1959 Deluxe 5E3

[Willabe]

Yeah Willabe of all things it was pin 8 of V2 socket. Pins looked like they were nice and tight but the tube was not making any electrical connection on pin 8. Never thought to clean them first 

Ok. 

Well then good job!


                   Brad     

[plexi50]

Front panel looking good. Man this thing has tone i never knew exhisted! Im just shaking my head.

[punkykatt]

For an amp that age that chassis is remarkable.    When you get around to checking the resistors, please let us know if any are far off the schematic.  Perhaps some have drifted to a better place (value) for tone?  I live  in South Venice, I`m almost tempted to drive up and hear this amp for myself? With your permission of coase.  Punky

[plexi50]

For an amp that age that chassis is remarkable.    When you get around to checking the resistors, please let us know if any are far off the schematic.  Perhaps some have drifted to a better place (value) for tone?  I live  in South Venice, I`m almost tempted to drive up and hear this amp for myself? With your permission of coase.  Punky

Oh hell your not that far from me. It is a drive but doable. You have to hear this thing to believe it. The only resistors that had strayed from value were the 56k V2 cathode pin 8 that read 60k. And the 220K bias grid resistors. I changed out the 56k but have not changed out the 220k's. They read 260k. I might leave them alone. I dont think they are critically affecting the bias though in the real world i would like to see 220k as they are part of the bias grid of the amplifier

[punkykatt]

Man, I would love to hear that amp in person and compare it to my 5E3 build.  I recently had foot surgury and will be on cruches till the end of the month. Perhaps some time in Febuary I can take a ride up to your place?

[plexi50]

That sounds fine punkykatt! I would be curious to hear myself how they compare. I just had knee surgery myself in september. Still have to be careful how i walk.

[SoundmasterG]

If you want Plexi, I can share pics of my 1956 5E3 here so you can compare? All the caps and some of the resistors have been replaced in mine, but I think I still have some pics (not the best quality) of before I touched it. Other than those changes, and the replacement 1956 reconed Jensen P12R, mine is completely stock.

Greg

[plexi50]

If you want Plexi, I can share pics of my 1956 5E3 here so you can compare? All the caps and some of the resistors have been replaced in mine, but I think I still have some pics (not the best quality) of before I touched it. Other than those changes, and the replacement 1956 reconed Jensen P12R, mine is completely stock.

Greg

I have a few dozen reference google & ebay pics and some nice ones too. We were talking about comparing my amp and punkykatt's 5E3 amp side by side doing a tone comparison between the two of them. All pics are welcome though. Never get tired of good old amp pics SoundmasterG

[SoundmasterG]

Cool, I'll share what I have including voltages then over the weekend. It will be fun to compare two of the amps! I bet they will sound different.

Conrad Sundholm is a friend of mine and he built a 5E3 clone with the Paul C mod last year, and a Weber P12Q whichever model that is and we compared it to my '56. His was louder and brighter with more headroom, while mine was darker and broke up sooner. Mine has a P12R in it. Both amps sounded good and you could tell they were basically the same family, but they were both different enough. He ended up selling that amp to a local player.

Greg

[phsyconoodler]

I've built quite a few 5E3's and they can sound quite different but the main character remains throughout as long as good quality transformers were used.

 I jsut finished teaching a building class for the 5E3 up here in Calgary and the little 5E3 clones are all barking away nicely!

[Willabe]

I just finished teaching a building class for the 5E3 up here in Calgary and the little 5E3 clones are all barking away nicely!

Wow, that's cool phsyconoodler. How did you like teaching the class?


                Brad     

[plexi50]

Hell thats pretty cool. Your teaching a new generation to carry the torch (tube). Thats sounds like a very rewarding job

[plexi50]

Got the Jupiter tone caps in this after noon. Looks and sounds great. No tonal change. Voltages are the same.  Sounds super

[plexi50]

I got the cabinet re-tweeded from a good friend that really knows his stuff. Tommorrow is tint/laquer day to get the right tint. Here are a few pics of the cab corners and such. Im glad i have the original handle hardware and Deluxe logo to put on it.  Im keeping this one. Dont some of us always say that?  

[SoundmasterG]

That's looking great! Its really nice to discover these old amps and bring them back to life, especially when you get a great deal like you and I did.

As promised here are some pics of my '56, sorry it took so long. Mine was and is in great cosmetic shape. I'm the second owner and the first owner used it mostly in his house. Every cap was bad in mine so they all had to go. I gave them to him in a bag but he threw them all away....so when I got the amp from him a couple years later the original caps were not available in case I ever decided to sell it. It had a Rat Shack speaker in it because his son blew up the original speaker in the 60's and he called Fender and they told him to use one from the Rat Shack! The speaker in it now is a reconed 1956 Jensen P12R, which was original for my year. Later ones had the P12Q and I think that speaker sounds better myself.

Greg

[SoundmasterG]

For voltages, mine is as follows:

pin 6 12AY7 = 109v
pin 3,8 12AY7 = 1.7v
pin 1 12AY7 = 108v

pin 1 12AX7 = 147v
pin 3 12AX7 = 1v
pin 6 12AX7 = 185v
pin 8 12AX7 = 38v
12AX7 between 56k and 1k5 = 14.6v

6V6 plates = 377v
6v6 screens and cathodes = forgot to write down so will have to recheck

first power supply tap supplying OT = 378v
next tap supplying screens = 314v
next tap supplying PI and preamp = 224v

My amp was noticeably darker and gainier than the clone that Conrad built. His did have the Paul C mod and was using a P12Q too though so that plays a bit of difference. Some of the power supply resistors are probably drifted in my amp, but I haven't checked because it sounds great and works fine.

Greg

[plexi50]

It feels good to have such a great amp doesnt it? Your amp is in great condition. I think im going to use a P12Q myself. Not 100% sure i will ever find a 1959 P12Q. I have a P12R so i might as well use it. Did the first tint this morning

[plexi50]

Deluxe cab finished. It came out awesome looking. I need to get the Alnico speaker reconed tommorrow and put the handle on it. My friend really got the got the lines straight. I have the Oxblood grill cloth so that will be the next thing to get done. 

[SoundmasterG]

It feels good to have such a great amp doesnt it? Your amp is in great condition. I think im going to use a P12Q myself. Not 100% sure i will ever find a 1959 P12Q. I have a P12R so i might as well use it. Did the first tint this morning

Yeah it does, though I will probably build myself a clone and sell this one at some point. I'm confident I can make a clone sound as good or better, and I will be ahead money-wise and not have to worry about value if I mod the amp. My amp IS in really good shape...I try to keep it that way as much as possible too. :) My '56 is noisy because it has one side of the filament string grounded, and the P12R, while original for this year, doesn't sound as good as a P12Q or a Celestion Blue does.

The P12R that I have, I found on ebay....it was freshly reconed by Orange County and was a real 1956 P12R, which totally beat the junk Rat Shack speaker that was in there. I tried a Weber 12A150 in there and while it sounded good, it had a bit too much bass. You may do a search and see if you can find a real '59 P12Q.

Your cabinet is looking great!

Greg

[eleventeen]

The cabinet looks simply stellar. I'd have a hard time selling that even though I am not a Tweeder.

[plexi50]

The cabinet looks simply stellar. I'd have a hard time selling that even though I am not a Tweeder.

Well you wont ever see it on Ebay thats for sure. Money (cash) has become sort of meaningless to me. It comes and it goes.
If it comes in at the same rate that it goes out then i will never have to sell it.  It really turned out surreal. Final pics after i get the grill cloth finished

[plexi50]

I finished the Oxblood grill cloth this afternoon. Here is link to the final pic's. To many to repost here. Sure has come a longggg way from the condition it was in:

http://triodeamplification.com/FenderDeluxe.html

[HotBluePlates]

WOW!!!!!!!!! That's like an entirely new amp!! But old at the same time.

I'm thinking you'll be very happy you held on to it!

[plexi50]

WOW!!!!!!!!! That's like an entirely new amp!! But old at the same time.

I'm thinking you'll be very happy you held on to it!

Yeah your right HBP. The strange part for me is remembering how untweedly it was and could never have expected it to come out so well. The 54 Bassman is next. That will be a real shocker to see that cab tweeded again the same way this one was.
I think Old Spice is a good name for it