5E3 Tweed Deluxe cab options

springhead

Thank you!  After three coats it was looking a bit blotchy.  The sanding and two more coats really helped.  Should all be finished by next weekend.  Then I'll just be watching for our elderly neighbour to go out so I can wind it up!

kreggs

This is great!. Been a while since theres been a detailed amp build thread  on here unless I missed it. Looking sweet!

menamestom

Looks good!   Can’t wait to start mine, when funds permit.  

springhead

Yes, it's not a cheap project.  But then you will be ending up with an excellent amp at a fraction of what what you would have paid off the shelf.  Nearest equivalent from Fender would be an Edge Deluxe I guess wihch is nudging £2K. Mines more than I bargained for but I'll probably sell my old tweed Pro Junior which will part fund it - although at the moment it's sounding good through the deluxe cabinet/blue! 

Todays progress was building a variable power board and bolting/wiring it in.  I'm going to run the amp without it first, to make sure all's working ok, then put it into circuit.



Looking forward to seeing pic's of your build when you get going.

springhead

Board built and ready to fit:



Photo shows up flux spots from soldering, I'll give it a clean up.

I'm going to fit the 0.022uF coupling cap directly on the V2 valve base, hence the unused turret. 
On the first filter cap I've got a link to the 4K7 dropper.  That'll be removed when I've got it working and I'll bring the variable power output in there.  The output transformer centre tap will come off the same point (4K7). 

Don't know if it makes any odds but I worked out the foil direction on the coupling caps and oriented them accordingly. Two of them ran one way with respect to the writing and two the other, hence I paired them as you see. Never bothered before but I'm keen to see how quiet I can make this amp, without going too overboard.

The resistors are all Vishay 2W metal film.  I've got some carbon comp's I might try later just on V2, i.e. the 100K V2A anode load and the 2 x 56K's on V2B.  Maybe also the 2 x 220K grid leaks.  I've always used carbon or metal film on other builds but might be fun once it's working to see if it makes any difference (apart from noise).
 

springhead

Got the board partially wired in but I'm waiting on the output transformer to arrive before I finish that.

Thought I'd test the variable power board in advance of finishing the build.  I strapped one 16uF cap across the rectifier output and put a DMM at that point and another downstream of the mosfet.  Light bulb limiter in place and buttocks firmly clenched...



440V ish raw output, no load.  Power control varies that down to about 70V. This was halfway up, 286V.

Transformer should hopefully arrive next week then I might get some sound out of it!
 

IvisonGuitars

springhead said:

Two deliveries today.  Beautiful cabinet from Chris at RiftAmps and a Celestion Blue from Lean Audio




Also been getting the mains transformer ready to go in.  Just a few turns on a hand drill gets a good symmetrical twist, however the wire will want to untwist again.  So I strap the drill handle in place and dangle it - the weight over a few hours makes the wire (actually the insulation) 'remember' and hold the twist.

Never mind the amp, what’s the skinny  on that DC Special lurking behind?!

springhead

Ha!  That's my no. 1 guitar, had it about 25 years now.  It's late 1960, judging by the serial number, skinny neck and the moulding inside the reflector knobs.  However it's got '59 pots and still says "Les Paul Special" on the headstock which is unusual. No breaks, original apart from some very old looking Grovers and a repro lightweight pigtail bridge/stoptail.  The original was very grooved and choking the G/B strings so I swapped it out.

It had an outing to the LPF meet in Stockport last year where we had about 12 juniors and specials from '55 to '60 and hence a gloriously loud P90 shoot out through an amazing sounding Gartone Tweed Deluxe, which is what inspired this build. My special was not quite as beefy sounding as some of the early Juniors, more detailed, less compressed.  Pretty similar to a DC 59 special that was there.  It made a wonderful sound through the Gartone.

Lebarque

^ I can imagine. P90 bridge pickup through a tweed deluxe = rock'n'roll tonal heaven!

springhead

So, the amp is finished, pretty much.  Had a few hum issues which I've mostly cracked now.  Had to rotate the mains transformer 180 degrees as I was getting hum induction into the output transformer.  That helped but I'm not sure how quiet these amps usually are so maybe I'm going above and beyond - I ultimately fixed by putting a little mu-metal shield between the two transformers.  I've also experimented with ground locations and have reduced the hum a little more that way.

So now, a bit of hum with either Volume on 0 which fades as you turn up - that normal for these amps or is that a clue to possibly a poor ground somewhere?

The variable power works well.  I think it'll be useful at a gig or rehearsal to take the level down a little and preserve the tone.  You can knock it right back and whilst it doesn't get fizzy like an attenuator might it loses the tone somewhat.

Planning on taking it to a rehearsal room so I can properly crank it beyond domestic levels but from the few brief loud moments I've tried with it I think it's going to be a winner.  It absolutely loves a Strat, match made in heaven.  Can get a bit ragged and wooly with humbuckers but I think that's par for the course with these.

I've played around with valves a little.  Currently an NOS Phillips 5Y3, a pair of new Tung-Sol 6V6GT's, a Mullard 12AX7 (yep, marked as such, not ECC83) and a TAD 12AY7.  I've got a NOS pair of CBS Hytron 6V6's but in early tests one was pulling a fair bit more current than the other.  Might re-visit those. 

Here's a couple of pic's:



Power control is in the Ground/Standy hole.

MtB

Nice build !

Gentle word of warning from someone who has built the same (with a Tayden Ace), and then thought yeah, upgrade to 6L6 power:

a) you need to be sure that your trannies are up to it - and...

b) you are likely going to need to make a new speaker baffle - as a 6L6 may well snag the speaker bell (does in my case !). Looks like it will in your case as well.

RiftAmps

MtB said:

Nice build !

Gentle word of warning from someone who has built the same (with a Tayden Ace), and then thought yeah, upgrade to 6L6 power:

a) you need to be sure that your trannies are up to it - and...

b) you are likely going to need to make a new speaker baffle - as a 6L6 may well snag the speaker bell (does in my case !). Looks like it will in your case as well.

Or just use short-bottle 6L6s

springhead

6L6's could be tempting, and yes the transformers would be ok with that.  I need to live with it for a while stock, try it with the band etc.  before doing any tweaking.  Smaller PI - PA coupling caps could be on the cards once I've got to know it a bit.

JerkMoans

Newcomer to the party, but fascinating thread and that tweedy piece of rock n roll loveliness looks amazing!

Can only imagine how satisfying it must be to build it for yourself!

springhead

Thank you!  Satisfying yes, frustrating at times too.  Trying to get an even non-blotchy shellac coating isn't easy.  And there's always niggles of having to drill another hole or re-wire something when you've got it all neat and tidy. 

Pretty much there though apart from some residual hum and noise which is probably typical for these but it's noticable in a quiet home environment - would been more than fine for a gig. 

I also need to find somewhere I can run it at gig level and get a proper feel for the distortion - that might show up any lurking problems.  Like fizz in note tails that can be any number of things.  I'll probably pony up for a rehearsal room and give it a good thrash.

kreggs

Congrats! Nice looking build. I have a bit of hum on my build at idle. Its really not that bad. I would never imagine  it would be an issue I would want to rectify in the future.
I split the power section and pre amp grounding which is what I think you have also done. On the pre amp I went with a ground bus back to the input jacks. I was running  jj6v6 at first but switched to tad 6v6. I liked the sound but there was too much flubby bass. I went back to the JJ 6v6 because they tighten up the low end and I think I prefer the higher headroom. Mine has a 10 inch jensen p10r. Its finally  broken in and sounds fantastic.

Zoolooter

Looks bloody amazing, great skills. Love the lacquer finish, just right that is!

springhead

@Zoolooter, thank you!  I got 3 coats in with the shellac and it didn't look right - blotchy.  Then I rubbed it down with some fine finishing paper (partly 'cos old tweed amps feel smooth to the touch, not rough like new lacquered tweed), rubbed with a cloth (rather than brushed) a 4th coat and finally used a small brush with neat shellac to fill in a few gaps. 

@kreggs - I've got one bolt near the PT with the HT centre tap, 6V6 cathode resistor, first filter cap and the ground from the variable power stage.  I did have the heater centre tap from the 2 x 100R resistors there too but it seems to prefer that point going to the pre-amp.  The pre-amp ground being a bit of solid wire between the volume pots (tags, not the back of the pots) with the input jacks wired wired to that. So the pre-amp goes to ground via the 4 jacks (I've got but haven't used the isolating shoulder washers). 

The Tung-Sol 6V6's sound good.  I'm going to give the NOS CBS/Hytrons another go.  I ran it first with them and put the hum partially down to the imbalance between them - one pulls more current than the other.  Now I've tarted up the grounding and got the noise down I'll give them another go. 

What are using in the pre-amp for yours? I've got another thread running about 12AY7's.  I've discovered the frying bacon noise on the bright channel isn't a dodgy solder joint it's one triode in the JJ 12AY7 I was using!  The TAD doesn't have that problem, and has lower hiss too.  Got a Harma (selected Reflektor/EH) 12AY7 on the way for comparison.

kreggs

I got my dagnall  transformers  from modulus. The power transformer  had a centre tap for the heaters so didnt need to create an artificial  one. I did ground it with the power section on its own dedicated  star ground point. As for my valve selection  I have a raytheon 5y3nos, 2x JJ 6v6. In the pre amp I have a 12ax7 tungsol in v2 and an electro  harmonix 12ay7 in V1. Im not looking to change anything now unless one goes microphonic.