First off, happy Easter. Don't get hung up about it.

Not much point to this story, but here goes anyway.

Back in 2007, I built my third, and intended to be my last  amp, a tweed deluxe. Since this was going to be the last amp I ever built, I spent money on voodoo and imported Mercury Magnetics transformers and stainless Clarostat CV4 pots I built it right off the bat with all the "defarting" mods and the 6G2 tone stack. In other words, it was never really a tweed deluxe. I thought that, since it was my "last" amp, it would have to be flexible. My commitment to quality didn't extend to buying a real chassis for it (I used a Hammond 1444) or covering the cab with tweed (I used smooth blonde tolex). It was fine. After I had built a few other amps, I didn't use it much any more. So much for my "ultimate" amp.

It started making noises a few months ago that sounded like grounding problems to me, but when I opened it up, I just shook my head, and decided to tear it down to nothing and rebuild it. I bought a real chassis from Dirk, reused the pots, transformers, and turret board, but redid everything else. I had some blue Sozos that I had intended to try in my single-channel DR build but never did (because the Xicons are just fine) so I used those, and Dale RN65 resistors. I built it pretty much as a straight-up 5e3, except for the inputs; I dropped the lo inputs and added a channel jumping switch. I was going to build a new cab for it, but decided to just replace the blonde tolex with tweed and make new back panels to replace the cardboard ones I had on it. To shorten it up a bit, I put RCA blackplate 6V6 and Sylvania pres in it, left the C12Q, and there you go. The amp sounds wonderful now, much better than the "improved" version. I'll probably try a WGS C12Q when Dirk gets them in stock. I was thinking about trying a Blue but I'm not sure the magnet will fit.

A year and a half later I built a 5e5a. Again, since I hadn't learned my lesson yet, I built it with some mods, the main one being a PPIMV. I was never happy with the sound of it and continued to mod it over the years until it sounded completely horrible. So being in a rebuild mood (and having absolute new amp Verbot - but I've got more than enough anyway) I decided to bring it back to stock 5e5a specs, though not a complete teardown like the 5e3. At least I had a real chassis for it (a Weber - by the way, the chrome and silkscreening on the TT chassis is much better than the Webers I have). I did decide to build a new cab for this one.  I had a Legend 151 in the old cab, but put a JBL K130 that I bought from Thomas in it this time. I'm much happier with it now.

So here's a photo of them, along with my Revibe, also in tweed. I don't have anything left to rebuild now.

steven

Hallo steven,

willkommen im 5E3-Club

Meiner bleibt auch nach 16 Jahren stock - der Alnico Blue paßt bei mir wunderbar - inklusive Magnet-Cover...
...und ist meiner Ansicht nach der pefekte Lautsprecher für den 5E3....

Meiner ist ein Victoria, dürfte also "Original-Abmessungen" haben.

Frohe Ostern und GRüße

Jochen

Hübsches Osternest, Steven   :topjob:

New amp Verbot - das klingt nach Nutbush city limits...
Aber bei Teles gibt es doch hoffentlich kein Verbot? 

Seit ich mehrere angefangene Amp Projekte rumliegen hab, ist der Druck für neue Amps weg. Eventuell ein Therapie-Ansatz?  :angel:

Ciao
Martin