Holy Shirt, Tweed Deluxe!

[The Ballzz]

Well, yesterday I went to a private 8 hour jam with 2 drummers, 3 guitarists (plus me) and 2 bassists. Within the first 30 minutes or so, everyone was asking me how I was getting so many different tones and sounds without touching any knobs on the amp! I just smiled and said it was done by changing picking aggressiveness and guitar settings. One by one the other guitarists plugged in and half way through their first song they each shot me a puzzled/dumbfounded look, followed by a big grin! No pedals, except for a reverb in front of the amp and a hardwire bypass wah. The big comments surrounded the amount of sustain and feedback achievable even at lower guitar volume settings without distortion. Obviously, the distorted/driven sounds were all there, but this amp simply does so much, so well, that every body said they had never played through anything like it!

Wide variety of guitars, Strat's, Tele's, single coil and humbucker Gibson's and even a 12 string Rickenbacker. Each guitar clearly showed it's own unique character without touching the amp.

I just had to post this and brag a bit, as whatever I did on this build, it seems to have been done right! I'm a bit lost though, as I can't really see any tweaks to be done!:P

Thanx 4 Reading,
Gene

[xtian]

You can't help but let that kind of praise give you a big, honkin' noggin. Well done!

[pdf64]

Well done, your efforts are vindicated!

[drew]

Aside from the layout/grounding tweeks discussed in your build thread, is this a stock 5E3?

[victubeamps]

Aside from the layout/grounding tweeks discussed in your build thread, is this a stock 5E3?

More details needed by the uninitiated folks like me...
Is this the Suppluxe or another amp?
Link to the build/schematic etc. ? Thanks!

[The Ballzz]

Thanx Guys,
Those kinds of comments, especially from youse guys, serve to swell my head a bit more!

The next victims of my soldering iron debauchery will be to accomplish two things. The same tonal response with just a tad more drive/gain, enter the Tweed Super into the cathode biased Tweed Deluxe power section and to make a lower wattage/volume, but with identical sounds of this Tweed Deluxe or the Supluxe, if that works out.

I've never had any experience or success with single ended construction and from some friends' attempts, it appears less simple than it would seem. This Deluxe CAN get a tad too loud if I'm not careful with my playing technique and "God forbid" using an attenuator.

I guess my power section planning is torn between several avenues:

A) Going single ended, but worried that losing the character imparted by push/pull operation may be a tough battle.
B) Trying a dual triode like a 12BH7 (or similar) in push/pull configuration, but having played through several amps using this method has not totally sold me on this. I'm not sure if it was the power section that didn't quite float my boat on them or if it was simply poor overall amplifier design!
C) Find a lower power/dissipation tube (not sure if any actually exist) to use for a push/pull design?

Thanks Again Guys,
Gene

[M Fowler]

Gene,

Good report congrats

Mark

[xtian]

Gene: three letters: V V R. Get all the gain you want at any volume level. See my Trinity build.

[drew]

Aside from the layout/grounding tweeks discussed in your build thread, is this a stock 5E3?

More details needed by the uninitiated folks like me...
Is this the Suppluxe or another amp?
Link to the build/schematic etc. ? Thanks!

http://ampgarage.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=28703

[The Ballzz]

Aside from the layout/grounding tweeks discussed in your build thread, is this a stock 5E3?

As close to bone stock as you can get using a MojoTone "small parts kit" with a 4/8/16 ohm Mojo OT and a ClassicTone 40-18078 PT. The only changes were 200R resistors at the 6V6 screens and replacing the 1/2 watt 22K in the dropping string that came with the kit for a 2 watt. While the components in the kit were certainly "NOT" high end, NOS, they were not bottom of the barrel bargain basement either. The schematics referenced and averaged were the MojoTone, original Fender and the newer Fender 57.

I think the key to success here was careful and judicious attention to lead dress and other "best practices" in assembly.

Thanx 4 Askin'
Gene

[The Ballzz]

Gene: three letters: V V R. Get all the gain you want at any volume level. See my Trinity build.

Kind Sir,

Can I assume that you are referring to scaling the power to the whole amp as opposed to just the power section? Can I also guess that you don't get "artifacts" like "scratchy pot syndrome" unless you scale it down to "whisper" kinds of volumes?

Thanx In Advance,
Gene

[xtian]

Yes, I'm scaling the entire amp, except heaters. So awesome. Also, no scratchiness in the pots, because I observed recommended insertion of decoupling caps at the input.

[vibratoking]

Yes, I'm scaling the entire amp, except heaters. So awesome. Also, no scratchiness in the pots, because I observed recommended insertion of decoupling caps at the input.

VVR works well with the 5E3. Scale the whole amp and add decouplers as mentioned. Tone loss is negligible unless you heavily attenuate. The FET needs a heatsink IME. Bolting it to the chassis was not enough for me in several builds.

[xtian]

Yes, I'm scaling the entire amp, except heaters. So awesome. Also, no scratchiness in the pots, because I observed recommended insertion of decoupling caps at the input.

VVR works well with the 5E3. Scale the whole amp and add decouplers as mentioned. Tone loss is negligible unless you heavily attenuate. The FET needs a heatsink IME. Bolting it to the chassis was not enough for me in several builds.

I'm using STW20NK50Z, which cost about $3.50 each. Way overspec'd. Just bolted to chassis (needs insulator and heatsink paste). After three hours of continuous operation at about 1/4 voltage, MOSFET temp was just shy of 100 degrees F. Possibly rising heat from the power tubes was contributing to that figure. No sweat.

[vibratoking]

I'm using STW20NK50Z, which cost about $3.50 each. Way overspec'd. Just bolted to chassis (needs insulator and heatsink paste). After three hours of continuous operation at about 1/4 voltage, MOSFET temp was just shy of 100 degrees F. Possibly rising heat from the power tubes was contributing to that figure. No sweat.

The ST part has a lower power dissipation spec than the NTE2973, which I used, according to the datasheet. The thermal resistance is about the same. It's question of how much heat transfer in and out of the part. The max heat in occurs when the amp is running at half power. The heat transfer out may be better in your implementations. I also used insulator and paste as well, but the chassis that I used were chromed. Maybe the chrome and the 1/4 power are the difference? The specs in the datasheets may also be inaccurate.