Building a 65 Deluxe Reverb in Australia

[fluddman]

Hi everyone,

I am hoping to build an amp similar to a Fender 65 Deluxe Reverb.

I am in Australia and am finding a bit hard to access any good kits.

Any suggestions on a good kit and also one I can access from Australia?

Also your thoughts on whether I should just buy one of the Reissue amps and forget about making my own. Reissue amps are about $1850 Australian dollars.

Thanks for any suggestions

[Bruce / Mission Amps]

What about the MOJO Deluxe Reverb kit? I've built two of them and they are pretty good if you do not use a 5AR4 rectifier... stick with a 5U4GB and bias the power tubes to about 9-10 watts.

[fluddman]

Thanks Bruce - I'll check em out!

[gwbdopesmoker]

Your 65 Build

Weber's pretty good kit. I've built a variant of the 6A40.

A novice can build a amp without much experience
but the ab763 is a pretty large project.

A kit Weber 6A40 is about 1k US $ , maybe $1200,
then it will take 40 to 80 -- hours to build ( IMO ).
You guys are still on the pound so that would be $600 to 700 pounds.

How much are RI down under ?

What does kangaroo meat taste like ?

[fluddman]

How much are RI down under ?

The best I can buy a RI is $1800 - I guess that's about $1600 US. 70s Silver face are going for about $2500 and black face for over $5000.


My uderstanding is you guys can buy RIs for about $800 US. No one can really explain why they cost so much more down here - i don't think shipping an a different power transformer should double the price.

What does kangaroo meat taste like ? Have only eaten it a couple of times. Tasty but not as good as prime beef!

The killer for me getting a Weber kit is the cost of shipping - at least 200 or 300 US$. I can save a bit by buing the speaker locally but still too expensive.

By the way I got me a RI on the weekend and I have to say it is much better than I expected - very good in fact. Only real problem is getting a good over-driven sound out of it. I am still going to build a kit when I can work out how to get one without it costing a fortune.

Thanks for your post.

[chipaudette]

Bruce,

I have a Fender 65 DRRI that I bought last year here in the states. I've been having fun modding it to high heaven (and then usually ripping the mods out because they stink). It, of course, comes with a 5AR4 for the rectifier. I've tried a 5Y3 but liked the 5AR4 better. You mentioned using a 5U4GB in the kit build above.

Why is a 5U4GB better for that kit amp? Is it worth considering a 5U4FB on my reall DRRI, too? What is the difference in performance/sound of a 5U4GB versus the 5AR4?

Thanks,

Chip

[black_labb]

ive just finished a 5e3 (some variations to make it more versatile, but essentially a 5e3) and live in australia. i picked up an output transformer on ebay (people bragg about vintage transformers, mine is from the 40's or 50's and got it for 12$, works well so far). picked up some other bits and pieces in asutralia (tubes and chassis from www.evatco.com.au) picked up a cheap power transformer from www.webervst.com and had it shipped here, as there is little that i have found in australia, and what there is is quite expensive (im a uni student so i was after the best deal possible). my father went over to america for a buisness trip and had him bring back 2 10" speakers from www.guitarwarehousespeakers.com as they have been getting great reviews (atleast the 12" ones) i actually picked up a holden/wasp 200w amp (australian/new zealand company that made amps in the lats 60's to mid 70's)a month ago which has a 4x12 cab which i wired up to get 4 ohms to suit the ot. the amp is currently being played with just the chassis sitting on my desk. havent gotten too far with the head box yet.

sorry for going so off topic, but thats a big way to say that there isnt much in australia. if your willing to venture away from a kit, there are parts to be bought here, but there quite expensive. should be cheaper than a kit though, and the kit instrctions are still online for you to check out. if there is something your not sure of we could probably help as well.

where are you located? im in sydney and have some time off and wouldnt mind giving a bit of help.

im visiting canada to see family soon for christmas, and will be filling up my bags with transformers and speakers (im looking to get some 15" bass speakers, so it might be a tight fit)

[fluddman]

Thanks for the post Black_labb.

I live in Ryde in Sydney. I guess I solved my short term problem by buying a deluxe reverb reissue.

Althought its got a printed circuit board it still sound darned good - but very bright sounding. They tell me this will improve as the speaker wears in - and a lot of people suggest removing the bright cap on the vibrato channel. At the moment it really hates overdrive pedals!!

Once the gloss wears off I will probably convert to 'point to point' wiring - been looking at kits from the US. I can't seem to bring myself to rip it apart just yet (its only a week old).

How long have you be buidling amps for? I am a TAFE teacher and I've got a few colleagues that are just itching to build something.

Thanks for the kind offer - let is know a bit more about you amp.

Cheers

[black_labb]

Thanks for the post Black_labb.

I live in Ryde in Sydney. I guess I solved my short term problem by buying a deluxe reverb reissue.

Althought its got a printed circuit board it still sound darned good - but very bright sounding. They tell me this will improve as the speaker wears in - and a lot of people suggest removing the bright cap on the vibrato channel. At the moment it really hates overdrive pedals!!

Once the gloss wears off I will probably convert to 'point to point' wiring - been looking at kits from the US. I can't seem to bring myself to rip it apart just yet (its only a week old).

How long have you be buidling amps for? I am a TAFE teacher and I've got a few colleagues that are just itching to build something.

Thanks for the kind offer - let is know a bit more about you amp.

Cheers

ryde, thats about a 5 minutes drive from me, i live in west pymble.

i have only built one amp being this one, but im quite addicted. i dont know if i would personally pull the amp apart, but if you did it in a way that you could easily rehookup the circuitboard then you could easily put your own eyelet board in there. having an amp like that means you can change the circuit without getting into the messy things like getting transformers and a chassis set up.

some tube amps dont respond well to overdrive pedals as they overdrive the first tube stage, which gives it a very mushy sound. ive heard that the blackface tone stacks are quite a bit brighter than the tweed ones.

for a bit more on my amp, its a 5e3 as i mentioned before, but i separated the cathode resistors on the first stage (1 triode of the 12ax7 for the input from each channel), and made one a 1500 ohm and the other a 1800 ohm. the 1800 was to get less gain and get a cleaner tone (probably quite similar to a tweed amp with the 12ay7), and the 1500 was to get the more overdriven tone from the amp (whats normally in a fender amp). i then put a dpdt (on-off-on) switch to change the bypassing cap between a 25uf, none and a 0.047. the 25uf gives a nice full sounding boost and is the standard value for a tweed amp, without a cap it gives a cleaner sound. the 0.047 value gives a boost to the upper mids (and the rest of the spectrum but not as much) to get a little more of a grinding overdrive. im quite happy with the amp.
there is a fair bit of hum though, but that would mainly be due to the fact that the chassis has a narrow opening, making it get cramped and hard to work on inside the chassis. i was thinking of volume when ordering the chasis, but you really want a wide and low chasis i found out. i will learn from that mistake for next time.