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Topic: My new amp 5E3 Deluxe kit amp |
Ken Fox
From:
Nashville GA USA
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Posted 25 Dec 2006 12:34 pm |
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One of the first amps I restored years ago was a 1957 5E3 chassis that I came across. I put in it a Mojotone cab with a reissue Jensen speaker. It has NOS RCA blackplate tubes. What a sound! I wanted to do that again, as close as possible
This is a Mojotone kit, less speaker and tubes. I chose a 1959 Jensen P12P reconed by Ted Weber to P12N specs. I used JJ power tubes, a 5V4 reticfier (for more headroom), JJ 12AX7 (ECC83S) and an EH 12AY7.
This amp exceeded my expectations for sure! Great tone and plenty of headroom with my Tel guitars. The speaker is just a killer!
Awesome kits, quality parts. Switchcraft jacks, American made transformers, etc.
The Sprague Blue Atom caps are now a thing of the past at Mojotone. The whole line will be disappearing soon! They are using TAD filters and they seem to do the job very well.
Things I did not care for:
-ceramic preamp tube sockets without shields. I used Blackface era style instead with shields.
-NO lock washers to put behind the jacks and pots.
-The mention of the above to Mojotone fell upon deaf ears, they could care less and I am a dealer who buys a lot from them! As I have found in the past they are not open to customer comments or suggestions.
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Brad Sarno
From:
St. Louis, MO USA
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Posted 25 Dec 2006 6:10 pm
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Very nice Ken. I've been wanting to do the very same thing. Mojo does seem to have a good thing going there. The cabinets are supposed to be quite nice. The chassis well made too. Really the big variable from one Fender clone to another tends to be the transformers, and Mojo is currently using the Heyboer I believe. Very good sounding, US built transformers. Here's their link.
http://www.heyboertransformers.com/tubeamps.shtml
There's a cool little amp company called Swart.
http://www.swartamps.com/
I've played these things and they are sweet. They also use the Heyboer transformers, and I'm not sure, but they also may be having Mojo make the cab's.
So is your's high power with 6L6's, or are you set up like a Deluxe with 6V6's?
Brad |
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Ken Fox
From:
Nashville GA USA
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Posted 25 Dec 2006 8:39 pm
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| I went for the 6V6 setup. I wanted the stock 5E3 circuit, as close as possible. The JJ 6V6 tubes have the be the best 6V6 tube I have used to date. They really did their homework there. I tried the new Tungsol as it is a highly rated tube. Nice, but less volume and early breakup. The JJ tubes are a strong tube for this or any 6V6 amp where headroom and a great tone are needed. |
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Al Sato
From:
Texas Hill Country
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Posted 25 Dec 2006 9:00 pm
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Wow, I've been thinking about building a 5E3 clone as my first amp project. I am green with envy, actually, because the 5E3 is one of only two amps I'd like to add to my very small collection. I've bought several things from Mojotone, including extra baffle boards for my blackface Deluxe Reverb so I can easily swap speakers in and out. The baffles were of high quality with two caveats: the speaker opening was off-center which they said was done to accommodate a variety of power transformer placements, no biggie, and one of them had one of the speaker studs off the mark by about 1/8", a larger issue but still not a killer.
I was thinking about the kit from Mission Amps, though. It might be more appropriate for a beginner. I would ultimately like to build a 6L6-based 1x12 blackface-style amp as one step louder than my Deluxe Reverb. Then I think I will have all the amps that a man could reasonably ask for. I still need a lot more guitars, though.
------------------
So many stringed instruments, so little time...
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Jay Ganz
From:
Out Behind The Barn
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Posted 26 Dec 2006 6:34 am
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Did they offer Mallory 150 caps instead of the
Sprague orange drops? They're supposedly a bit
closer tonally to the old Astrons. |
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Ken Fox
From:
Nashville GA USA
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Posted 26 Dec 2006 10:33 am
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| The Mallory caps are not an option. The Mission amp kits use them, I believe and is a better kit for the novice builder. The Mojotone has no documentation that would be of use to a novice builder! All they provide is an 11 x 14 copy of the original schematic and layout. You best know how to build an amp, as they offer no support. |
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Dave Zielinski
From:
Pennsylvania, USA
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Posted 27 Dec 2006 7:20 am
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Great amp, fun projects aren't they?? I intend to build one of these as well. I am in the process of doing a scrathc built 5F6-A bassman you can see on another thread here. My advice to any other kit builders is find someone with an original or at least get a few close up pictures of how the lead dress is done on a noriginal and start there. This si very important in making a quiet running/noise free amp. I personally think you can't go wrong with building your own- you can make a really great sounding amp for a fraction of what the boutique ones cost, not to mention an original of these things. I originally decided to build the 5f6-a cause I don't want any more tears in the tweed on my original! good luck!
One question- I haven't used the mojo kits or chassis- they claim that the chassis is stainless steel. Is that correct? I have used the Hammond or Ted weber chassis and they are plated steel. When compared to my original, the repro chassis (weber) is very close, the only differences are the silkscreen/text style is different (looks too thin), and there are a few extra holes in the back for two different output trannies. or its a screw up. needless to say, "can't see it from my house!" The weber chassis come with the brass ground strip, and all the fiber boards pre punched and riveted.
Dave |
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Bill Creller
From:
Saginaw, Michigan, USA (deceased)
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Posted 27 Dec 2006 3:31 pm
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I just finished a 5E3 Tweed Deluxe. I used a chromed chassis from Weber, and a 12F125S Weber speaker.
I bought the cab from weber also. I usually build my own, but wanted an original type.
I have been using Groove Tubes 6V6s, with a high rating, for later break-up, like one set is 8S and I have a set of 9s.
I put a 12AU7 in place of the 12AX7 phase inverter, it sounds smoother to me.
It's a nice sounding amp, 1955 type clone. |
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Steve Feldman
From:
Central MA USA
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Posted 27 Dec 2006 4:56 pm
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Ken - That 5E3 is specced with a 5Y3 recto. What do you have to do to run a 5V4, or are they compatible? Thanks.
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Ken Fox
From:
Nashville GA USA
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Posted 4 Jan 2007 1:27 pm chassis and tubes
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The chassis is stainless and very well built
The 5V4 is compatible and adding about 20 volts more B+. More headroom and sounds great! |
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Jay Ganz
From:
Out Behind The Barn
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Posted 4 Jan 2007 8:46 pm
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I have a 5V4 in my old '57 Deluxe as well as my '60 Princeton.
Definitely better than the 5Y3. |
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Steve Feldman
From:
Central MA USA
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Posted 6 Jan 2007 5:36 pm Re: chassis and tubes
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| Ken Fox wrote: |
The chassis is stainless and very well built
The 5V4 is compatible and adding about 20 volts more B+. More headroom and sounds great! |
Since this amp is cathode biased, will the stock 5E3 circuit handle this higher voltage to the tubes, or is it necessary to increase the cathode bias resistor? And what voltage across a 6V6 are you running with your setup? Thanks. I'm interested in trying this. |
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Ken Fox
From:
Nashville GA USA
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Posted 6 Jan 2007 6:04 pm 5V4 rectifier
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| No mods to the circuit needed. It increased the plate voltage 20 volts, close to 400 volts. I would highly recommend JJ tubes, they can handle the extra voltage and give a lot more headroom that other 6V6 tubes |
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