My 5E3 Build From Scratch

[Tom Phillips]

...How long does it normally take most people to complete one of these projects?

There is no precise answer to that question but most people would take much much longer.

BTW one of significant feature of the 716P is solid copper tinned leads vs the steel / copper plated & tinned leads of the 715.

[loudthud]

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

The 715P has copper plated steele leads. The 716P has pure copper leads so the ESR is slightly lower. I found this out when I was working on a project that required the caps to pass quite a bit of current at 133kHz. The Spragues worked with a problem. The film caps that were tried melted.

[cmattdabrat]

Cool. Thanks for informing me.

[Gibsonman63]

For some, troubleshooting and voicing the amp takes longer than building.

[überfuzz]

...voicing the amp takes longer than building.

As long as there life there's voicing.

[cmattdabrat]

That's makes sense. I already have some ideas for voicing, but using mini switches to go from stock to ... whatever. That wont be until later down the road.

I'm fist going to give it a try on my crybaby wah. I plan to use mini switches to go from the stock resistor / cap voicing to moded.

[cmattdabrat]

Just a quick little update. I originally installed a pair of 12AX7s when I built the amp. I noticed when I got past 7 or 8, the tube saturation and compression was just too much. I intentionally bought two 12AX7s knowing I have a pair of 12AY7s in my EH English Muff'n. That and I've always wanted to try a 12AX7 in the V1 of my Muff'n to give it a little extra gain.

Now that I've swapped in a 12AY7 in the V1 position, as per the original setup, it's a whole different animal. Much, much better! It doesn't lose it's definition when dimed like it did with a 12AX7. It just got too muddy. Now, I can run it wide open and it retains it's clarity much better. The only cool thing about having had a 12AX7 in the V1 position is it would break up much, much sooner so I could get more gain at lower volumes, and there was more available gain overall. A little too much gain for my tastes though. Although, I could see using a 12AX7 for certain situations. 1) If you wanted more gain at lower volumes. 2) To get that heavy saturation for that muddy sound.

The cool thing is, having swapped out the V1 tube in my pedal with the 12AX7, I now have more available gain in my tube pedal. So if I need more of a Marshall gain, all have to do is just kick on the Muff'n.

[cmattdabrat]

BTW, I just finished creating a demo of my amp. It wasn't very well thought out and I probably should've done it when I wasn't so worn out after work. It would've made for a better demo of the amp and I would've been more creative with my licks or chords use. I basically just fiddled around with the amp at different setting. I kept the Tone know at about 6-7 the whole time. I wish I would've changed it up a little, but I'm sure everyone knows what a tone knob does.

Enjoy!

YouTube - 5E3 57 Fender Tweed Deluxe Demo AKA Carbon Twill Deluxe

[Modern Saint]

That is awesome! I don't the metal or cabinetry skills but I love the way you did it. I want to build a 5E3 now from - semi scratch (cabinet and chassis bought).

[überfuzz]

Nice build dude! Vintage tone out of a state of the art cabinet.

(You've got some high pitched tone on the vid that interfere with my tinnitus. Not nice...)

[cmattdabrat]

That is awesome! I don't the metal or cabinetry skills but I love the way you did it. I want to build a 5E3 now from - semi scratch (cabinet and chassis bought).

Thank you! My cabinetry and metal skills are okay at best. For a first build, I'm happy it came out so well. I would recommend doing a 5E3. It was lots of fun. Only reason I built everything I could was to save some money. Just be sure to take your time so you don't have to back and fix something after the initial fire up so you don't have to worry about shock and you should be fine.

Nice build dude! Vintage tone out of a state of the art cabinet.

(You've got some high pitched tone on the vid that interfere with my tinnitus. Not nice...)

Thanks! LOL, I know what you mean. I just may put the 12AX7 back in the V2 position so I don't have to crank the amp so much to get some crunch. It's a little too loud dimed, even with it only being 18 watts.

[vxexec350]

That amp came up very well, I hope mine turns out that well, I wont be making my own chassis like you, my hat is off to you man.

[sjturbo]

Great Job!! It's nice to see "from scratch" and thinking outside the box when it comes to tweed or tolex. The carbon fiber is way outside the box, I wonder if it comes in tweed .

[cmattdabrat]

That amp came up very well, I hope mine turns out that well, I wont be making my own chassis like you, my hat is off to you man.

Thank you very much! I'm still using it as my primary amp with no backup. I've played it at numerous gigs and practices this past year+ I've had it. If I had to guess, It's probably got about 350+ hrs on it.

The carbon fiber has taken a beating, but looks great even with the wear. You can tell it's been used and is a work horse.

[cmattdabrat]

Great Job!! It's nice to see "from scratch" and thinking outside the box when it comes to tweed or tolex. The carbon fiber is way outside the box, I wonder if it comes in tweed .

LOL, I think these do come in tweed. There's not many amps out there with carbon fiber covering. I would recommend spraying it with some lacquer if I had to do it all over again. The fibers from the carbon twill sure can become itchy.