Just finished my Weber 5E3 kit (pics below)
Moderated By: mods
Just finished my Weber 5E3 kit (pics below)
for a Weber 5E3 (tweed deluxe) kit. Decided to take advantage of their 10% off sale which ends in a few days. The website says to expect a 2-3 week delivery time. I can't wait. I'll be done with school then and can fully devote my time to this.
I'll do a build thread when i get it. Would that go here or in projects?
I'll do a build thread when i get it. Would that go here or in projects?
Last edited by Justin J on Mon Aug 11, 2008 7:50 am, edited 1 time in total.
finally got it this morning. now i'm gonna build it. i'll take a bunch of pictures as i do so and post 'em here. i know at least mike will be interested.
i bought some lacquer yesterday to protect the tweed, but it turns out that it's already coated in something. everyone always talks about how they put shellac on theirs. so i assumed that it was gonna be bare tweed, but i guess they just do it to make it look older. it looks pretty nice to me.
![Image](http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m42/bubbles_horwitz/hpim0494.jpg)
i bought some lacquer yesterday to protect the tweed, but it turns out that it's already coated in something. everyone always talks about how they put shellac on theirs. so i assumed that it was gonna be bare tweed, but i guess they just do it to make it look older. it looks pretty nice to me.
![Image](http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m42/bubbles_horwitz/hpim0494.jpg)
alright. i just finished it this evening. probably would've finished it days ago if i hadn't been sick all week.
i was so relieved when i plugged it in and it worked with no problems. i decided to assemble everything inside the chassis to save headaches later on.
it was a pretty fun build and sounds pretty good. i imagine it'll sound much better once the speaker is broken in and i put in some better tubes. like all 5E3s it's very touch sensitive. light picking yields sparkly clean sounds and heavy strumming yields nice overdrive sounds. you can jump the channels together and crank the volume for even more overdrive.
anyway, enough of that crap. here are some pics:
tube sockets installed
![Image](http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m42/bubbles_horwitz/5E3/hpim0495.jpg)
![Image](http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m42/bubbles_horwitz/5E3/hpim0496.jpg)
installing these little gaskets for the leads from the output transformer
![Image](http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m42/bubbles_horwitz/5E3/hpim0497.jpg)
assembled board
![Image](http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m42/bubbles_horwitz/5E3/hpim0499.jpg)
![Image](http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m42/bubbles_horwitz/5E3/hpim0500.jpg)
assembled amp. you can tell it's not as clean as other builds. there's some delicious spaghetti over at the brass grounding plate and coming out of the power transformer.
![Image](http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m42/bubbles_horwitz/5E3/hpim0501.jpg)
![Image](http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m42/bubbles_horwitz/5E3/hpim0502.jpg)
![Image](http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m42/bubbles_horwitz/5E3/hpim0503.jpg)
![Image](http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m42/bubbles_horwitz/5E3/hpim0504.jpg)
![Image](http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m42/bubbles_horwitz/5E3/hpim0505.jpg)
![Image](http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m42/bubbles_horwitz/5E3/hpim0506.jpg)
![Image](http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m42/bubbles_horwitz/5E3/hpim0507.jpg)
![Image](http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m42/bubbles_horwitz/5E3/hpim0508.jpg)
![Image](http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m42/bubbles_horwitz/5E3/hpim0509.jpg)
![Image](http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m42/bubbles_horwitz/5E3/hpim0510.jpg)
i was so relieved when i plugged it in and it worked with no problems. i decided to assemble everything inside the chassis to save headaches later on.
it was a pretty fun build and sounds pretty good. i imagine it'll sound much better once the speaker is broken in and i put in some better tubes. like all 5E3s it's very touch sensitive. light picking yields sparkly clean sounds and heavy strumming yields nice overdrive sounds. you can jump the channels together and crank the volume for even more overdrive.
anyway, enough of that crap. here are some pics:
tube sockets installed
![Image](http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m42/bubbles_horwitz/5E3/hpim0495.jpg)
![Image](http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m42/bubbles_horwitz/5E3/hpim0496.jpg)
installing these little gaskets for the leads from the output transformer
![Image](http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m42/bubbles_horwitz/5E3/hpim0497.jpg)
assembled board
![Image](http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m42/bubbles_horwitz/5E3/hpim0499.jpg)
![Image](http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m42/bubbles_horwitz/5E3/hpim0500.jpg)
assembled amp. you can tell it's not as clean as other builds. there's some delicious spaghetti over at the brass grounding plate and coming out of the power transformer.
![Image](http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m42/bubbles_horwitz/5E3/hpim0501.jpg)
![Image](http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m42/bubbles_horwitz/5E3/hpim0502.jpg)
![Image](http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m42/bubbles_horwitz/5E3/hpim0503.jpg)
![Image](http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m42/bubbles_horwitz/5E3/hpim0504.jpg)
![Image](http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m42/bubbles_horwitz/5E3/hpim0505.jpg)
![Image](http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m42/bubbles_horwitz/5E3/hpim0506.jpg)
![Image](http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m42/bubbles_horwitz/5E3/hpim0507.jpg)
![Image](http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m42/bubbles_horwitz/5E3/hpim0508.jpg)
![Image](http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m42/bubbles_horwitz/5E3/hpim0509.jpg)
![Image](http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m42/bubbles_horwitz/5E3/hpim0510.jpg)
that's pretty much the extent of my electronics ability. if you're proficient with a soldering iron and can follow the wiring diagram, then i'm sure you can handle it.
just look at the pictures of previous builds on the weber website to get a good feel for the layout.
edit:
be aware that a few of the parts supplied by weber are of very low quality. particularly the fuse holder and the pilot light. i didn't even use the fuse holder supplied and instead used an old one i got at apex. i'm gonna order a new pilot light as the one supplied is made entirely of cheap plastic. i was very careful not to melt it.
just look at the pictures of previous builds on the weber website to get a good feel for the layout.
edit:
be aware that a few of the parts supplied by weber are of very low quality. particularly the fuse holder and the pilot light. i didn't even use the fuse holder supplied and instead used an old one i got at apex. i'm gonna order a new pilot light as the one supplied is made entirely of cheap plastic. i was very careful not to melt it.
Last edited by Justin J on Mon Aug 11, 2008 6:49 am, edited 1 time in total.
- Mike
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Fucking hell mate you don't mess around. Congratulations, you're officially a kick-ass amp builder. I would say that is very clean for a first build, if I get near that level of tidiness I'll be elated.
Thanks for sharing all the pictures, any chance you can make some sound samples? How loud is it?
Wow. Well done.
Thanks for sharing all the pictures, any chance you can make some sound samples? How loud is it?
Wow. Well done.
i've only been playing with it at about 3 or so and it's fairly loud there. i imagine it could be giggable if the venue was small and you didn't care about headroom.
sound samples, now that i think of it, i'm not sure. know of any good open source audio programs? i used to use audacity, but i recently switched over to linux and can't remember if they have a compatible version. i'll track something down and try to throw together some sound clips. might take me a few days, though.
sound samples, now that i think of it, i'm not sure. know of any good open source audio programs? i used to use audacity, but i recently switched over to linux and can't remember if they have a compatible version. i'll track something down and try to throw together some sound clips. might take me a few days, though.