Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Fender '57 Tweed Twin Project

I should begin by stating that I have never built an electric guitar amplifier before. That being said,  I decided to try my hand at just that. Last night I completed the amp itself and housed it in a head enclosure. The enclosure is unfinished, but getting the amp up and running is priority here. This is a Weber kit for the '57 Low Powered Tweed Twin 5E8A circuit. This particular twin yields 40 watts of tube output. It has 3 12AX7 preamp tubes, a 12AU7 phase inverter, and I opted for 2 KT66s as opposed to 6L6s in the output section. The rectifiers are Weber Copper Caps which have a combination of components inside to simulate a vacuum tube. They're called copper caps due to being in a copper enclosure. They run at a high temperature and copper works well to dissipate heat.

Upon being asked yesterday, I realized that I have no idea how long it took me from start to finish as I made time to work on it here and there. I do know that it has taken a lot of time, patience, a few visits to the local hardware store and more than a few visits/phone calls to local electronics guru Eric at Eric's Audio Repair here in Grand Rapids.

I had begun wanting to convert a tube organ amplifier chassis into a guitar amp, but to make a long story short, it wouldn't work out with the parts I had. Once I got to that point, I discarded the materials I had and began anew with ordering the chassis and other parts from Weber. I ordered parts in groups according to what stage I was at using all parts listed in the kit for the 5E8A model. I figured if I wanted to upgrade components at a later time, I could. Also, I was interested to hear what the stock clone kit would sound like. Here are some work in progress pictures at various stages:

The original chassis from the organ that I couldn't use.

5E8A board before soldering.

Mounted sockets, jacks, pots, switches etc.

Input jacks

Back of circuit board after soldering




Wood measured and cut. Ready for drilling and wood glue.


Cabinet sides with control panel space cut out

Front panel mounted


First baffle added with brackets added to front panel



Preamp section wiring

Circuit board dropped into chassis

More socket wiring





All tube socket connections completed. Just grounding and a couple power transformer leads left.

Star grounding at the far end of chassis


Finished guts

Mounted into cabinet with Weber Copper Caps, tubes & knobs added

Now to see if it actually works...

 As mentioned earlier, there is still a bit of work to do on the enclosure. I also have a 4x12 cab that this will be running through and they both will eventually be wrapped in black tolex. The front of the head will be covered in silver/black Fender replacement grill cloth to match the cabinet grill which I have already stretched to a frame. The speaker cab was custom made for someone before (I'm assuming studio use to to not having handles or casters) and I have since cut holes and installed handles on the sides. Still have to install casters once the tolex is finished. Once both are finished it should look and sound pretty nifty.

Life is good.

2 comments:

  1. You're a BadAss, Mr. Wilson. Fantastic!

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  2. Ha! Thanks yentles! I'll let you know how it goes once I fire it up. Then you'll have to come into G.R. to rock out on it!

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