Two tweed builds and both are a bit too dynamic

[Wrnchbndr]

I've built five 5E3s and three 5F8As and a 5F6...

http://image60.webshots.com/460/7/61...8qsuVuc_ph.jpg

Both amps are phenominal and I've had some success in selling them and breaking better than even for money invested in parts -- not so much the labor but as long as the return enables me to build and learn more I'm winning.

I have two problems. One is that I need to add reverb and I'm working on that. The other is that these amps are quite a bit more dynamic than most. I look at it this way: They will make an accomplished player sound better by reproducing every nuance in style and phrasing. But they will also make an intermediate player sometimes sound worse by illuminating every mistake. I want these amps to satisfy the desires of more clients so I can build more.

Is there a known simple way to dumb the response down? I suppose I'm talking about a bit of dynamic compression. The optimal solution would be an adjustable pot. The result would be a type of non-linear gain I guess.

I dig the tone and performance of these amps and have done a bit of trying my hand at my own circuit mods such as using 6L6s in the 5E3 with success (PT and OT from a bassman). There is no better way to learn about these other than trying something new.

[J M Fahey]

Put car speakers on them.
Search for names such as : Bomber / Maniac / Road Warrior / Nuclear / Pumper / Terminator / etc. attached.
Gold plated, green or pink fluo, camouflage painted frames help a lot.
Dustcaps larger than the cone also help to kill dynamics a lot.
With all that, even ME could play and not feel embarrased, who would notice?

[Steve Conner]

The other is that these amps are quite a bit more dynamic than most. I look at it this way: They will make an accomplished player sound better by reproducing every nuance in style and phrasing. But they will also make an intermediate player sometimes sound worse by illuminating every mistake.

That's exactly why accomplished players buy tube amps.

To make newbies sound better, you need excessive gain and a big midrange scoop, so nobody can quite make out what they're playing. That market segment is already well catered for.

[Bruce / Mission Amps]

That's exactly why accomplished players buy tube amps.

To make newbies sound better, you need excessive gain and a big midrange scoop, so nobody can quite make out what they're playing. That market segment is already well catered for.

Hey!! Didn't we already have a thread, similar in notion, going with respect to buzz-bomb OD EL84 amps! ha ha

[overdrive]

To make newbies sound better, you need excessive gain and a big midrange scoop, so nobody can quite make out what they're playing. That market segment is already well catered for.

Ain't that the truth...& perhaps one of the reasons why walking into one of the countless Guitar Center stores usually amounts to a deafening roar of nothingness.

[Steve Conner]

Yes, I believe we did have a thread like that Bruce

I remember 20+ years ago when I started playing electric guitar. My first axe was a second-hand Tokai Strat clone, and I hated the clean sound of the guitar on its own. I just wanted hotter pickups, more gain, more distortion and more woofy bass.

Now I mostly like to play clean. I can hear all the mistakes I make, but that inspires me to make less of them.

The amps mentioned in the original post are probably all at their best when you let them rip at a gig. They don't start to cook until you turn them up pretty loud. If you sold one to a bedroom guitarist, he would hate it. It would be completely clean at any volume he could make use of, and that might well seem too dynamic.

Of course you could use the amp at home with a distortion pedal, and then let it overdrive naturally at the gig. But if you don't gig, it would be like having a Ferrari and only driving it to the grocery store.

[lasikukko]

Have you succeeded adding the reverb to your tweeds?
I have built 5e3 clones with reverb and using original tube
line up. If you don't need Deep surfstyle reverb, tap little bit
of signal from the speaker output to reverb tank and bring it
to other input channel. You have to adjust the amount of low end
to and from the tank and maybe add a little series recistance, but
thisway the circuit retains its signature tone. Other way i have Done
5e3 reverb is to use solidstate driver for the tank...please let us know
how you are going to do it

[Chuck H]

Dumbing down the dynamic response is what all the budget commercial amps do. It involves smaller coupling caps and smaller bypass caps usually combined with copious top end "bleeder" caps that all amounts to shoving the amps response into the midrange area. You can look at the schem for any Blues Junior or Hot Rod Deluxe and get the idea. There's no rule that says you have to take it all the way, so you could use slightly smaller coupling and bypass caps and fewer bleeder circuits with smaller cap values as an experiment. The big rub is that the amps you mention really do come into focus when pushed into overdrive. Sometimes with too much low end and there are many tweaks discussed here to address that. But when you push the average commercial amp into power tube distortion it just sounds like a boxy, muddy mess of garble. The more you tweak any amp to narrow the dynamics the greater this effect on the tone.

JM2C

Chuck