My 5E3 Build From Scratch

[cmattdabrat]

The board is very high quality. Designed by Rob Hull and made in Memphis, USA.

I agree. It's a very well done quality PCB made here in the good ol US of A. I had thought about making a board from scratch, but for a first time build it seemed to be the no brainer way to go. That I have no desire to make an exact clone. I'm just looking for great tone, AND that's what I got!

I have never understood the "harsh and brittle" criticism of caps and resistors. What did those parts change about the amp that a simple twist of a treble knob couldn't cure? Just wondering.

My project is now finished, and it's not brittle at all. IMO, the sound is just right. I've been keeping the tone knob right around 6-7 or 11 - 12 o' clock.

+++
But... I have heard amps increase in fidelity with a change to the caps and resistors. In my case it was a Marshall JMP MKII. This thing was trashed but sounded OK. Since it wasn't (at the time) a very collectible Marshall I salvaged the mustard caps and changed them for orange drops. I replaced all the preamp resistors with metal film. The amp was notably brighter. I can't explain it but having heard it for myself, well... But, as noted, turning the treble down two digits worked fine as a fix. Also worthy of note, the amp was much quieter with less hiss after the work.

EDIT: Matt, which orange drops did you get? There are two commonly sold. 225P is polyester and the 715P is polypropylene.

Loving that hammerite finish BTW. Now if you can find some old bakelite knobs you'll complete the look.

The caps are 715P. The smaller one between the .1 uFs is a 716P. What's the difference in the 715P vs 716P?

Thanks, I'm really loving the hammered finished myself. It's something a little different.



This weekend I finished my build and it sounds great!!! I'm loving it. I can't play it enough, although I've really only got to play it for about an hour or so.

Sounds quality: This is by far the nicest sounding amp I've owned yet. The cleans are clear, nice tight bass, with just the right amount of mids and highs for my liking. It faithfully reproduces the natural sound of my Lonestar Strat.

The distortion is warm, smooth and very organic sounding. It has just the right amount of gain / distortion for the type of music I play. I have a pair of 12AX7's in the preamp.

As it sits now, I have a Texas Heat speaker in it and I'm convinced I made the right choice. It handles the output with ease and sounds great. I may try other speakers later on, but don't fix what ain't broke.

Headroom. This thing has plenty for my needs. Any more and I don't think my ears will be able to handle it. As it sits now with 6V6's and a GZ34 rectifier, it has 18 - 20w output. I'll put that to an official test soon.

Overall, I'm very pleased and the amp is VERY quite. I'm in love.


Troubleshooting: I did however have to do some minor troubleshooting. After checking the wiring a few times, I plugged the amp in with no tubes and did the smoke test. No smoke, so I plugged the tubes in. No smoke.

To begin with, I did have just a little buzz when it was turned on. I used a wooden dowel to probe around and I quickly found the problem. I found that the buzz went away when I pushed the wire away that went from the middle of the tone pot to one of the preamp tubes. It seemed when it was close to the power tubes it would buzz. So I tucked it further away and is now VERY quite.

I also ran into another problem. As I turned the amp up the bass rattled the first preamp tube making the amp crackle. A simple swap of the preamp tubes cured this.


Onto the finished shots. I tried taking more pictures along the way, but I just got so into the build, I forgot. I really love how it came out.

My version of a Fender HotRod Deluxe.

The carbon fiber material was very difficult to work with. I had to tape the trim edges to keep it from coming about / sheering. It also was very easy to knock the "weave alignment" out of wack.

I used some 3M industrial spray adhesive to glue on the carbon fiber cloth.




As you see, it's gets messy quick. It's kinda like working with fiberglass cloth.




Here it is all wired up. I tried to make it as neat as possible.




I'm very pleased with how it came together. It's not perfect, but still came out very well.






Getting the grill cloth right, wasn't too bad. It's not perfect as well, but it came out really decent. The grill cloth is nice and tight too, as it should be.




My Lonestar Strat and the 5E3+ (Carbon Fiber Twill Deluxe).

[cmattdabrat]

Here's a quick video of the appearance. I'll get some videos of the sound soon, but I don't think the pictures do the effect of the carbon fiber justice. Maybe this will help.

[Chuck H]

Sweet

[redelephant]

Very nice man. Can't believe your mom let you do the covering in the living room.

Did you use epoxy with the carbonfiber or just the 3M spray? I have done some glass and carbonfiber with epoxy and it is like you said, difficult not to mess up the fibers.

Good work.

[cmattdabrat]

Very nice man. Can't believe your mom let you do the covering in the living room.

Did you use epoxy with the carbonfiber or just the 3M spray? I have done some glass and carbonfiber with epoxy and it is like you said, difficult not to mess up the fibers.

Good work.

Thanks! LOL, I haven't lived with my mom since I was 16. I'm 30 now and own my own home. Although, my wife makes most of the decorating decisions, so I could see why you thought I was living with my Mom.

I only used the 3M spray and some Elmer's Glue All all the edges to bond the fibers down. I may epoxy it later. I'm going to see how the edges / cut lines hold up. I'm thinking it'll be fine as is cause I used almost a full can if spray adhesive on just this cab. Yeah, it was pretty difficult to work with. I just had to be really careful when working with it. It looks really cool though.

EDIT: Just incase you're wondering, I did spray it outside. One side at a time and then brought it in to work on.

[Chuck H]

Just for future projects... It's good that you painted the cabinet prior to covering as this will help secure the adhesive preventing solvent absorbtion into the porous wood. But since that 3M spray is basically rubber cement the proper application is to spray adhesive on both surfaces to be joined and allowed to tack slightly before joining. Now to put you at some ease, I have used that product more casually than you have here and still managed good lasting results.

[cmattdabrat]

Thanks for the tips, Chuck H. I didn't even think about how the wood would soak up the adhesive solvents.

I'm a graphic designer with over 12 years experience and we use spray mount quite often. It took me a few years of using spray mount to really get a handle of how to properly use spray adhesive effectively without things eventually coming apart do to the humidity here.

I've found that things tend to want to come up at the edges. So what I do is spray a light to medium amount on the material you're wanting to mount and spray a medium to heavy amount on the mounting surface (ie, matte board, or amp in this case). What I look for is a nice build up of film / adhesive. I'll let it dry for about a minute so some of the solvents will evaporate and so the cement will start to tack up. I then go back and spray another coat only around the edges. Let that sit for about 30 seconds and then apply the material. As you know, you only have one shot to get it right once you lay it down. I'll use a roller to get everything nice and flat. I'll work from the center out.

I've also found that 3M's industrial spray adhesive in the plan white can works much better than say Super 77. If properly applied, you'll pull the wood up trying to remove the material.

Oh, one last thing. Bestine works wonders to remove spray mounted, anything. Just wipe on some Bestine, let the material soak it up, and it'll pull right up. If there's a section that doesn't want to come up, just pour on some more Bestine and it'll eventually come up. I believe paint store sell it in the can, but we use it quite a bit to remove spray mounted graphics so we can reuse presentation boards. It evaporates quickly too so there's no traces of it left. It's also great for cleaning up overspray.

Bestine Solvent & Thinner, Art Material, Best-Test Rubber Cement Products, Best-Test Paper Cement: Best-Test Products - Union Rubber, Inc.

[Chuck H]

Both surfaces, tack, stick 'em together. Just like you did it. That's a good tip on the edges and the alternative product. I hope the guys at the "cabinet" forum are seeing this, as well as your very cool covering.

[Gibsonman63]

Very nice looking build. Thanks for sharing.

[No457 Snowy]

Great work mate.

I agree with your overview of the amp sounds, and the Texas Heat is a geat match for it too. While that particular kit may not be a strictly traditional build it sure ends up building into a real tone machine, no bass flab, not too bright, not too bassy and with a little more grunt and volume for gigs.

Snowy

[cmattdabrat]

Maybe posting a thread with some of this information would be good. There's some good tips here that might get buried in the fact it's another 5E3 build. Some of the things that come to mind are; properly spray mounting, removing spray mounted material for recovering or to fix a mistake (ie, Bestine), and an alternate amp cover (ie carbon fiber).

I'm sure you saw the pictures where I got the idea, the fender amp and John Mayer's signature amp, but I'm surprised it hasn't been attempted by other hobby builders. It could be because of it's cost ($40 + $15 S&H for a 60" x 36" piece on eBay) and difficulty to apply. I searched and only found the idea of building a carbon fiber cabinet, which is much more difficult and time consuming.

Another alternative for carbon fiber is the vinyl material called DI-NOC Carbon Fiber Vinyl. 3M makes some and it's much easier to work with and it's cheaper. BTW, the Fender amp I posted earlier was cover with this material. Still looks pretty neat, IMO.

3M DI-NOC Carbon Fiber Vinyl | Carbon Fiber Gear

[cmattdabrat]

Great work mate.

I agree with your overview of the amp sounds, and the Texas Heat is a geat match for it too. While that particular kit may not be a strictly traditional build it sure ends up building into a real tone machine, no bass flab, not too bright, not too bassy and with a little more grunt and volume for gigs.

Snowy

Exactly. Not a traditional kit entirely, but the end results are what I would consider traditional tones and a traditional look. That and you have more headroom for more modern day band needs.

[Tom Phillips]

Matt,
Great work man. I think you should get an award for best all around combination of:
1) Major sub assemblies made by the builder from scratch
2) Fast start to finish product
3) Good looking workmanship
Cheers,
Tom

[Tage]

I'm liking that carbon fiber, looks like a very well put together project.

As far as the difference between 716P's and 715's all Vishay really says is that the 716's are a high performance version of 715's.

I hope you enjoy this one for a long time.

[cmattdabrat]

Matt,
Great work man. I think you should get an award for best all around combination of:
1) Major sub assemblies made by the builder from scratch
2) Fast start to finish product
3) Good looking workmanship
Cheers,
Tom

Thanks for the kind words! How long does it normally take most people to complete one of these projects? I do feel like I kinda whipped through it. It was enjoyable and I couldn't put the soldering iron down.

I'm liking that carbon fiber, looks like a very well put together project.

As far as the difference between 716P's and 715's all Vishay really says is that the 716's are a high performance version of 715's.

I hope you enjoy this one for a long time.

Thank you. Thanks for clarifying that. I read that the 716's were a little higher end, but didn't quite know the difference.

So far it's holding up great and no problems. I see it lasting a lifetime being that I built it and can fix any problems that may arise. I can't get enough of the tone that comes out of these things. They're very true to the tone of the plugged in guitar.