Finished the 5F4....

[Scott_F]

Well, finished it up to where it makes beautiful music. Now, just gotta buy some 8-32 nuts to attach the speakers and then pop the chassis in and I'm ready! Woohoo!

Only one small glitch in the wiring on my part (stupid mistake). I forgot one connection from the phase inverter to the presence control. I actually bypassed it. So, I cut the wire in half, and tied both of the new ends into this one joint between two resistors and voila! I have music. I ran the Tele through it for a while into a pair of Red Fangs that are in the Bad Cat. I'm looking forward to the sound through the 2x10's.

Rolling your own tone is a blast.

[jeremy]

Re: Finished the 5F4....

very cool!! how much time did it take to put togeather?

[jmv]

Re: Finished the 5F4....

thats a tweed super, correct?? Where'd you get it from??

[ArtieToo]

Re: Finished the 5F4....

Thats what I was gonna ask. Is this some sort of kit, or plans?

Sounds cool, regardless.

Artie

[Scott_F]

Re: Finished the 5F4....

It's a kit I've been beta testing for Bruce at Mission Amps (Lew's brother). I had built his 5E3 and it was a blast (took about 12-14 hours). I then told him I wanted something more powerful than the deluxe. So, he's been working on this kit. It'll support either a 2x10, 1x15 or 3x10. Your choice.

It's got a bias pot in the circuit now (thanks to Bruce). I have a bit of an oscillation problem with it late last night. Bruce thinks that Star Ground scheme I came up with on some of the pots is the culprit. I sort of deviated off his plan a bit. I need to rerun those grounds as short as possible and find some better places to attach them.

I really took my sweetassed time on this one. A few hours here, a few hours there. The other one was over too quickly.

I've got this sweet used laquered Tweed Super cab from Victoria I'm giong to stuff this into. It's going to look like a Vicky to anyone that glances at it. But it'll be a Mission design built by Fitz.

[ArtieToo]

Re: Finished the 5F4....

Scott; I don't mean to take this too far off topic, but when the time comes that I can grab an amp, I've pretty much narrowed it down to either a Peavey Classic 30, or Bruce's 5E3.

The Peavey has the advantage of being able to take it home, plug it in, and start playing. The disadvantage is, I'm afraid it will be too much power for "bedroom" playing.

The 5E3 has the advantage of closer to the right power, and I've always wanted to check out one of Bruce's amps.

So . . . what do you think of the 5E3 sonically, and how would you compare it to your new 5F4? Obviously, my "goal" is to achieve that tube sound, at home levels.

Thanks.

[Scott_F]

Re: Finished the 5F4....

for home levels, the 5E3 is perfect. Simple too. The 5F4 is quite a bit louder and about twice the wattage. It also runs through 2 speakers instead of one.

The 5E3 distorts pretty quickly which to most folks is a good thing. Don't expect too much clean headroom.

[Curly]

Re: Finished the 5F4....

that's great, Scott ...


well, you know I wanted to build one of those, because it makes so much sense to build one version, then you could do one with the other speaker configuration, and it would likely sound quite a bit different


also, the 5E3 X2 would be great - of the several Victoria amps I looked at, the Double Deluxe was my favorite - warm, crunchy, and big enough to gig with - if the X2 is anything close, then it sounds great

Artie,
Scott's right about the 5E3 ... a great first build, but it likely won't be your last
I agree, the most common complaint I see about the tweed Deluxe is that it doesn't have enough clean head room. But the fact is, that is not what that amp is all about ... it's all about beautiful crunchy sustain at bearable volumes.

[ArtieToo]

Re: Finished the 5F4....

also, the 5E3 X2 would be great - of the several Victoria amps I looked at, the Double Deluxe was my favorite - warm, crunchy, and big enough to gig with - if the X2 is anything close, then it sounds great

Artie,
Scott's right about the 5E3 ... a great first build, but it likely won't be your last
I agree, the most common complaint I see about the tweed Deluxe is that it doesn't have enough clean head room. But the fact is, that is not what that amp is all about ... it's all about beautiful crunchy sustain at bearable volumes.

What a great idea! I can build the 5E3, try it out, then build another later for stereo. My J-Station is stereo-out, after all. As far as "clean" goes, thats why I have this "little" Crown D150A. (150 watts.)

Now . . . If I can just get someone to show me how to do an A/B switch . . .

[Curly]

Re: Finished the 5F4....

Artie,
I know that Lew has said he likes running 2 tweed Deluxes in stereo.

The 5E3 X2, however, is another circuit - the idea was a "Double Deluxe" ... so it's 2 x 12 and about 25-30 watts from 4 6V6s. Very cool amp.

you can find info here:
Weber kits

[Scott_F]

Re: Finished the 5F4....

Just for the record, there's a lot more that can go wrong with this 5F4 over a 5E3. I was a bit ****y when I got it. Now I've got a slight oscillation that I'm trying to track down.

Then last night, I was pushing wires aroudn with a chopstick and I accidently unplugged the speaker wire from the chassis. At that point, (you're going to love this), one of the 1500 ohm resistors on one of the power tubes arcs out and sort of catches fire. It was a trip needless to say.

So, I yank the power out of the wall pretty quick and pull the tube. A tiny bit of solder had dripped from one of the leads into the small guide pin hole. It ended up shorting out against one of the other pins somehow. Small pyrotechnics, but I probably hosed a power tube and I definitely hosed a resistor!

Oh well, the troubleshooting is just another part of the experience. Kinda like when you go deer hunting. Doing the hunting and the shooting are fun, then the work begins when you have to field dress it and butcher it.

Reports to follow.

[Curly]

Re: Finished the 5F4....

Scott,
I had that problem of getting solder down the pin holes ...didn't realize it till I tried to put a tube in.

I've gotten to where I use less solder now.

[Scott_F]

Re: Finished the 5F4....

I fixed the burned resistor and Bruce gave me a heads up. I swapped the output leads on the Output Transformer and my squeal went away. I wish I'd tried that several days ago. My frustration would have been a lot less. \

All is well, amp is quiet as a mouse. Installing it into the cab tomorrow night.