Fender 5E3 Deluxe Build

makepeace · 2010-08-23T19:51:36+00:00

Hi guys ? Within the next few months I'm going to be building a tube amp based on the 5E3 circuit and layout, with a couple of mods. The pre-amps, phase inverter and power stage will be stock (with a 12AY7 and a 12AX7 in the pre-amp unlike the two 12AX7 in fenders '57 reissue). My aim is to substitute the single control Fender tone-stack with a two control James stack, and to use a 5Z4 rectifier to start off with (its a cheaper 5Y3 workalike). Due to the James stack, it will probably have a single channel. James Stack: For the speaker I plan to use a Celestion G12-K80 (glowing reviews from Alan and Karel) to start off with, with the prospect of upgrading to a Greenback in the future when the budget is bigger ?. I will be getting the components and speaker from Karel, who has been excellent so far with helping me out (thanks Karel ?). The cabinet I will be building myself out of laminated meranti or pine plywood board with joists on the insides of the corners (can't be assed with finger jointing..). I'm thinking about a TV/Narrow Panel cross. It'll have the TV front, but with the Narrow Panel width and height and the angled front. Either that or it'll end up as a Narrow Panel. I quite like the aesthetic of the TV, but the functionality of the Narrow Panel (angled speaker does wonders for tone) is tops. I'm afraid that an angled TV might look funny ?. Also thought about a normal TV with an angled speaker board.. Opinions on TV vs Narrow Panel vs TV Panel vs TV angled speaker board? ? I'm still debating in my mind whether to cover it in Tweed or with one of these nice imitation leather fabrics: http://www.ugfabrics.co.za/swatchBooks/hides/Default.html. I quite like that white alligator pleather :-[. I would like your guys opinions regarding the traditional tweed vs pleather. I'm quite a purist, and would never.. retro-cover, if you will - an old amp, but seeing as this is my own build, I think it could be a cool touch ? Grill cloth will be either Mojotone's Gold Striped Oxblood: or the old brown cloth (used on the TV): This will depend on what looks good with the ultimatum of the covering material story. Ok, now for my first objective question ?. Does anybody happen to know, or would anyone be able to measure for me, the inclination of the front of a Fender combo? First prize would be the '57 Deluxe (but I'm sure any angled Fender combo will do). I'm just looking for a rough measurement so I can get designing the cabinet. Cheers, Jono

makepeace

Thanks Karel. I was looking at making the TS SWITCHable, but I realize now that the 5E3 has two channels (duh). This makes a whole lot more sense. So in essence it'll have a Tweed channel and a BMT channel, with a bit of cable jockeying. Sounds good ? Can't wait till all the parts arrive so this can get on the road.

But, unless my eyes deceive me, there is no mid pot. I guess that I just need to swap out the 6.8k resistor for a 10k pot (or 25k as Mike suggests)?

Gearhead

You can try everything out with this thing.

On the cable jockeying, why not make it with one input feeding into two channels switchable with a footswitch? It's alright to have fifties sound, but why settle for fifties flexibility?

makepeace

Cool idea Gearhead, will give it a go ?

makepeace

Ok, about the channel switching.. :-\

I've done some research, and from what I've read it looks like a rather complex issue. There is talk of LDRs, relays, transistors etc.. And then all of the problems that go with them (LDRs: loss of fidelity due to capacitance, relays: popping, etc).

Is there an easier way to do this? If not, I'm going to leave it..

MikeM

To be honest, I'd use an A/B/Y (I think it's called that) box. That way you can jump the channels too..

Gearhead

Leave out J 2, 3 and 4 plus their 68K + 1M resistors. On V1, tie pins 2 and 7 together and make an SPDT switch on pins 3 and 8 with the centre lug to the bias resistor and bypass cap. Done, no popping and less parts. If you don't believe me, ask the Guru.

makepeace

Rad. ?

Thanks Gearhead. I ask questions before shooting ?.

Would it be alright if I retained one of the extra jacks (say J2), and its auxiliary resistors? Or is that getting too complicated?

Gearhead

Meh if you want to sure you can. The point of building it custom, no? I haven't got a clue what people use these extra jacks for except for tying stacks together (and I do not have a stack let alone two).

makepeace

Cool. Shot for the info. I'll try it out and let you know if I have any gripes. The extra jack might be useful, and its space otherwise unused :-\.

Thinking about it.. it might be cool to go the manual route. I mean you could put a different guitar through each stack, one guitar through either stack or (with an adaptor) one guitar through both stacks.. or have 4 guitars rigged up to it ??? hmmm. I'll get it going and see how the combos sound before i finish the chassis.

One thing with your solution (unless i'm wrong) - is that I wouldn't be able to jump the stacks :-\

Gearhead

I did not mean tone stacks, I meant those walls of Marshall stacks that men in tights used to have in the early eighties. What they would do is run one lead into the first jack socket of the first amp, then a lead from the second jack of the first stack to the first jack of the second stack and so forth until tinnitus.

You can still jump the tone stacks with a separate switch - will have a look at that when I have time :-[

makepeace

Ah i get you. Yea I've always questioned the necessity of that.. ???

Cool thanks man, will still be a while before I get the parts from Karel anyway.

makepeace

These arrived yesterday:

rikus

Awesome! Looking good!

Where did you buy? Doesn't look like the stock I got from tubeandmore.

I'm hoping to finally wrap up my cabinet build this weekend!

makepeace

Where did you buy? Doesn't look like the stock I got from tubeandmore.

Bought here:

http://www.guitar-parts-and-spares-uk.co.uk/index.html

On a budget, and that was the cheapest I could find.. ?

makepeace

UPDATE:

Still waiting on U & G for the covering fabric and Karel for the electronics. A relative owns a building materials shop so will be getting the timber and building the cab as soon as I've got the innards working.

Question: Does anyone happen to know of a source for thin mirrored plastic (ala Fender Deluxe/DeVille etc faceplate). Preferably in the Cape. Will then get the labels printed at a screen printer in town.

Thanks!

rikus

Cool! Looking forward to updates once the action starts in earnest!

I'm assuming you've decided against tweed for covering the amp if you went to U&G. What did you decide on?

Good luck with the waiting part! ?

makepeace

Yea decided against tweed. I'm going with the cream Aligator material (pg 8 here: http://www.ugfabrics.co.za/swatchBooks/hides/Default.html). I'm hoping it won't look zany. My take on the Fender Snakeskin Deluxe ?.

Looking forward to getting this going!

rikus

I like! That is going to look killer I reckon!!

makepeace

EVENTually, the alligator (actually python ???) skin arrived..

aaaaaand

...

i'm very unhappy with it :'(

it doesn't look anything like the picture in my mind. the repetitions are about 15x30cm.. waaay too small.

so... i'm resuming the hunt.

if anyone is keen on 3000x1400 U & G, Hides Collection, Python 01 at a killer price, let me know.

makepeace

MikeM wrote Sounds like a plan man ?

Looove that Vox tonestack. I need 2 amps in my life, an AC30 and a Blackface Deluxe Reverb.

Besides that the only thing I'd say is perhaps reconsider the rectifier. Heard of an EZ81/6CA4? Runs off the regular heaters (6.3v) so you don't need 2 different lines. They're also cheap, and you can run up to 50uF in the first power filtering stage, which gives you some room to tighten up the amp if you choose to.

Also, consider having a choke wound instead of using the 5k resistor in the power filtering ?

Good luck man
Mike

Mike, I'm struggling a little to understand this.. Could you explain about the cap in the first power filter stage? Is it the first 16uF cap? What effect would varying it between 16 and 50uf have on tone (you said something about tightening)? Would I be able to increase the value using the 5Z4 recto or would I have to use the EZ81?

Thanks

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