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These look so cool. Wish I had the coin to commission a build. I could probably do with one less guitar, but let's face it, trying to sell anything these days just isn't even worth it.

Made progress today on Laurie's 5E3 build, in fact this is as far as I can get until I get the correct Tweed Deluxe 5E3 chassis from Amplified Parts. They sent me the wrong one - a Princeton Tweed which I've decided to build to save me the cost/hassle of returning it. These are a 5W single-ended amp with some negative feedback (making them a bit cleaner - Leo's goal throughout). So, anyone keen on a Princeton Tweed 5F2-A with combo-cab by BG? Will do an 8" (as per original) or 10" speaker of your choice

love your work

Picked up the warehouse speaker from the office today and my back of the envelope calcs were spot on!

Fag packets never had as much room for calcs so writing had to be really tiny Though they were really good for shimming things. You had the foil for one size and the card for another. Sometimes you might need a roll up paper for something really thin...

Mike Clayton wrote:Made progress today on Laurie's 5E3 build, in fact this is as far as I can get until I get the correct Tweed Deluxe 5E3 chassis from Amplified Parts. They sent me the wrong one - a Princeton Tweed which I've decided to build to save me the cost/hassle of returning it. These are a 5W single-ended amp with some negative feedback (making them a bit cleaner - Leo's goal throughout). So, anyone keen on a Princeton Tweed 5F2-A with combo-cab by BG? Will do an 8" (as per original) or 10" speaker of your choice

Progress 2.jpg

I've always thought a 10" with a Tweed Princeton would be ideal. In a full size cab. Stop the boxiness?

Maybe, yeah, probably a matter of taste. They came with an 8" originally and it seems people use 8" or 10" speakers in their clones. I was just looking at a WGS G8C - it sounded great to my ear and won in a shootout of 6 reviewed 8" speakers. I really don't know if the speaker causes "boxiness" or is it the box it's mounted in? You can see the review herehttps://www.premierguitar.com/articles/ ... ew-roundup

Mike Clayton wrote:Maybe, yeah, probably a matter of taste. They came with an 8" originally and it seems people use 8" or 10" speakers in their clones. I was just looking at a WGS G8C - it sounded great to my ear and won in a shootout of 6 reviewed speakers. I really don't know if the speaker causes "boxiness" or is it the box it's mounted in? You can see the review herehttps://www.premierguitar.com/articles/ ... ew-roundup

I suspect its a bit of both, hard to tell but the small cab has got to be a contributing factor. I did make an oversize princeton at one point, with the same 10" speaker I have in my vibrolux but I had nothing to compare it with. Sounded great though

Yeah the cab is a major contributor. I went with a 12" speaker on the PR combo I built (that you tweeded) thinking it would be "better" than a 10". In hindsight maybe a 10" (as per the original PR's) might have been better because the modern 12s produce a lot of lows and those old Fender amp designs are voiced very bassy (prob 'cause the old speakers lacked in that department). That PR remained quite bassy via a 12" even with bass reduction mods. But do modern 10" speakers produce less bass than 12" speakers - dunno. 10's are often used in bass cabs (4 x 10)!! I'm thinking that with the Tweed Princeton I might follow Leo's original design and use an 8" speaker. Anyone out there had experience with this?

Yeah the jensen 10 alnicos don't have that much bass in them thankfully, still 4 in a bassman seem to do the job!

I keep reading about how much better the old Jensens (ceramics & alnicos) are than the modern re-issues. And there seems to be a plethora of old models so "apples and apples" comparisons to the RIs are hard to confirm. Have you ever compared old Jensen's to RIs?

Mike Clayton wrote:I keep reading about how much better the old Jensens (ceramics & alnicos) are than the modern re-issues. And there seems to be a plethora of old models so "apples and apples" comparisons to the RIs are hard to confirm. Have you ever compared old Jensen's to RIs?

No but someday maybe. My ears are shot to shite so maybe I'll miss some cork sniffery that I once would have heard. Its hard enough telling fender from marshall some days

Once I heard this busker singing & playing electric guitar over a jam track. He had this great tone so I moved in closer to check out his rig. Far canal, he' was plugged into an old ghetto blaster which was also playing the jam tracks. It was turned up to 12 and it was all distorting like a bastard. There's my critical ear...

Lauries tweed is now in australia, should be here mid week I imagine. I'll be starting tweeding tomorrow, I'll have it mostly covered by the time my next batch arrives so there won't be much left to do. Bloody handles better turn up this week too!

Elsewhere on my outdoors workbench - lovely weather today! I've finally started to do myself a new head cab for my Ampeg SVT200.

Pulled out most of the stops today, and its pretty much ready for tolexing tomorrow This one is laminated pine - light but strong, with it being a head, tone is not important The laminated stuff doesn't tend to warp or cup either.

It has dovetail corners - very important to have strong joints on a head cab as heavy as this bastard! Didn't take any pics, phone is flat, forgot to charge.

I'll take some tomorrow of the shell before I tolex. Very happy with how this is turning out considering I bought the wood about 10am this morning.

Re Laurie's project, my hands are tied until that 5E3 chassis arrives. I've completed everything else that I can and I have all of the parts I need so it shouldn't take too long once I have the chassis. Good news = I just checked track&trace and chassis arrived in New Zealand at 0940 this morning. So I should have it early next week.

Mike Clayton wrote:Re Laurie's project, my hands are tied until that 5E3 chassis arrives. I've completed everything else that I can and I have all of the parts I need so it shouldn't take too long once I have the chassis. Good news = I just checked track&trace and chassis arrived in New Zealand at 0940 this morning. So I should have it early next week.

Everythings coming together at once, like a well oiled machine