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What's so special about the 5E3

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11/9/2003 4:39 PM
TF	What's so special about the 5E3 I have to admit that I don't get it. Why does the 5E3 have its own forum on Ampage? What's so special about it? I didn't even know what a 5E3 was until I started reading a few of the threads and figured out that it probably is a Fender Deluxe. If that's what it is then I don't get it because to me the Deluxe was OK but not the Holy Grail of all amps.

11/9/2003 4:56 PM

Chris ( CMW amps )

Hi TF

The 5E3 is a late 50s Fender tweed Deluxe amplfier , 1x12" and about 15 Watts . Due to the nowadays higher vintage-prices ( $ 1100 - 1800 ) and pretty simple circuit without too many parts it's a pretty popular amp-design for cloning ( check Clark and Victoria for example ) and as DIY-kit . It's also nice for starters 'cause of the "minimalistic" ( did I spell that correctly ? ) design .
Try a GoogleSearch on "tweed + deluxe + fender + 5e3" [ as example ] to see even more about those amps .

Afaik tboy ( operator of this great forum ) and Bruce Collins ( from MissionAmps and a long time fellow Ampager ) did start this 5E3forum to help DIY-builders and to let people share their experiences with building and tweaking those amps .

"Holy grail" : that's about taste so very personal . Most of the time amp-guys ( including myself ) do tweak the circuit to get the desired results/sounds .
To make a short story long

: you can get a lot of tones by using all 3 controls and a nice SC guitar , Neil Young does use an old one with SC LesPauls .

Hope this does help a little ,

Chris

11/12/2003 4:14 PM

As Chris said, it is a simple circuit, easily cloned, it doesn't get much simpler than that unless you are talking about a Champ SE type circuit. Holy Grail amps, pickups, guitars, etc. is all so subjective. What one person thinks is fantastic tone, someone else may not care for. My definition of great tone is one which inspires me to play, and to play better. People like these things because they have a warm overdrive sound at relatively low volume levels, depending on how you define low volume. 15 watts, probably more like over 20 at max volume, is still pretty damn loud. I don't personally find it to be all that versatile, and I am not able to get "lots of tone variations" out of the two volumes and one tone like some people say they can. Again, just the way we all hear things differently. Not a good amp for high output pickups IMHO. But what it does it does very well. If you are looking to build an amp, this is a good one to start with.

11/12/2003 6:15 PM
Bruce /Mission Amps	Power output For what it's worth.... Most 5E3 amps will only hit about 10-12 watts into an 8 ohm dummy load while delivering a clean sine wave and around 16w to 18w fully gassed and nasty, the way many players like them anyhow! However, that's why I still call it a 12-15 watt amp. Bruce

11/12/2003 8:44 PM
Mike G.	Thanks for the clarification Bruce. )

11/16/2003 11:14 PM
Joel	could you use a 25 watt output tranny and bump up the wattage a little? you would have to use a higher rated speaker though, right?

11/17/2003 3:09 PM
Mike G.	Bigger OT won't bump up the wattage any higher, all other things remaining contant, but it will probably give a bit more headroom. A bigger tranny coupled with 6L6's would boost the output power some. Smaller tranny's distort when pushed, and this is part of the total sound. Bigger OT's will also give you more bass ooomph. Mike G.

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