5E3 thanks guys

[Borg54]

Hey, I would like to thank you guys for the wealth of information on the 5E3. I had no problems with the scratch building and debugging of my amplifier. I really didn?t have any questions as every thing that I need was already here. The sound is absolutely fantastic, it's a cry'in shame that most of the schematics on the net have the improper cap values and no voltages posted, @ .1uf the amp sure is bottom heavy. I?ll be loading her up tomorrow with some lower value caps to tame this beast. It?s my understanding that the .047-.022 caps are the correct ones for a balanced midrange.

Now, what can be done to increase the touch sensitivity on the preamp? I dig playing the blues and so I've got to have this feature for those moments when your just feeling it.

My power supply is a quad 1N4007 diode rectified on a center taped transformer. I have wanted to try a PS with the snubbing capacitors as depicted over at the Valve Wizard site
http://www.freewebs.com/valvewizard/fullwave.html
This PS has worked out far better that I had expected it?s not only smooth. When pushed hard you got the sag baby, it don?t need no stinking sag resister. I used the 47nf 1Kv caps. With the four diodes and the center tap Transformer, I really was expecting to let the smoke out. My Power Trans was from Matt over @Musical Power Supplies rated @285-0-285, cleaned up to 370Volts. His prices are very reasonable, and after two hot hours of use it was still cool to the touch.

[cminor9]

Hope those .022 caps worked out better for you. I too hated the .1 caps.

How's that tranny working out? I checked out that site, and I am getting ready to begin a new build. I am thinking about getting one of his power transformers.

As for touch sensitivity, that is pretty subjective. I play several guitars through my 5E3, but my fave is my dot loaded with Gibson burstbuckers. It is probably the most touch sensitive setup I have ever played. What kind of pickups are you playing through the amp? I'd think the hotter the pups, the better. That way you get a wider range. You can always touch the guitar lightly, but if you don't have the heat in your pups, there is only so hard you can hit the guitar. Or maybe you could try a clean boost?

You should check out the Bruce Collins turbo-jax. That looked pretty interesting.

[teleamp]

.... it's a cry'in shame that most of the schematics on the net have the improper cap values and no voltages posted, @ .1uf the amp sure is bottom heavy. ...

All of the 5E3 schematics I have seen on the net have been consistent. I have not seen any that are wrong. Do you have links to the ones that are wrong?

[Borg54]

You should check out the Bruce Collins turbo-jax. That looked pretty interesting.

I've look at that several times, hows that working for ya?

Tried a new tube in the V1 position, a dirt cheap Raytheon 5755. It?s wired different than a 12a?? And will take up to 12.6 on the heaters, but man did that 5E3 come alive! Has a lot of room to be tweaked and has a high MU. I plan on drawing up some curves on this tube so that I can get the most out of it.

As for the guitars the most touch sensitive one that have, I just bought it from an old customer, not sure of the model number but it?s a Hohner with dual humbuckers. I repaired it two years ago and fell in love with it. Fantastic tone comes from only a tone and vol knob. The craftsmanship is fantastic with a nice thick chunk of Brazilian rosewood on the neck, with the big frets that SRV would envy. Of all things it was robbery! They have a couple over here at Cow Town Guitars here in Las Vegas, it?s Pricy, and ballpark is around 2,500.

But my favorite of all things is an old squire H/H/S Strat. That I upgraded only because it had that FEEL! (the only thing that is original is the wood mahogany body with a perfect C maple neck toped with rosewood) running S Duncan Stagmag in the bridge, vintage cool rails mid, with the Fender Texas Special on the neck, it?s wiring nightmare. Yep me and that wood were a perfect fit, and now it sounds like a dream machine. Of all things a squire?

[Borg54]

All of my 5E3 schematics I have had now are over 15 years old. Some of the old graphics are reminiscent of an old telegraph with nothing but dots and dashes (some of them look as though they were widows draw 3.2 bitmaps) I printed them out when I had an old dot matrix printer and probably a 1400 baud modem. I just got sick and tired of putting this project off every time I went through my files. And threw it together about three weeks ago, what else do you do when your recovering from your 10th back operations?

Now IMO, I do prefer the sound of the lower valued caps. Now back in the day these old amps with the wax caps drifted pretty fast from spec. With my setup I really didn't care for the .1 caps but with the mod of .022-.047 this thing came alive without the aid of any peddles. And this is the greatest thing about building an amplifier; we get to craft the instrument that nobody else can build for us. That tone that we are always seeking really does come from the finger tips.