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Pics are good. So are short leads!

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Stephen
Web: www.trinityamps.com. Facebook: facebook.com/trinityamps. Twitter: @trinityamps

DONE!

Sorry, I'll be getting pics tomorrow when the light is better. I finished installing everything into the cab, and wanted to rock the house, but it was after 10pm and the smart one in the house said I shouldn't be waking up the kids, never mind the neighbours! I'll finally get to open it up tomorrow. I can't wait.

As far as the cab goes, I ended up building one that was 18"x18"x8.5". I'll say this much, it's probably the smallest cab you could get away with for a 5E3 and a 12" speaker. I just fit, with barely enough room to pull a power tube if need be between the tubes and the speaker magnet. I'm hoping their far enough apart not to get any magnetic interference.

Again, sorry, but I'll be posting pics tomorrow. But I just had to say that I'm glad it's finally done.

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Everyone must believe in something, I believe I will go canoeing. - HDT

Ok, first of all, the pics:













The finish is actually one I read about that is used by a Windsor Chair maker to make his chairs seem like they are 100 years old. It's the first time I've used it, and I think I like it. At first, I wasn't so sure, but that was late last night after too many hours trying to get it done. Then today, under fresh daylight, wow. Just wow.

Anyhow, I play at church, and I've been using a Digitech modelling and effects unit. Today, that stayed packed up. I set up, and miked the amp with a SM57 that I picked up just for the occasion. I showed up early so I could open her up a bit, cause as mentioned, my wife won't let me do that at home. Wow, this thing gets loud! Man am I ever glad I've got that VRM installed!

The tone was bliss, I was wondering if I'd need to fill in with some reverb or delay from the effects pedal, but honestly I didn't miss it at all. The tone was just so very juicy. The drummer couldn't get over how great it sounded, he said it was like the guitar part was being played off of a CD. Not that I'm that good, just that the tone sounded that good. I was definitely grinning the whole time. I found a sweet spot for myself, although I think that may change. Plugged into the bright channel (hi input), vol at 2, normal vol at 8, tone at 9, then the VRM around 2 o'clock. Stage level was more than bearable (although some of the singers still complained it seemed a little loud, but the sound guy said there was no spillover to the house). If I rolled the VRM back to 12 o'clock, then I could bring the guitar up some more to get some nice grit going.

Only thing left is to diagnose some rattles that appear when the amp is running full tilt. I'm pretty sure it's the back panels. Any ideas on silencing them? Would some damping shims (ie. some small foam strips between the panel and the cab) be good?

Dang, I like this thing. Thanks again go to Stephen for putting together such a nice kit!

PS - I have the cab drawn up in SketchUp if anyone wants it. Not the best drawing, but it worked for me.

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Everyone must believe in something, I believe I will go canoeing. - HDT

That looks fantastic. Congrats!!

Ok, one small change was made. And a bit of upgrades, sort of. First off, I was a little concerned about our kids getting a little too curious and I wanted to prevent some possible damage. So I added this:



A picked up a piece of expanded metal, 3/4" holes, trimmed to size, unscrewed the baffle, and placed it in front of the baffle, then snugged everything up. Here's a close up:



I had some rattles in the back panels, so I took the time to put some thin weatherstripping between the panels and the cab. After all that, I turned everything up nice and loud to see if the rattles were still there. The panel rattles ware gone, but now I can hear something that sounds like filament rattles. I'm not 100% sure, but then again, I can only hear it when I've turned the amp up way past where I normally play. Other than that, I still love the amp. I really love the amp. With things turned up, I started playing with the knobs. Man I wish I could remember the settings I found. One minute, I had some pure Hendrix tones, then the Doobies, over to the Stones, then Floyd, then Zeppelin. Not that I can play any of their stuff, but I could hear the tones. Man do I have to learn how to play better.

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Everyone must believe in something, I believe I will go canoeing. - HDT

I had added the weather stripping to the panels, but I finally got around to taking the chassis out and putting weatherstripping between the chassis and the cab. That has made a huge difference in the buzz. Sometimes it's still there, but I have to be pushing the amp hard to hear it. Now the windows in the house rattle louder.

Lately, I've been plugged a lot into the bright low channel, bright vol around 5 or 6, normal vol around 9 or 10, tone around 9, VRM at 12 or 1 o'clock. Sitting there, the volume, pickup selectors and tone nob on the guitar give me so much variation, from clean mellow jazzy sounds, to a nice Tom Petty'ish rhythm stumming tone, to some nice overdriven blues.... I still can't get over how much this amp makes my cheap guitar sound good, and makes the controls on the guitar useful.

PS - oh yeah, Stephen, the nob showed up last tuesday, I'd like to say the amp sounds better with it on, but not really, but it looks killer. Thanks again.

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Everyone must believe in something, I believe I will go canoeing. - HDT

Nice looking build there, doftya! I like the look of your cabinet. Your right about the tone; these amps are fantastic. I seem to discover a new tone everytime I play. Sometimes I even sound good.

That DC voltage is also present on your pickup's as well. So install those blocking caps if you want to get rid of the scratch and not have to worry about DC voltage on your pickups...

Hey, thanks for the comments. As the tubes and speaker get worked in, the sounds just keeps getting sweeter. I havn't used any effects since building this. But I'm starting to think a little. Considering building something akin to the Double Super Hard On by Zvex, only I'll probably be adding a high pass filter for each channel. I could tune in a nice low-fi sound with that, then switch back and forth. I'm missing having a wah.... but I don't want to use my multieffect for that, so I'm starting to save up for a real one. Can anyone recommend a good one? I was originally thinking of Cry Baby, but I've read that some thing the early Vox's are better. Can anyone comment? Then I'm also considering saving up for a Memory Man. I think I'd be set for life with that.

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Everyone must believe in something, I believe I will go canoeing. - HDT

The Vox wahs have there own sound. "Rawer" i guess with less "vowel" tone. For an everyday wah it's hard to beat the everyday Crybaby. I just got a Digitech Timebender and it's the best delay i've ever used. But the Memory definitely has it's own thing going. The Super Hard on's are quite simple. Do a search at www.freestompboxes.org to get a schem and layout.

Snarling Dog is my choice. I love the colour, gas pedal, looks and the great tones.

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Fantasy Noise is what my shop of dreams is called and was the only way to beat my addiction, like many here I suffer from G.A.S.


Tele's make the best noise

The modern Crybaby wah and Vox wah are very very similar. Same thing more or less.

I'd recommend getting either one. Both are very easy to modify so you can easily get your ideal wah sound.

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http://pdfelectronics.com

If it is the same Scott, I think he and I talked about these dimensions several years ago. I bet his numbers are correct do you have a link to what he has?

Mine are a bit crude, but taken directly from an original 5E3 cabinet.
http://s238.photobucket.com/albums/ff24 ... nelDeluxe/

That is an excellent looking cabinet. I didn't see the wood type in the text, but the finish looks just like you intended to, as a New Antique. Nice work, with your cabinet skills have you built any Hardwood cabinets? Curly Maple, Poplar or my Favorite Black Walnut, maybe with a Woven Cane grille. Your box joints look great, how did you make the cuts, with a Dado? I do mine on a router table because Dados scare me...LOL...

Your dimensions seem very close to what he has. I can't remember where I got these files from. They are originally pdfs, but you can't upload those here so I just took screenshots and cropped them to size.

For my cab, I just based it somewhat on his drawings and tweaked the size a bit. I ended up with a cab that is 18" sq by 9" deep.

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Everyone must believe in something, I believe I will go canoeing. - HDT

Thanks man, I like the look too. I ended up just using some basic pine from the local Home Despot. Kinda just threw it together really. I'm planning on building a nicer cab sometime later out of cherry, but for now this one is really starting to grow on me, I might have to just build another amp for the cherry cab.... hehe.

This was my first real cab, it's solid pine except for the baffle which is baltic birch ply. The box joint was actually cut by hand, saw and chisel. I just like doing things by hand at home. I use enough machines at work, when I'm doing stuff at home, I like to take my time to enjoy the process. The first board didn't look that great, so it's the bottom, the last one I cut looks much better, that's the top, the sides are ok. There's a good dollop of putty where needed.

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Everyone must believe in something, I believe I will go canoeing. - HDT

I like doing things myself with as much hands on as poddible. If you can do a cabinet that looks that good from hand cut box joints you have a good grip on cabinetry. If you did those joints with a router (or Dado) the worlk would be much faster and leed tedious.


Here's a cabinet I did in '04 with Walnut and cut with a router and router table. (it's a BFPR variation BTW)


http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff24 ... t/e78a.jpg

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff24 ... t/cf34.jpg

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff24 ... t/7f30.jpg

Here's some photos of my home made Jig, and a couple short video demo's. There are a number of ways to execute box joints your's look great and I admire your craftsmanship, but you are taking the long way around.


DIY Box Joint Jig: (see video #3)
http://s238.photobucket.com/albums/ff24 ... Box%20Jig/

If this is your very first cabinet, they are only going to get better.

Sorry if this should be a new thread, but I've run into an issue. After playing for an hour or so, the volume will fade, it'll start distorting more than usual, even gets farty. If I switch it off for 20 sec or so, it returns to normal. I tried replacing the tubes, although the amp sounds better, it'll still brown out. Could the vrm be starting to fry?

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Everyone must believe in something, I believe I will go canoeing. - HDT

Is this with VRM on max?

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Stephen
Web: www.trinityamps.com. Facebook: facebook.com/trinityamps. Twitter: @trinityamps

Sorry, life happened without permission. I usually play with the vrm up just under half way.

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Everyone must believe in something, I believe I will go canoeing. - HDT