New Member, first 5e3 build.

[SonicVI]

Just thought I'd say hi and share pics of my new "Blue Deluxe" build. I've been building pedals for years but this is my first amp build. I did lots and lots of reading before building and have really learned a lot about amps. I'm looking forward to my next build. This is a Weber cabinet, chassis and fiber board. Everything else is from elsewhere, Mercury Mag trannies, Sprague and Sozo caps, Ohmite resistors, CTS pots, Cliff jacks, Belton sockets, etc. It's got the Weber Sig12S in it right now but I don't like it much and have a Celestion Blue on the way. I've been getting familiar with it for about a month and am planning mods to try now (already decreased coupling caps, next 6G3 vol/tone with concentric pots, push pull vol knobs for something I haven't decided on yet, switchble variable NFB pot, to name a few).

[CitizenCain]

That looks mighty sweet

I'm only inches away from ordering a Weber kit myself. Just waiting to see if they have any deals coming up in Feb.

Congrats!

[Prairie Dawg]

Nice. I'm not a great fan of Belton sockets because the pins are very narrow in the middle and it is pretty easy to break them. I try and salvage for reuse every Amphenol socket I can get my hands on and the military ones are terrific-they can be had from Surplus Sales of Nebraska for about four dollars each.

I recently bought a passel of sockets from China that are pretty nice stuff at a good price. I'll post some pics.

[SonicVI]

The 9-pin Beltons were pretty stiff but they loosened up nicely and they and the 8-pins all seem just fine to me now. They feel FAR superior to the ceramic sockets that came with the Weber chassis.

[Prairie Dawg]

The 9-pin Beltons were pretty stiff but they loosened up nicely and they and the 8-pins all seem just fine to me now. They feel FAR superior to the ceramic sockets that came with the Weber chassis.

they are a very nice molded socket, it is true, but there's a weak point in the pins and they're fairly hard material that won't stand a lot of bending. I substituted pins from a bunch of russian ceramic sockets I got a while ago.

I really am a big fan of military surplus Amphenol octal sockets, and Surplus Sales of Nebraska usually has them at $5.50 each.

By the way, I have a copy of the mil spec for octal sockets if you ever needed to know what the correct dimensions are.

I think the sockets that came with this amp were the Weber kit ceramic top mount sockets. If so, they weren't very nice at all.

[Bruce / Mission Amps]

Chassis vs Belton sockets

I could be proven wrong but unless the chassis in those pictures has been modified or Weber has changed something, (only SonicVI knows for sure)... I am reasonably sure that is a standard MOJO chassis and possibly a MOJO eyelet board.

By the way, MOJO kits are very good and come with very nice parts, just not much documentation.

Also, after well over 1,300 5E3 kits... it is my opinion the Belton octal and preamp sockets are superior to any socket currently made that is not a dead knock off of a NOS socket.
If you can find NOS Cinch-Jones, Amphenol or Mil spec Micanol sockets at a reasonable price, well, then I guess that is OK for a home shop amp builder doing a few amps here and there but not for a commercial venture.
The Belton sockets are the way to go.
I used to do business with Nebraska Surplus Sales back in the very very early 80's when they mostly sold Military salvage and Ham radio stuff.
They got very pricey over time and I rarely even look there for parts.

[cminor9]

The Belton sockets are the way to go.

really? I would assume ceramic. Why do you prefer those?

[Tom Phillips]

really? I would assume ceramic. Why do you prefer those?

I'd like to chime in with a comment.
I've been salvaging old tube sockets as I part out of old 1950s & 60s equipment. Mostly HP & Tektronix stuff. Rarely did they use ceramic sockets. The feature that is really nice is the heavy duty individual socket contacts and the mounting hardware. The sockets retain excellent tension and the solder tabs don't break off even after heavy pulling and after being bent multiple times. The bottom line is that a well built phenolic socket is much better than a cheap ceramic socket IMHO.

Cheers,
Tom

[Prairie Dawg]

I could be proven wrong but unless the chassis in those pictures has been modified or Weber has changed something, (only SonicVI knows for sure)... I am reasonably sure that is a standard MOJO chassis and possibly a MOJO eyelet board.

By the way, MOJO kits are very good and come with very nice parts, just not much documentation.

Also, after well over 1,300 5E3 kits... it is my opinion the Belton octal and preamp sockets are superior to any socket currently made that is not a dead knock off of a NOS socket.
If you can find NOS Cinch-Jones, Amphenol or Mil spec Micanol sockets at a reasonable price, well, then I guess that is OK for a home shop amp builder doing a few amps here and there but not for a commercial venture.
The Belton sockets are the way to go.
I used to do business with Nebraska Surplus Sales back in the very very early 80's when they mostly sold Military salvage and Ham radio stuff.
They got very pricey over time and I rarely even look there for parts.

I guess if you're into series production Belton may be the only game in town for molded sockets. But for my purposes I'll buy Amphenol mil spec whenever I can get my hands on them.

Belton would do well to use broader pins and anneal the metal a little in their octal sockets. The pins do not stand up to much bending and stretching before that narrow middle part calls it quits.

[SonicVI]

I could be proven wrong but unless the chassis in those pictures has been modified or Weber has changed something, (only SonicVI knows for sure)... I am reasonably sure that is a standard MOJO chassis and possibly a MOJO eyelet board.

I bought the chassis and fiberboard direct from Weber, so unless they are selling Mojo parts then they're definitely Weber. The only modifications I made were drilling the jack holes to fit the Cliff jacks and I added the ground terminal on the preamp side.

[BluesDude]

I recently built a weber kit. Based on the pictures of the OP, the chassis and board look like mine.