Low Power 5E3

[coco]

The Deluxe is almost ready to roll it's very loud. Has anyone ever tried a half power switch or something in the amp to bring it down to studio levels but still sound close to the same?

[Ray Ivers]

coco,

Off the top of my head, and assuming you don't want to spend a lot of money and/or rip your newly-built amp a new one redesigning it, there's two simple things you can try:

1) Make your own $5 L-pad attenuator - a 4 ohm 15W resistor in series with the speaker, and an 8 ohm 15W resistor in parallel with the speaker (assuming an 8 ohm speaker). This will reduce speaker power by 75%, a 6dB drop in level. Mouser link below.

http://www.mouser.com/search/ProductDetail.aspx?R=HS15_4R0_1%25virtualkey11260000

2) Put in a pentode-triode switch, and ideally use the 4 ohm OT tap (for an 8 ohm speaker) in triode mode if one is available.

Both these mods will affect your sound, as will pretty much anything you do to the amp circuitry or speaker - who knows, you may like the new sound better. Used together, they'll make the amp about half as loud as it was.

Ray

[Thorny]

If you buy a set of 6K6 tubes and put them in your 5E3, they will drop the power down to about 1/2. It is still fairly loud, but it is the most natural sounding way to get the breakup even sooner (100% certified all-natural). It KICKS. Then you if that is too much you can do a high wattage 8 ohm resitor to lower it even more out the external speaker jack. I tried this and it all works excellently.

[coco]

Thanks, I think I'll try that!

[petemoore]

I Added a simple 500kl pot, the wiper to ground, lugs 1 and 3 to each tube grid.
I added a switch to lift the ground also.
This allows the use of one tube at a time, and 'balance control' on the tube inputs...allowing 7.5w - 15w adjustability.
I use that switch...for bedroom recording to gigs, the reduced wattage sound is quite similar to the full output sound, great for tweeking pedals [for use at high volume] at lower volume.