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5E3 variation

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10/19/2005 8:14 PM

5E3 variation

Hello. Im planing on building a variation of the 5E3 circuit. However I wanted only two inputs instead of 4 and I wanted a tonestack. So I modded the 5E3 schematic to what I would like to do.

Heres my schematic http://www.geocities.com/stevesplace16235/5E3_SCHEMATIC.gif

What do you guys think? Would it work? I was thinking of giving each input its own half of V1 since right now I have an unused half.

Also, how would I put in a solid state rectifer? Which diodes would I use and how many?

Im not worried about keeping the sound of the amp or anything. After all, this amp is going into a black and hot pink cabinet. lol. So it doesnt have to be exactly original.

10/19/2005 10:22 PM

You can definitely give this a try, however I'm not sure why you'd want to change the circuit in this way and lose the second channel. Anyway, I would bump the 12AY7 up to a 12AX7 as the tone stack will suck gain out of the circuit.

What I would consider doing with the other half of the triode that is not used in your schematic is add it as another gain stage. You can do this ala the 18 watt LiteII single/parallel input style:
http://18watt.com/Storage/18wattLite2.gif

You can also use the stage post tone stack to boost the signal, or cascade the first triode into the second then to the tone stack. I would experiment here to find what you like.

You can certainly use SS rectification, but you're going to get rid of all the wonderful sag in the 5E3 circuit. It will clean up the power section a lot, thus a higher gain preamp would be needed to get distortion at low volumes like on the 5E3. I'd stick with tube recto for this amp.

Whatever you want to do, just make sure it makes sense for what you're aiming for in tone.

10/20/2005 6:44 AM

darin-
Im getting rid of the 2nd channel because its basically the same as the first channel and I see no need to have two of the same.

I thought of doing another gain stage after the initial one and then having the tonestack. Just for a little boost.

I have an 18watter clone and I rarely use its distortion. I set it on a clean tone and use a boss mt-2, so distortion from the amp is not really a big concern for me.

Would I do my SS rectification like here?
http://195.178.239.50/ax84/media/ax84_m37.pdf

This will be my 3rd amp build and Im trying to do something new...designing my own amp, so Im trying to get everyones opinions on my design changes so I dont do anything that wont work.

10/20/2005 1:18 PM
Bruce /Mission Amps	Just build a black face Princeton with no vibrato and then cathode bias it but colder then a 5E3. Great sounding little amp and very similar to my Aurora project!! Bruce

10/24/2005 7:18 AM
TD Madden	You really think that that the two channels are (and sond) basically the same? In my 5E3s there is a quite noticeable difference in their sound.

10/23/2005 3:57 PM
Steve	Ok. Updated my circuit a bit. I pretty much just put another gain stage before the tonestack. I also added solid state rectification and a standby switch. http://www.geocities.com/stevesplace16235/5E3_SCHEMATIC.gif Heres the link again. Anybody verify this for me?

10/23/2005 4:26 PM
Bruce /Mission Amps	It's going to be a red hot preamp, probably a little hard to control and your B+ will be high with SS diodes but it will work... after you put a plate load resistor on the first 12AY7 triode and feed it some B+. Bruce

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