5e3 Build - Weber Copper Cap

[BluesDude]

My kit came with a Copper Cap. I have a question.

Does the Copper Cap negatively affect the characteristics of the amp (e.g., sag)? What has been your experience?

Thanks

[Jammin'John]

CC

No negatives.
Just like real ones the CC's are all different.
The 5y3,5u4,5v4,5r4 one have different amounts of sag.
The 5ar4 one has very little sag and there are other models with no sag.
The only ones you would use with a 5e3 are the 5y3 or 5v4 equivalents.

JJ

[hasserl]

My experiences are like John's, the copper caps mimic fairly closely the tube rectifiers they are modeled after. Not exactly, but pretty close. However, I have had one of them fail on me, left my amp dead. I haven't opened it up, but if you shake it you can hear parts inside that have come loose rattling around. And I've seen photos of some CC's that failed in the same way. It's not like tubes don't fail either, but rectifiers tend to be pretty long life, and I've gone back to using all tube rectifiers instead of CC's. One thing to note here, the CC's do have the high B+ voltage applied to them, parts dislodging inside of them potentially could come into contact with the outter shell, exposing anyone that may reach around behind the amp and grab ahold of it to the high voltage. I'm not saying you shouldn't use them, but if the amp suddenly dies, please shut the power off before you grab ahold of the CC!!