[NonMBP][NonPedal] 5E8A build

[jtn191]

congrats on a sweet looking amp! How does the sound of the 5E8A compare to the 5e3? Am I right in thinking it's loud/clean vs quieter/gritty?

[alanp]

The volume control is usable, for a kick off. (If you've never used a 5e3... the volume goes nothing-nothing-nothing-ALLON-NUCKINGFUTS, with a near-vertical gradient from nothing to ALLON at about 9 o'clock.) And the tone controls have their own thing going on (they affect the overall volume massively, compared to my 2204.)

And yeah, that's a good comparison on the tone

[gordo]

I saw the clip of Clapton commenting on the newly issued crazy money recreation of the "Lucy" Les Paul that he gave Harrison and then used on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps".  He commented that the Tweed Twins (and I think he uses the low power version) sounds most like an old Marshall.  I did a double take on that because not only is it a different circuit, but he sounds nothing like his old Marshall days.

Still, most of my live stuff these days involves using a clean amp setting and then overdriving the snot out of it when I need the dirt.  My low power tweed started as a chassis sale at Weber and then their transformers, and then a cobbled together turret board that I did from scratch.  I've been working on this for years now and for some reason lose focus and move onto something else.  Not unusual for me.  This might be the spark that makes me finish it.  Cabinet (head) is done, just needs tolex.  I used the Weber copper rectifiers instead of the tubes, but only because I found out (too late) that the Weber trans won't allow for the original rec tubes.

I'm stoked.  How about some clips???

[jubal81]

The volume control is usable, for a kick off. (If you've never used a 5e3... the volume goes nothing-nothing-nothing-ALLON-NUCKINGFUTS, with a near-vertical gradient from nothing to ALLON at about 9 o'clock.)

I'm curious about swapping in a 10-turn gain pot. On the "you know I oughtta" list.

[alanp]

I saw the clip of Clapton commenting on the newly issued crazy money recreation of the "Lucy" Les Paul that he gave Harrison and then used on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps".  He commented that the Tweed Twins (and I think he uses the low power version) sounds most like an old Marshall.  I did a double take on that because not only is it a different circuit, but he sounds nothing like his old Marshall days.

The twins he used for a few years were custom built from the ground up by John Suhr, and while the circuit is close to the 5e8a Suhr has said on TGP that not one thing on those amps were stock.

He could be thinking of the JTM45, rather than a JCM800, though. The JTM45 was nearly a Bassman head in British componentry. And the T'Twin is pretty close to a bassman in a 2x12 cab.

[Parra]

nice, beautiful amp! i must do one of these things someday...

[Rip57]

Beautiful job inside and out. Love the tweed - you absolutely nailed the look.

[alanp]

Spent the arvo playing the LP through a selection of fine pedals into the 5E8A today.

Pretty much everything sounds good through it, except boost pedals. I didn't try my high gain pedals, since I can't do them justice. The amp has strong mids, I think, so it works pretty well with most all pedals.

Boosts, on the other hand, just make the amp louder, they don't make the preamp angry until you're already going deaf. (The 5E3 sounded great, OTOH, with the Superfet kicking it in the nads.)

[gordo]

That's interesting.  I'd thought that the Bassman breaks up a lot easier than the Twin, which was my "huh?" comment about Clapton but I was hoping that the Twin would let loose when hit with a booster.  Again, added incentive to get mine done, but the wife has me on a short leash with some painting chores.