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Vintage threads from the first ten years
| previous: Thorny The matched quad of JJs came in, an... -- 1110142021 |  |
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Re: Completed my 5E3x2 - now modding too
 3/14/2005 7:45 PM |
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Thorny | Re: Completed my 5E3x2 - now modding too This is a copy of what I did to my amp to get it to be more adjustable and have more headroom. Some of it is reposted, but I thought I should include at the end of my "modding" topic. Thanks to everyone that took time to help. I had lots of good suggestions but decided to try some of the least expensive ones first. I am glad I did. It sounds great! I was originally unhappy because I thought the 5E3x2 would be like a 5E3 but have more headroom. I was wrong! No more headroom at all, just a louder 5E3. I wanted some more adjustability out of it. I wanted some in-between sounds. I didn't want the amp cranked at 3, and there not being any real difference between 3-12. I wanted it to be able to clean up better when I rolled the volume on the guitar back a bit. I did the PaulC mod to the phase inverter as was suggested by several here. I looked at other tweed amps and discovered the "backwards" volume pot wiring, so I changed that. But then it interacted with the other volume pot too much. I tried mixing resistors, but then the tone pot had to be moved. I moved it after the mixing resistors, and it worked but the amp would not fully shut off. So I did Chris' mod to the tone stack along with the mixing resistors. It included the changes I had already have been playing with but fixed the tone control placement issue. It makes perfect sense. It is just like two separate volumes and tones for each channel now and they do not interact and all. The volumes now seem to operate as you would expect them to operate. The tone control is a stacked pot, so it operates both channel's tone controls at the same time (but they are electrically independent). It still kicks rear when you crank it - but it has to be actually turned up to get that way. It seems to have a lot more clean headroom in the more moderate volume settins as well. I has lots of punch and sustain and isn't muddy at all. This sounds great! I added a bright channel bypass cap at a 47pf on the bright vol pot. I did change some of the coupling caps values to smaller sizes as recommended by some here too. I have two old celestion G12H30s in it right now (my weber alnico speakers are backordered). I changed tubes as well: V1 is a GT12AX7M (rich sounding), V2 is a chinese 12AX7, V3-V6 are JJ6V6Ss, and the weber WR4 copper cap is in the rectifier slot. I think this is pretty well like I want it. I don't think I will require any changes to the output section. It is plenty loud and the usability has been greatly improved. I expect it to be very pedal-friendly as well. Pics: http://members.sigecom.net/jthornburg/DD1.jpg http://members.sigecom.net/jthornburg/DD2.jpg http://members.sigecom.net/jthornburg/DD3.jpg http://members.sigecom.net/jthornburg/DD4.jpg http://members.sigecom.net/jthornburg/DD5.jpg Changing the volume pot wiring made the biggest change in the usuability of the circuit. Did I buy the wrong amp? No, I just needed to make a few changes to bring out the amp I had purchased already. I also learned a lot in the process. I am happy!  |
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| Erwin Very good thread and very nice look... -- 3/29/2005 1:45 PM Brett Hi. |