Friday, April 6, 2012

'57 Tweed Twin Amplifier Project

So I finally built an amplifier. It's based on the Weber DIY kit for a '57 Fender Low Powered Tweed Twin (5E8A circuit). The "low power" part of it is a relative description. It is loud as hell. It also sounds unbelievable. I started building it mid-November of last year and finally had it up and running (unfinished cosmetically) on March 20, 2012. I also put together a cabinet for it and that will be finished off with a black tolex wrap and silver Fender style grill cloth so it matches the speaker cabinet I am refinishing as well.

I have never built an amp before, so this seemed to be a daunting task to say the least. Luckily, Eric at Eric's Audio Repair was more than helpful in the completion of the project. Matter of fact, I probably couldn't have done it without his help and knowledge. His link is to the right.

A few things changed from the original specs. There were higher voltages required on some caps on the circuit board and a bias adjustment pot was installed as well for the KT66 power tubes I used instead of the 6L6s. The rectifiers are Weber Copper Caps as opposed to tube. I have some pictures of the process below to show some of what goes into one of these things. It was a lot of work and I had to do it in stages when I had spare time, but the result is a quality hand wired tube amp at a pretty reasonable price. I kid you not, I could not be happier with the sound coming out of my 4x12 cab and it is the best sounding amplifier I have ever owned.

Here is a sound clip I recorded using a Tascam DR08 stereo recorder about 10 feet in front of the amp when powering it up to play for the first time. First clip is with a Deluxe Nashville Telecaster and after the awesome computer voice is an Epiphone Les Paul 7 String with a General Guitar Gadgets BSIAB II distortion pedal I built. Pardon some of the sloppy playing. I wasn't concerned at the time: