drpietrzak
New member
I bought a 5e3 style amp from Richter Amp. this week. It arrived tonight. I have not had a lot of time with it yet and I am still honeymooning. It arrived very well packed and in perfect shape. I unpacked it and installed the tubes. I pulled the back and looked things over. I played it through the 1x12 C12N that it has stock. I also tried it with a Texas Heat in a closed back 1x12, 2x12 closed back with V30's (Avatar), and a semi-closed 1x12 with a Cannabis Rex (Solid 1/2 " pine about the size of a pro reverb). I tried the 4 channels out, jumped channels and ran various effects through it.
In sum - This thing is amazing. It sounds good with any of the speakers, with each emphasizing what that speaker does best. I used a bucker equipped semi-hollow VW with mahogany body and quilt carved top (24.75" scale). It is one of my favorite guitars as it is so versatile. It has a Seth Lover neck, vintage stack middle and Custom 5 in the bridge. It has 5 way switching and a neck-bridge blend pot (spits for middle and bridge as well). The pedals I tried included Duncan Twin Tube, SD-1, BD-2, DS-1 Seeing Eye Style mod, Keeley Fuzz Head, Reflector Reverb, ED-1 compressor and DD-6 delay.
The amp handed the pedals very well. The speaker was important, as was amp setting, for the Fuzz as it is with any other 5e3 that I have played. It has a clean that was deep, 3d and present - the protopypcial 5e3 clean. Smiles where ear to ear on this one. The various outputs varied the sound as expected and the jumpered channels did what they were supposed to do. I like to play jumped a lot so I will probably spend more time with that at some point. The country grit was classic Tweed Deluxe cool. The crunch is tweed deluxe grind all the way. Overall this is the tone of a classic Tweed Deluxe. The amp was as sensitive to volume changes and pick attack. I could not play with the "edge" much though as family are home tonight and it is too loud for cranked in the house. When tested flat out for a few measures, it had the ZZ top and Cream tones easily. This is a VERY sweet amp.
The tweed on the solid pine cab was well applied. The various screws and fitting were perfect. The chassis was held in place with nylon (I liked it) grommets and bolts as well as screws. It appeared to kill any possible rattle noise this way. Everything fit perfectly. The chassis was the neatest wired chassis I have ever seen. I could find nothing more accurate to say other than "impressive."
The only thing at all which was a negative was that one of the tubes has a slight tube rattle (Sympathetic to a note or two). But, this is not the builder's fault at all. I Suspect that unless you spent a fair bit of time playing the amp with the tubes in it one would never have know it was there. Further as any tube can develop a rattle, and it does so on it's own accord on it's own time line in my experience, I do not see this as any issue at all. I have not had time to see which it is at this point. I will try various tubes in it at some point anyway, just to see what works best with my rig. I have a 5e3 head and this is a far better done version of this amp all the way around.
I need to find a cover, and decide how I want to treat the tweed. It is such a nice amp I am actually a bit worried I might get it dirty! My Les Paul is the only other piece of gear I have that pulls that emotion from me. All this and it has 2 year limited coverage!
In sum - This thing is amazing. It sounds good with any of the speakers, with each emphasizing what that speaker does best. I used a bucker equipped semi-hollow VW with mahogany body and quilt carved top (24.75" scale). It is one of my favorite guitars as it is so versatile. It has a Seth Lover neck, vintage stack middle and Custom 5 in the bridge. It has 5 way switching and a neck-bridge blend pot (spits for middle and bridge as well). The pedals I tried included Duncan Twin Tube, SD-1, BD-2, DS-1 Seeing Eye Style mod, Keeley Fuzz Head, Reflector Reverb, ED-1 compressor and DD-6 delay.
The amp handed the pedals very well. The speaker was important, as was amp setting, for the Fuzz as it is with any other 5e3 that I have played. It has a clean that was deep, 3d and present - the protopypcial 5e3 clean. Smiles where ear to ear on this one. The various outputs varied the sound as expected and the jumpered channels did what they were supposed to do. I like to play jumped a lot so I will probably spend more time with that at some point. The country grit was classic Tweed Deluxe cool. The crunch is tweed deluxe grind all the way. Overall this is the tone of a classic Tweed Deluxe. The amp was as sensitive to volume changes and pick attack. I could not play with the "edge" much though as family are home tonight and it is too loud for cranked in the house. When tested flat out for a few measures, it had the ZZ top and Cream tones easily. This is a VERY sweet amp.
The tweed on the solid pine cab was well applied. The various screws and fitting were perfect. The chassis was held in place with nylon (I liked it) grommets and bolts as well as screws. It appeared to kill any possible rattle noise this way. Everything fit perfectly. The chassis was the neatest wired chassis I have ever seen. I could find nothing more accurate to say other than "impressive."
The only thing at all which was a negative was that one of the tubes has a slight tube rattle (Sympathetic to a note or two). But, this is not the builder's fault at all. I Suspect that unless you spent a fair bit of time playing the amp with the tubes in it one would never have know it was there. Further as any tube can develop a rattle, and it does so on it's own accord on it's own time line in my experience, I do not see this as any issue at all. I have not had time to see which it is at this point. I will try various tubes in it at some point anyway, just to see what works best with my rig. I have a 5e3 head and this is a far better done version of this amp all the way around.
I need to find a cover, and decide how I want to treat the tweed. It is such a nice amp I am actually a bit worried I might get it dirty! My Les Paul is the only other piece of gear I have that pulls that emotion from me. All this and it has 2 year limited coverage!
