[_Knighthawk_]

After success with the 18 Watt Marshall kit, I recently undertook to build from scratch a 5E3. I finished the build yesterday and immediately fell in love. It is everfything a FrankenFender 5E3 should be.

Notes on the build:

1) I used metal film 1/2 Watt resistors for the most part (you will notice a metal oxide as well)
2) I used regular old 1/2 Watt carbon film resistors for the plates (recommended by someone with more experience than I)
3) PT/OT are classictone 18021 and 18022 respectively
4) Caps are Sprague Atom/Orange Drop and Mallory - tubedepot.com
5) Board was ordered online from Watt (forget the name and URL atm)
6) Chassis was purchased from Trinity - trinityamps.com
7) Various parts ordered from NexGen - nextgenguitars.ca
8) Cab is on the way - commission to Derek Bell in Ontario

I wanted this build to be as close to the original circuit as possible but there is one mod (beyond the metal film resistors): 47K 2W resistors across the posts of the stand-by switch.

I do plan to do some 5E3 mods but I will likely do another build to monkey with. Comments/thoughts always welcome. If I get some time, I will post some audio clips of both the 18 Watt and the 5E3 sometime soon.

Grins and great tone to all.

 

[vokey design]

That looks fantastic! I have wanted to do this for some time now, once the kids get a bit older and I pry a few extra hours out of each day...
What was your reason for purchasing from several sources rather than a complete kit? More control over components or was it cheaper to piece it together yourself?

If you dont mind me asking what does something like this cost?

 

[copperhead]

Nice job with the build Knighthawk
Not hijacking this thread but if you can source the chassis from trinity & someone local building a cab you can source everything in Canada to build a 5e3

 

[_Knighthawk_]

That looks fantastic! I have wanted to do this for some time now, once the kids get a bit older and I pry a few extra hours out of each day...
What was your reason for purchasing from several sources rather than a complete kit? More control over components or was it cheaper to piece it together yourself?

If you dont mind me asking what does something like this cost?

Thank you for the kind words.

I sourced parts from several sources simply because I didn't seem to be able to get all of the parts I wanted to use from any single source or kit provider (some had this while others had that but if you want one of those, you need to order from there). That said, my other goal was to keep the entire build to under $700 (including cab and speaker). It would have been MUCH easier to simply order a kit but that would have meant deviating from my parts list, circuit design and price range.

I believe I semi-answered your question about cost but it should be noted also that there is a huge price range for the build. It can be done more cheaply than I did it (though not by too much) but certainly you can spend close to $1000 (CDN) or more as well. It depends on how much time you want to spend on hunting/gathering parts and the actual build. I did A LOT of research and I would encourage you to do the same. There's a lot of information, a lot of kit builders and a myriad of choices for transformers, speakers, capacitors, resistors, etc.

Good luck!

 

[Granny Gremlin]

Nice build.

It would have been MUCH easier to simply order a kit but that would have meant deviating from my parts list, circuit design and price range.

I believe I semi-answered your question about cost but it should be noted also that there is a huge price range for the build. It can be done more cheaply than I did it (though not by too much) but certainly you can spend close to $1000 (CDN) or more as well. It depends on how much time you want to spend on hunting/gathering parts and the actual build. I did A LOT of research and I would encourage you to do the same. There's a lot of information, a lot of kit builders and a myriad of choices for transformers, speakers, capacitors, resistors, etc.

Good luck!

Yep; I am finding myself in the same situation with a 5F1 build I am planning out. Problem is that now that I have given up on kits, I am totally changing the circuit (vs just adding a Herzog output mod) and this project is becoming a whole different monster.... though there is a chance it will produce my dream dirt tone machine (and still come in under the cost of a complete kit) .

 

[_Knighthawk_]

Nice job with the build Knighthawk
Not hijacking this thread but if you can source the chassis from trinity & someone local building a cab you can source everything in Canada to build a 5e3

I am not sure why you are saying this. Certainly I made no claim to the contrary and I am not now inclined to take the opposing view for the sake of argument.

 

[_Knighthawk_]

Nice build.

Yep; I am finding myself in the same situation with a 5F1 build I am planning out. Problem is that now that I have given up on kits, I am totally changing the circuit (vs just adding a Herzog output mod) and this project is becoming a whole different monster.... though there is a chance it will produce my dream dirt tone machine (and still come in under the cost of a complete kit) .

Thanks.

That's why I opted to keep this build as close to the original circuit as possible. Once you start down the path to the mod side, forever will it dominate your destiny.

That sounds like a cool project to me. Good luck with it. I will keep my eyes open for a post on it someday (hopefully, with pics!).

 

[Granny Gremlin]

Yeah, first I have to finish drawing up the schem (mostly an aid to figuring it out for myself) and then I'll post that for comment.

 

[ricky_b]

Great job on the build. When I built mine I looked at a bunch of mods and ended up just doing one. I put in a negative feedback switch which I highly recommend, makes the amp more versatile. I might go back and do a master volume or some sort of power reduction thing as its a pretty loud amp.

I'm using JJ tubes and the chassis gets pretty hot after an hour or more (can't remember off hand but I think they're running at 95%, 13w). I'm considering trying some different tubes. What tubes did you use for yours?

 

[_Knighthawk_]

Thanks Ricky!

6Y6 is a JJ, 6V6s are (matched) TADs and (matched) EH for the 12AX and AY7.

It too runs pretty warm. The PT in particular runs hotter than most but this is likely because the classictone trannies are supposed to be old spec and are known to run hotter than newer, beefier iron.

I'm looking to do a second build and incorporate a herd of mods. As I said, I wanted to do the stock build first to learn about the circuit (although as you can see I did make some minor changes). The next build will definitely include some of these mods: 5E3 Mods .