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5E3 inputs question

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3/28/2005 10:24 AM

William Jahnkow

5E3 inputs question

Since I am using a fender musicmaster bass amp to build my 5E3/5E5 bandmaster /deluxe . I have only two input jacks and one vol control .
I can add a second vol pot and use one jack per channel .
But I would prefer to not add another volume pot .
Is there a great benefit to the bright and noraml channels and the second volume pot ?
I thought at least I could wire up one jack to each side of the preamp tube and possibly as an extra feature direct connect and eliminate the need for a second pot and use a diode from the second input to the first right before the signal enters the tube , This way I would have the effect of a higher preamp value only when plugged into the second input , the diode would only allow the connection one way if a doide will work on such a low voltage application i am not certain , either that or a small toggle switch . on off both inputs would be the same on one would and signal gain .
What do you think ?
Has anyone ever plugged a guitat in the normal input , it seems as if it would be rather dark sounding to me ?

3/28/2005 6:19 PM

I use the bright channel, hi input on my Deluxe. But, because of the way that the two channels interact with each other, the volume control of the normal channel is a big part of adjusting the amp. It impacts both the volume and the amount of gain. My recommendation is that you don't omit the 2nd volume control. Personally, if I didn't have the low inputs, I wouldn't miss them, but I would miss the 2nd channel's volume pot.

3/28/2005 6:59 PM

William Jahnkow

That's what everyone has told me so far , so I marked out the exact spot and drilled a nice clean hole right through the faceplate and chassis . used a unibit to make it 3/8" and it's no longer an issue . I will now have both volumes and the tone and it is setup just as a blackface or silverface champ with the treble and bass being the two originals on this amp which is the bright channel vol and tone and the added pot and fender knob next to the input jacks is the normal vol pot . It looks like it was made this way since the champ is .
i will have one input for each side instead of two but I only need one .
I have the chassis componants removed and added one 9 pin socket for the tube PI , before it was a transformer PI and now am ready to begin wiring up the filaments and then onto the eyelet board .
Soon I will have a 5E3/5E5/MM with two twelves and hopefully it will be a pleasent ride once the power switch is pointing up .

3/30/2005 2:18 PM
tony lowe	the normal input is quite dark. That volume is handy for shaping the bright input, but....yeah, plugging in over there is for treblephobes...not a charming tone, to me at all.

3/30/2005 5:41 PM

I had been running an Weber alnico Blue Dog speaker in my Mission 5E3 with the single coils in my 50th Anniversary American Series Strat and used the 'normal 1' input exclusively. After switching to a Weber 12A150 (Jensen P12N replica - a classic 'tweed' era speaker) yesterday I've got much more bass, something lacking with the Blue Dog, and find the Bright inputs are perfect with this new speaker and the single coils. Can't get over how the speaker change improved the tone from this amp. The mids and highs were sweet with the Blue Dog, but it didn't have the full bottom end. It's now producing the classic tweed sound which is what I've come to prefer.

4/1/2005 6:01 AM
Steve L	There's the difference between Alnico and Ceramic speakers. I have a Ceramic Blue Dog, and love the bright channel, but find the normal channel too dark.

4/2/2005 10:56 AM

William Jahnkow

I went through all kinds of trouble adding this second vol pot .
First off when I was done with this amp friday and finally switched it on I had alot of hum because I listened and read and fell into the star grounding group think tank , huge mistake and alot of work .
I had to make a brass plate and take all the extra ground leads out to have a real quiet amp .
Then the added vol . first off it is so dark I would NEVER use it , it is horrid sounding to me .
second I used 500k pots , which is all I had , well this resulted in loud volume right off number 1 .
I realized after checking the pots that instead of 500k they were 250k , because the pots are in parallel . so to get this to work for now I disconnected one pot and half the preamp , removing the second input stage and now the amp works great .
I will get two 1 meg pots and put it back but if the benefit of two does not fill the tone to my liking then I am using the second pot for a added treble or presence or even added gain stage and leaving what sounds best to me alone .
I can't imagine why fender designed such a dark input to begin with , but that's just me . If my champ or other fenders sounded like that I would not be running fenders at all .

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