My endless fight with 5E3x2.. (5e5a!?A?)

[axpro]

I think i have it figured out.....


I built a 5e3x2... and i really don't like it. I liked the 5e3 i tried (fender reissue) but wanted more clean headroom... so i built a 5e3x2 head.

I don't like it...

I know a lot of people dig it, but i just don't dig the tweed early breakup thing. I prefer more... A LOT MORE!!! clean headroom. and the fact that i used the 5e3 with a stock open back 1x12, and the only speaker cab i have for the head is a 4x12 closed back doesn't help it.

I've messed with a few other circuits, mostly based on blackface specs.... but I think i got it now.

5E5A.

The tone stack and NFB lower the overall gain and should give a little more clean headroom. The mixing resistors after the volume controls should seperate the channels a little better for me.

I really wish i had a 1x15 open back speaker for it, but I'll try the circuit and see if it "does its thang" for me as it sits.

yet ANOTHER rebuild of this poor 5e3

Anyone else build a 5e5a?

[Dave H]

The 5E3 doesn’t really have a lot of gain. The early breakup on the volume control is because the pots are wired ‘backwards’. If you rewire the pots as conventional potential divider volume controls and add mixing resistors it will be more controllable and break up more towards the clockwise end of the pot. I’d also reduce the value of the coupling capacitors between tube plates and vol pots to reduce the bass and ‘tune’ it to your speaker cab.

[Crumpletone]

I have built many double deluxes and voiced them according to the buyers taste.
I do disagree with Dave H in one respect and that is there is a ton of gain available in a 5E3 if you want it there. easily enough to drive the power tubes inside out.

a lot of the mods i've employed have come from the work done by people like Bruce Collins and others on this site and have been invaluable and a lot of it has come from a love of the tweed sound and my own tweaks to get the version of that sound that i like, it's all about personal taste at the end of the day.

The suggestions regarding the summing resistors and coupling caps are absolutely spot on.
On the last head i built, the V1 cathodes were split, 820R and 4.7nf for one and 2k2 and 0.68mf for the second, the summing resistors were 220k and the coupling caps 0.47 for the normal channel and 0.22 for the bright channel.
I also internally jumpered the inputs, this gives 2 blendable inputs which can also be used independantly and i moved the tone control to post PI, rather like a vox style cut control, very subtle but usable in the context of what i wanted.
I sounds huge and can go from small stage volume clean to out and out grind.
Don't be afraid to experiment with preamp voltages as these can make a massive amount of difference to the response of the amp, same with the power tube plate voltages.

Not exactly for the purist but infinately more useable. not exactly a 5E3 anymore but it certainly has the vibe.