know I'm not ordering anything for a while and maybe planning tube socket setup, for which I'm open to options. I'll measure the chassis later when I get home. I do have space to mount the OT outside instead of inside, and a removable plate around the preamp that could be replaced with a different hole pattern. I also work in a metal shop and we have the tooling to make a fantasy chassis. I can't use the shop for personal projects yet, but if I were intent on a specific design, I could plan it out on lunch break and probably convince the owner let me make that one thing. If I get to full time position, I'll make everyone's chassis... For a fee.

I am starting to read the P1 document.

[Zombie_stomp]

The chassis is 12x10x3".

[Phil_S]

12" is a little short. If you get lucky, you can fit an 8" turret board to manage components for two preamp tubes and the PI. By "get lucky" I mean that tube placement doesn't create a lead dress issue. I'm thinking for a 1st build, you'll be better off with a properly shaped and dimensioned chassis. In a first build, this will allow you to follow the standard Fender layout (assuming that's what you go with.)

Too early yet to buy a chassis, but you might want to begin to consider your options. It sounds like you have some metal working skills. You may want to consider purchasing a blank and drilling it yourself. That's part of the fun! I'm not sure I'd want to bend my own even if I had access to a brake. This guy, who I've never done business with, sells one for a reasonable price. http://www.seasidechassisdesign.com/sta ... lable.html Search the forum for other places to get a chassis.

[Zombie_stomp]

I'd definitely want to drill my own blank chassis.

Why wouldn't you want to bend your own? Do you just not like doing metal work, or is there some other reason? I'll check out the other sources.