Poor man's Fender tweed amps

[Cobra]

I have a 5e3 Tweed Deluxe head from a kit from Ceriatone. The head cab is from Stagecraft.
It was very reasonably priced, & I've had no issues for the 9 years I've had it.

Drop Nik at Ceriatone an email, he has great customer service. Links below:

[email protected]

American Classics 5E3 | Ceriatone

All Cabinets – Stage Craft Gear

[Tal_175]

I have a 5e3 Tweed Deluxe head from a kit from Ceriatone. The head cab is from Stagecraft.
It was very reasonably priced, & I've had no issues for the 9 years I've had it.

Drop Nik at Ceriatone an email, he has great customer service. Links below:

[email protected]

American Classics 5E3 | Ceriatone

All Cabinets – Stage Craft Gear

Complete head unit for 675. Very good price. Have you ever had a chance to compare with an original?

[Cobra]

Kinda sorta...
I used to have 2 Clark Beaufort 5e3 combos.

Clark Beaufort

Clark is a well respected maker of Fender tweed reproductions, so they were not vintage fender amps, but they were faithful to the originals. I ended up selling them, and it was a bad choice because I missed them right away. I started looking for a 5e3 head option that was reasonably priced and found Ceriatone.
So now I have my 5e3 tones that I can use with different speakers/cabs.
Currently running it into a 212 vertical so It's like a mini half stack.

[339 in june]

After looking into the kits suggested in this thread, I reached the conclusion that from the cost point of view tweed champ is not worth building. These kits including speaker and cab will come to 600 to 800 USD depending on the seller. Fender custom tweed champ 57 can be obtained for 1000 USD brand new with much better resale value down the road if I want to. People think Fender's price for Champ is outrageous for an SE amp, but kit sellers seem to justify Fender's price.
Tweed deluxe is another story. Kits for deluxe aren't that much more expensive than champs around 800 USD. Wheres Fender deluxe is 2000USD. I think getting a kit for Deluxe makes more sense. I was thinking of building a head only but none of the kit providers seem to offer a head for Champ on their websites.

If it will be your first build, go for a 5F1 Tweed Champ clone
It's simple so that you won't mess around too long to find and repair your mistakes
I built mine for around €300, but I made chassis and cab myself and I bought all electronic components separately (not in a kit)
That was fun to build
And now it's fun to play it !
No resale value or so small, but I don't see why I would sell it
I wrote a NAD thread about it, I'll try find it and add a link.
NAD : a home made clone

[iim7V7IM7]

These...

Welcome to Lil' Dawg Amps - Lil Dawg Amps & Pickups

[Tal_175]

These...

Welcome to Lil' Dawg Amps - Lil Dawg Amps & Pickups

So he does have champ heads. Thanks for the link.

[73Fender]

These...

Welcome to Lil' Dawg Amps - Lil Dawg Amps & Pickups

As I said, I bought mine (25 w 5E3 with Eminence Maverick attenuator speaker) used, I contacted Jim once and he was super nice and helpful especially considering I wasn't even a customer.

[Mike Anderson]

I can highly recommend Jim at L'il Dawg amps. I bought a used Dlux, very impressed with this amp. Mine is a 1x15. He'll make them any way you want.
5E3 Tweed Deluxe - The D-Lux

Geez - does he do TV cabs like the '51 in Papawooly's first post? Prices are very tempting...

[iim7V7IM7]

Geez - does he do TV cabs like the '51 in Papawooly's first post? Prices are very tempting...

Jim does not do cabs. I think he will likely get one from Peter Mather (The Mather Amp Cabinet Company: Guitar, Speaker and Vintage Replica Cabinets for Amplifier Builders) or recommend that you do.

[omphalopsychos]

I just got a 5f1 in a large cab with a 10" speaker yesterday. It was a prototype by a guy starting a custom amp business. He did a very clean soldering job and it sounds terrific. You guys would kill me if I told you how little I paid for it.

[Tal_175]

I just got a 5f1 in a large cab with a 10" speaker yesterday. It was a prototype by a guy starting a custom amp business. He did a very clean soldering job and it sounds terrific. You guys would kill me if I told you how little I paid for it.

I'm leaning towards getting the Champ in the small speaker combo form instead of as a separate head since small cab is big part of it's charm. Besides for gigging it needs to be mic'ed up even with a bigger speaker probably. But I've been disappointed with the Champ builder prices so far. Unless you make your own cab, it comes to Fender custom shop prices. So I'd definitely want to know how much you paid.
BTW things look better as far as Deluxe goes. I don't need Deluxe as a combo and L'il Dawg lunchbox head for example seems reasonably priced.

[omphalopsychos]

I'm leaning towards getting the Champ in the small speaker combo form instead of as a separate head since small cab is big part of it's charm. Besides for gigging it needs to be mic'ed up even with a bigger speaker probably. But I've been disappointed with the Champ builder prices so far. Unless you make your own cab, it comes to Fender custom shop prices. So I'd definitely want to know how much you paid.
BTW things look better as far as Deluxe goes. I don't need Deluxe as a combo and L'il Dawg lunchbox head for example seems reasonably priced.

I'd say it depends on the gig, but with a big speaker, the concern you have with a champ is not volume but headroom. I think with a 10" it still makes a great practice amp and more. I'm not looking for full-on overdrive, just a cookin' tube tone like you hear on the rudy van gelder recordings. I also have a 5f10 clone which is unbelievable, but it's got way more headroom than this one. If I wanted the champ to distort at practice volume, I'd go for an 8" though.

[Tal_175]

If I wanted the champ to distort at practice volume, I'd go for an 8" though.

That's exactly what I want. Get into the natural tube Blue Note territory at practice volumes. Not rock riff level overdrive, just cooking hard bop levels.

[omphalopsychos]

That's exactly what I want. Get into the natural tube Blue Note territory at practice volumes. Not rock riff level overdrive, just cooking hard bop levels.

I plugged it into my Eminence 1258 speaker yesterday and it was exactly that. I think a 12" would be too loud for your use, but a 10" would be great. My only concern is that you might end up disappointed with how boxy an 8" sounds. You should go to a guitar center and see if you can try a champ with an 8. But hey if you tried it and liked it, go for it.

I have an Eminence Ragin Cajun coming today. The amp is currently set up with a Weber 10a125, but I actually think it's a little too mellow in the upper mids and treble. I know some people would strongly disagree with that one.

[Tal_175]

I tried it at a guitar store a while back. I actually liked the boxiness of it. May be in the long run 10inch is more versatile but since I already have a 12 inch alnico cab I'm more inclined to the 8inch for variety. I can use it through the 12 inch for the clean tweed tones. 8 inch for overdrive tones. It would be great if I could A/B the speakers. Hope the store has a 10 inch cab lying around somewhere.

[Greentone]

omphalopsychos,

As someone who has built a _bunch_ of 5f1 amps, I can attest to the nice components and build quality of your recent acquisition. I can virtually hear it from here. I will sound great.

Those little Champs are terrific amps alright.

I like it a lot with the 10" speaker.

[omphalopsychos]

I tried it at a guitar store a while back. I actually liked the boxiness of it. May be in the long run 10inch is more versatile but since I already have a 12 inch alnico cab I'm more inclined to the 8inch for variety. I can use it through the 12 inch for the clean tweed tones. 8 inch for overdrive tones. It would be great if I could A/B the speakers. Hope the store has a 10 inch cab lying around somewhere.

Ah, that's a fair point. If you've got a cab already, go for the small combo. Plug it in when you want more headroom. An 8" combo makes for a reasonably portable head.

[Tal_175]

omphalopsychos,

As someone who has built a _bunch_ of 5f1 amps, I can attest to the nice components and build quality of your recent acquisition. I can virtually hear it from here. I will sound great.

Those little Champs are terrific amps alright.

I like it a lot with the 10" speaker.

Greentone, how much does it cost for you to build a combo 5f1 typically? Do you buy parts separately or go with the kits?

[Longways to Go]

I just got a 5f1 in a large cab with a 10" speaker yesterday. It was a prototype by a guy starting a custom amp business. He did a very clean soldering job and it sounds terrific. You guys would kill me if I told you how little I paid for it.

That thing looks great !!!!!

[christianm77]

Hello amp gurus out there. I love the tones of Fender tweed amps. Champ's and Deluxe's in particular. It'd be hard to choose between them. But then it'll be harder to just drop 10 grands and get both vintage. Or even 5 grands and get the reissues. Besides I don't have space for a ton of amps. So that got me thinking. Please give your opinions on the following options and compare them. I'm open to consider other similar options that I don't know about. My main amp is a Princeton Reverb reissue with a 12 inch alnico speaker by the way and it's great.
1- Amp-in-a-box tweed pedal. Like Wampler tweed '57 plugged into the 12 inch Princeton. Will it get me there pretty much? Other better pedals out there for this?
2- A switchable tweed head, like this one: Tweed Royal w/ Head Cabinet – Build Your Own Clone plugged into my (8 ohm) Princeton cab. Would this work well? Can you recommend others? Would a separate cab be necessary.
3- Separate heads for Champ and Deluxe. Again using the Princeton cab. Any recommendations for heads? Would using Princeton as a cab be a bad idea?
4- Cheaper tweed clones. Any recommended makers?
5- Build your own kits? Recommendations?
What's the best option? Other good options?
Thanks.

Hey Tal, I think your concept of poverty maybe a little different from mine.

[Tal_175]

Hey Tal, I think your concept of poverty maybe a little different from mine.

I know what you mean. But I'm really just trying to find out if I can have me a tweed deluxe for under 1000 dollars. I can't justify buying both. I keep debating champ or deluxe, thinking about gear I can sell to raise money etc. I'm not a collector, I only keep gear that I actually use.
One thing I like about quality guitar gear is they hold their value. I can get almost all the cash I spent on all my guitars and amps within a couple of weeks if I wanted to (not that I would do that). In some ways money isn't really "spent". Anyway that's dangerous talk. None of us need more encouragement to buy new gear

[Hammertone]

Just get one of these for somewhere in the $500 - $550 range:

[Tal_175]

What's the noise level like in 5f1 amps? I heard there is always some noise/hum in single ended amps. Is that true?

[stevo58]

Noise floor depends on a lot of things, including component choice, layout, and lead dress. And it is possible to build a Champ with ZERO hiss and hum, but you won’t do it with carbon comp resistors and slavishly following the Fender schematic and layout.


steven

[Longways to Go]

To offer another tangent on cheap tweed amps, I bought a "Tone Bakery" handwired tweed clone off of Reverb a year or so ago. It's a bit of a hybrid -- 50's champ hybrid Princeton circuit (sorry guys, I just don't know this stuff very well at all) through a 6L6 for about 12 watts? I was mostly intrigued by the tone control option and decided to blow some money. You can look up Tone Bakery on Reverb to find their offerings.

So this amp is a mixed bag. On the plus side, it sounds great and is not noisy at all -- and those are pretty big pluses IMO. The sound engineering end seems pretty solid to me -- and don't ask about the inside because I haven't opened it up. On the down side, the cab is a super cheapo build -- MDF covered with tweed, so it's heavier than the pine equivalent. Also a no-name 12" speaker. But I can't really go cork sniffing about that, because that speaker sounds just fine to me.

Similar in price to the very nice looking Stew-mac kits available, so a lot cheaper than -- say, a Victoria -- but also cheaper in every way. I doubt I'll sell it, cause really, who would I sell it to? I wouldn't mind upgrading the cab at some point, but that would mean checking the chassis dimensions and dropping more $$ down some crazy rabbit hole. Meanwhile, it's cool, it's funky, it sounds good. . .. so