This amp came to life from a combination of components from various vendors. The cab is from Mojotone and is absolutely brilliant. Solid pine covered with lacquered tweed tolex, just like the originals. The transformers are also Mojotone/Heyboer and sound fantastic.
The circuit is implemented in an eyelet board and vintage-correct cloth-covered wire has been used in most places to keep a vintage vibe. Special care was taken to avoid hum - i used shielded wire where necessary as well as a very effective grounding scheme and lead dressing. I used carbon comp resistors along with Sprague Atom electrolytics and Mallory coupling caps. One interesting thing about such a simple circuit is that every component affects the tone and a simple swap can make a big difference. For example, i used to have Orange Drop coupling caps in there but found the amp to sound a bit harsh. I replaced the orange drops with Mallory caps and the difference was obvious - harshness went away.
The speaker is a Weber 12A125A, 8Ohms, light dope and sounds fantastic. Another interesting side of this simple circuit is how much the sound is affected by tubes. It sounds much better with NOS tubes but if money is tight my recommendation for power tubes is Tung-Sol reissue.
I really, really liked the amp stock, the interaction (bleeding) of the two channels, everything actually and that's why i kept mods to a minimum. I only added an impedance switch in case i use an external cabinet that is not 8 ohms.
Update: In my attempt to get a bit more flexibility out of this circuit, I decided to implement a 3-way feedback switch (details can be found in Rob Robinette's excellent 5E3 Mods page). In short, position 1 is the stock 5E3 configuration, position 2 lifts the V2A cathode bypass capacitor and lastly position position 3 inserts on top a 56K negative feedback resistor from the O.T. 8 Ohm tap. Highly recommended!
A great amp for sure!
