My 5E3 Build From Scratch

[cmattdabrat]

Hey guys,

Here's the start of my 5E3 Tweed Deluxe build. This is my first amp build and I'm doing it from scratch. I will be hand building my own cabinet and hand selecting each part that goes into this build. This amp will become my primary gigging amp. I play 2-3 a times month in a cover band and I feel this amp will fit the bill.

My tools and budget is fairly limited so I'll be building the cabinet with hand tools and will be borrowing a couple tools here and there from buddies / work to complete this project.

Here is the start of the cabinet. I'm using solid pine for the cab and birch ply for the baffle boards.






I drafted out all the cuts onto the wood and then cut the pieces on the table saw here at work. I'm currently working on hand cutting the dovetail joints. It's going okay. The joints fit together tightly and make a strong joint, but it's not as pretty as dovetail joints done by someone more experienced or by machine tools. That's okay though. It'll be my creation and I'm enjoying the build so far. I've built a few car sub cabs before and I was always best at covering the cab with carpet. So the end results should come out looking nice. I'll definitely be taking my time with this one.

I'm still mauling over certain mods for the layout of the circuitry and getting advice from more experience people. BTW, feel free to make any suggestions along the way. Chuck H will be shooting me a mod to consider so I'll have the ability to swap in 6L6s, after a bias check / adjust, for more headroom when needed.

After some research, I've found that the way TubeDepot.com has their 5E3 build laid out, you can basically do this same thing but you have to use 500V filter caps in order to use 5881 / 6L6 tubes and you have to swap in a solid state rectifier in place of the tube rec.

Whatever route I choose to go, it should be a pretty versatile amp for my needs.


Matt

[Gibsonman63]

Thanks for posting. I am considering an 5E3 build myself later this year and it is always enlightening to follow someone else's build.

I am also in Houston and would like to hear how this sounds in a gig situation when you finish.

[cmattdabrat]

Thanks for posting. I am considering an 5E3 build myself later this year and it is always enlightening to follow someone else's build.

I am also in Houston and would like to hear how this sounds in a gig situation when you finish.

Sounds good. Once I'm finished with the build, feel free to come hear this thing in action. Here's our bands site, still under construction. Go to the gigs page and we have some of our upcoming gigs listed there. We're currently still booking up our calendar year so more will show up soon.

Saturday Nite Palsy Redirect

[No457 Snowy]

Looking good mate. Keep posting the updates as you go, you are doing it the right way, with lots of research. I'm sure your amp will turn out great.

PS. I just placed an order for the Tube Depot kit with some upgraded components, (F&T caps and Sprague Orange Drops), anyway, if you decide to go that route it would be good to compare notes.

Either way, it's going to be a really satisfying experience both in the building and every time you play the amp, I hope it turns out exactly how you want it.

Snowy.

[überfuzz]

Off topic - Build a spring reverb while you're at it. That way you don't have to mess about with delays and other weird stuff.

On topic - Respect! I only rebuild stuff I find in the dumpster. Keep us updated...

[cmattdabrat]

Thanks, Snowy.

I'm still really leaning towards the Tube Depot kit cause of how user friendly it is for a first time builder and the mods you can easily do to this kit. I've pieced together all the parts from their pdf, which has also made it easier. Just from some of the research I've done, looks like I'll be going with F&T caps and Orange Drops as well. So our builds should be fairly similar.

I also plan to buy an extra pair of 5881 or 6L6 tubes and a solid state rectifier from them to try one of their mods for some extra head room when needed. According to their Mods sheet, all you need is 500v filters caps.

I'm pretty excited about the build.


Matt

P.S. How did you go about ordering the kit with the upgrades? Did you just purchase everything separately?

[cmattdabrat]

Great suggestion. I may do that as a mod later down the road. For now, I'm going to keep it simple.

Haha! You're about to see some southern engineering at it's best. I'm going to get creative when it comes to clamping the wood.

[cmattdabrat]

Quick update. I finished cutting all of the dovetail joints by hand and have the box clamped. I'm going to let it dry for 24 hours and then I hit it with the belt sander at work to square and level the edges.

I don't have large clamps and don't have the money to splurge on clamps right now, so I had to improv a little. She's nice and level and should have plenty of clamping force, I would think. If this doesn't kill the box, it'll hold up for many years to come.

[cmattdabrat]

I don't know if I mentioned this, but I've been tossing around the idea of covering my cab with twill 2x2 carbon fiber and painting the chassis flat black. Well, I decided it would be cool to make the chassis too so I'm going to go ahead with the carbon fiber theme. May powder coat the chassis flat black if it's not too expensive. Otherwise I have some high temp flat black rattle can engine paint laying around I could use.

So I started building my chassis, from scratch. I used some plans to make a full size template so it'll be a piece of cake to cut out and to get the holes drilled in the right places. Attached is that template.

Here's a print out of the template.




Here's a piece of sheet metal the engineers here at work had in their scrap pile. It's 18 gauge. Should be plenty strong enough. They cut it down to size for me. Here in a moment I'm going to borrow their sand blaster to clean it up. Then I'll start cutting it out and drilling holes.




More soon...

[cmattdabrat]

And here's the steel sandblasted. Ready for cutting and drilling. I also made a quick video.




YouTube - Sandblasting my 5E3 Chassis to be

[No457 Snowy]

Thanks, Snowy.

I'm still really leaning towards the Tube Depot kit cause of how user friendly it is for a first time builder and the mods you can easily do to this kit. I've pieced together all the parts from their pdf, which has also made it easier. Just from some of the research I've done, looks like I'll be going with F&T caps and Orange Drops as well. So our builds should be fairly similar.

I also plan to buy an extra pair of 5881 or 6L6 tubes and a solid state rectifier from them to try one of their mods for some extra head room when needed. According to their Mods sheet, all you need is 500v filters caps.

I'm pretty excited about the build.


Matt

P.S. How did you go about ordering the kit with the upgrades? Did you just purchase everything separately?

Matt, I just emailed them and asked for a quote if I took the standard kit and listed the parts I wanted to omit (Power cord, Speaker, Filter caps, Coupling caps, etc), then listed the parts I wanted them to substitute in. They did the numbers then emailed back.

Snowy

[cmattdabrat]

Matt, I just emailed them and asked for a quote if I took the standard kit and listed the parts I wanted to omit (Power cord, Speaker, Filter caps, Coupling caps, etc), then listed the parts I wanted them to substitute in. They did the numbers then emailed back.

Snowy

Thanks, Snowy. I went ahead and ordered my parts for the amp (trannies, resistors, PCB board, caps, etc.) as well as the parts for the cabinet (handle, grill cloth, feet) from mojotone.com. I have some carbon fiber fabric on it's way as well, which I bought on eBay.

[cmattdabrat]

I got some more work done on the amp this weekend. I glued the face boards onto the cabinet as well as the cleats. I had to fix a couple chips in the wood I made when I was hand making the dovetail joints, which were done by hand using a standard hard back saw. I used some wood glue and saw dust to fix it.




I then took it to work and used the belt and disc sander to level the joints.




It didn't come out too shabby for a first time making dovetail joints.






I then glued the 1/4" strips to the baffle board and painted it black. Next, I borrowed my buddies router to round the edges of the cabinet. Now it's starting to look like a finished guitar cabinet. I'm sure most guys don't do this, but I figured it was a good idea, so I used a little seam sealer as well on the inside of the cab to make it a little more air tight.






Last but not least, I worked on the chassis some more. I lightly spray mounted the template onto the steel, which will easily come off with some Bestine. I drilled all the holes except the tube holes cause I didn't have the correct size. Hopefully they have one here at work. Today, I'm going to the chassis on the sheet metal bender, which they'll have to show me how to use.




More soon...

[No457 Snowy]

Very nice work, it looks great. Did you go with typical Deluxe dimensions for the cab (16" x 20" x 9.5"), it looks like it from the pics.

Snowy

[cmattdabrat]

Thanks, Snowy. I went with the traditional dimensions of 16" x 20" x 9.5".

I managed to finish the chassis here at work on their sheet metal break. Here are few pictures.