My First 5E3!

[wcrankshaw]

Just wrapped up my first Deluxe. It's the second amp I've done (first was 5E1), and it went incredibly smooth the second time around. All from scratch, including the chassis and board. I guess I really should add some screen resistors so the 6V6s don't cook dinner. It also has 12AX7s in both preamp spots, so I should probably add a 12AY7 in V1. I had no idea how serious people were when they hyped up the compression and overdrive these things put out. The volume knob basically goes from nothing immediately to loud, and then starts to crunch soon after. It's playing into a Weber 12A125A that I have mounted in an old cab for the time being until I build the cab.

Does anyone have any qualitative opinions on the mission mods, and what they'll do to the overall experience of using this amp? I've got a strat, and an epiphone sheraton, and definitely see the drawbacks of humbuckers.

Thanks again for all the help that's been provided on this forum.

[JHow]

Nice-looking build! Also very colorful to look at. I love how the .1u orange drop coupling caps manage to dwarf the filter caps.

[wcrankshaw]

Thanks! I was really surprised when I got those caps too. They're TADs and I guess with the idea of TVA Atoms in mind, they seem tiny. I've heard mixed reviews on the TADs, but the amp sounds awesome, so I can't complain. I'd be curious to see what sort of character SoZos would bring to the table vs the orange drops.

[Bruce / Mission Amps]

Thanks! I was really surprised when I got those caps too. They're TADs and I guess with the idea of TVA Atoms in mind, they seem tiny. I've heard mixed reviews on the TADs, but the amp sounds awesome, so I can't complain. I'd be curious to see what sort of character SoZos would bring to the table vs the orange drops.

I wonder what the "mixed reviews" are you've heard with regards to the TAD caps?
I've been using them for many years and gone through probably over a 1000 of the 22uF-500v caps and have not had a bad one yet.
I have had a small handful of bad Sprague ATOM 475v and 500v caps in less then a few hundred though.
I don't use the little 16uF TAD caps though... most all of my customers are still suffering from "big is better" and the 16uF caps just look too tiny-cute-silly.

[wcrankshaw]

Well, I had always read positive things about them left and right, but then randomly came across some forum posts a while ago describing them as brittle, etc, etc. So, it didn't really make me think there were problems, but you know how when you see something like that sometimes it tends to stick in the back your mind. Like I said though, I've got no disappointment.

Bruce - I guess you'd be the man to ask - What does your volume/tone mod do for the 5E3?

[wcrankshaw]

Ok so now I've discovered a problem. When the amp is on, if I poke anything with a chopstick there is a crackle or pop. It started by just being crackling when I hit the low E open. Then I started poking around and realized it's if I touch anything - chassis, OT, PT, caps, resistors, the board, pilot light, etc etc. The caps tend to pop loudly when they are tapped. What in the world is this?

[JHow]

Poking the plate/grid circuits will generally produce a pop, but if it is doing it when you are not poking around it kinda suggests something is loose, like ground connection, cold solder joint or something like that.

[wcrankshaw]

Yeah, if only it were that simple... I posted under the trouble shooting section about this also. It got a lot worse, and is now instigated by simply blowing across the open chassis.

[toytunone]

Pops

Hate to suggest the most expensive thing, but tubes are most often responsible for pops by micro-phonics and internal connection problems. You could try changing out the tubes one by one with whatever spares you have. You only need one preamp and one output and one rectifier spare tube.