Please school me in 5E3 amps/similar amps (discussion thread)

Re: Please school me in 5E3 amps/similar amps (discussion thread)

I wouldn't say that the 65 Tupelo is all that much like a 5E3 in terms of tone...

As for the Crema Wheat, while based on the 5E3 is one of the amps I was talking about...more power, more headroom, more filtering, louder, tighter, brighter...based on a 5E3 sure...sounds like a 5E3, maybe it does...until you hear it right next to a real 5E3. Please keep in mind, I am not saying better or worse, just different.

If you want the Tungsten take on a 5E3 you want the Cortez
 
Re: Please school me in 5E3 amps/similar amps (discussion thread)

Or build one. It's an easy build. Bruce is still offering his 5e3 kits which he based on my two real 5e3's. I think he's having a sale on them this month. http://www.missionamps.com/
 
Please school me in 5E3 amps/similar amps (discussion thread)

Bruce's (Mission) 5E3 kit is outstanding! I've got one with a 1960 Jensen P12Q speaker. Great tone!

However I find it's louder than you might expect. I've had to use an attenuator on it at gigs and band practice if I expect to get my drive out of the amp.
 
Re: Please school me in 5E3 amps/similar amps (discussion thread)

Powdered Toast Man said:
Bruce's (Mission) 5E3 kit is outstanding! I've got one with a 1960 Jensen P12Q speaker. Great tone!

However I find it's louder than you might expect. I've had to use an attenuator on it at gigs and band practice if I expect to get my drive out of the amp.
Click to expand...

That's the right speaker for that amp. My favorite Jensen for a 5e3 and a much better speaker than what normally came in them: a P12R maybe? I had a '58 P12Q in mine. Just curious: is yours blue or black? Mine was blue.
 
Re: Please school me in 5E3 amps/similar amps (discussion thread)

Lewguitar said:
That's the right speaker for that amp. My favorite Jensen for a 5e3. I had a '58 P12Q in mine. Just curious: is yours blue or black? Mine was blue.
Click to expand...

I think I remember reading in another thread that PTM's Jensen is an organ pull so I'd guess black with no bell cover...
 
Re: Please school me in 5E3 amps/similar amps (discussion thread)

Thanks for all the input! A kit is not an option ; don't have the skills, time, or space.

I am trading emails w Jim at Lil Dawg. I am thinking about dual Champsters ...
 
Re: Please school me in 5E3 amps/similar amps (discussion thread)

Lewguitar said:
That's the right speaker for that amp. My favorite Jensen for a 5e3 and a much better speaker than what normally came in them: a P12R maybe? I had a '58 P12Q in mine. Just curious: is yours blue or black? Mine was blue.
Click to expand...

TGWIF is correct. Mine is a black frame. It looks identical to the standard green ones I've seen and everything I've read online says that they were exactly the same speaker, just different coloured baskets.

Bruce currently ships the kits with the reissue C12Q (or it might be the N). Not the best speaker for that amp for sure, but as he told me he does so to keep the price of the kits reasonable. He should look at the Signature Series Webers if he needs a decent quality economical Alnico for those kits.

I've heard nothing but great things about lil'Dawg. I don't think you can go wrong there.
 
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Re: Please school me in 5E3 amps/similar amps (discussion thread)

Thanks for the lively discussion; I learned a whole lot in a very short time! :)

I am talking with Jim @ Lil Dawg about the Champster, and from all the research I've done, it looks like a no-brainer solution. As much as I would like to suppport Ludlow Guitars and get the Swart, I can get two Champster LunchBoxes for the same price as a single STR-Tweed.

I will have to look more seriously into speaker options soon. The only real downside is that I've yet to find really good isolated clips of Alnico speakers. Either the players are using fuzz pedals or the clips are of terrible quality.

Jensen should be ashamed of themselves, as their clips are by far the worst out there, and they are on their official site!
 
Re: Please school me in 5E3 amps/similar amps (discussion thread)

I know a lot of guys will flat out disagree with me on this but skip right over the new Jensen speakers...

They are just not very good sounding speakers and have very little in common with old Jensens from the 50's and 60's...

If you want vintage correct alnico tone your best bet is Weber VST...they are not perfect but they are as close as you are going to get in many cases to an old cone Jensen w/o shelling out big bucks and then having to deal with a speaker that is 50+ years and could pop at any moment.
 
Re: Please school me in 5E3 amps/similar amps (discussion thread)

Thanks. The first thing I will do is play it with the speakers I already have to hand and see how it sounds. One of my favourite sounds right now is the Studio 2 into the Hiwatt; it just sounds fabulous (to me). Since I am not necessarily going for a "vintage correct' sound, I will see how I like it with what I have first.

One thing that concerns me is that if the amp does not have a tone control, the Alnico speaker will be overly bright with my guitars.
 
Re: Please school me in 5E3 amps/similar amps (discussion thread)

TwilightOdyssey said:
Thanks. The first thing I will do is play it with the speakers I already have to hand and see how it sounds. One of my favourite sounds right now is the Studio 2 into the Hiwatt; it just sounds fabulous (to me). Since I am not necessarily going for a "vintage correct' sound, I will see how I like it with what I have first.

One thing that concerns me is that if the amp does not have a tone control, the Alnico speaker will be overly bright with my guitars.
Click to expand...

Tweed Champs are VERY cool amps but the lack of a tone control and 8 inch speaker (in a stock and vintage correct format) make them rather limited to a lot of players...

A tweed Princeton is more or less the same as a tweed Champ but they have a single treble roll off tone control and came with a 10 inch speaker...

Since you are doing heads the speakers are not part of the equation but have Jim do you tweed Princetons...same pure, single ended class A amps, same tweed tone but with the addition of a treble roll off tone control.
 
Re: Please school me in 5E3 amps/similar amps (discussion thread)

TwilightOdyssey said:
Does the Princeton have the same early break up?
Click to expand...

If you take the cab an speaker out of the equation a tweed Princeton and a tweed Champ are the same amp except the Princeton has a tone control.

I haven't looked at schematics in a while but I don't recall any other differences.

If you want to keep the signal path pure have Jim put the tone control on a pot with an off/on switch so you can take it out of the signal leaving you with a Champ.

All tweeds have an early breakup and on top of that you are dealing with a 2-3 watt amp...

A correct tweed Champ will have even less headroom than the Swart you played a few days ago.
 
Re: Please school me in 5E3 amps/similar amps (discussion thread)

That is what I want. :) Lemme see what Jim says to my last barrage of emails before I send him another lol.
 
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