Posted: 5/30/2026 9:32:57 PM EDT
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I have a several amps. A blues jr from high school, a vox ac4tv (cheap practice amp), a vintage Fender Musicmaster bass amp basket case that I rebuilt as a project, and a hardwired Vox AC15. While I like the Vox AC15, it is horrendously loud for a home amp, and I find it hard to get a good sound. I loved the AC4TV, which is why I bought the AC15. Both of those amps have toggle switch activated attenuators, which I really like. I also really like the musicmaster bass amp. I'm told it sounds like a poor man's tweed amp. I love the core sound, but want more compression. It also gets flabby in the bass frequencies. I've recently realized that most of the sound I've been trying to replicate was produced by tweed champs or tweed deluxes. I tend to prefer setting the amp to breakup, and using the guitar volume to dial it back to clean tones. I know from my Vox AC4 vs AC15 that a 5 watt amp makes more sense for me. I also haven't heard a single champ demo I disliked. The interactive volume of the deluxe turns me off, since I struggled to figure out the interactive controls on the AC15. Anyway, I'm thinking about selling off a bunch of gear and using some of the money to build an amp from scratch. I want to build either a 5f2a with a 5e3 sized cab and a 12" speaker, with a toggle switch activated attenuator, or a 5e3 with a bunch of mods, like a negative feedback switch, fx loop, master volume, etc. I'm leaning towards the champ or princeton. Any advice? |
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I previously owned a Weber 5E3 kit that was assembled by someone else. It had a Weber 12A125A speaker in it. It sounded great, but screamed with its 14 watts. The double volume controls once you understand how they work with each other, and play around were not a big deal to me. Once I found a sweet spot I usually didn't touch them again. I would just roll the volume down on the guitar to get a cleaner sound. But, the sweet spot was loud and noticeably louder than other 10-15 watt heads I previously or currently owned. It was a glorious sound, but was just too much so because of this I ended up selling it. The tweed Champ or Princeton are close to the same amp with the Princeton adding a tone control and going to a 10" speaker over the champs' 8". I never owned either, but have played through a few of the newer variations. The closest I have to them is I currently own a Tone King Gremlin head. The Gremlin is a 5 watt "Fender" esque head or combo (w/12" Celestion) that can do tweed and blackface fender tones with its two inputs. It also has a built in Attenuator. This has been a great head and has been more useful to me (home player only) than the Tweed 5E3. I can get very close to the same tones, but at a more modest volume when needed. The 5F2a with a 12" speaker would be a great home combo. Not to big and heavy and not too loud, but the 12" would give it more bass than the standard 8/10" speakers of the originals. A 5E3 with some mods sounds interesting as well. A master volume would help tame the overall levels. I will say having lived with the 5E3 for a while I completely understand the historical hype surrounding that fairly simple amp circuit. |
Joined:
Dec 2023
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SC, USA
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The 5F2 in a 5E3 sized cab with a 12" would be my choice if you need lower volume. Putting negative feedback on a 5E3 seems wrong--too tame. I have modded my '77 DR with switchable negative feedback repurposing the polarity switch. One side is standard (BF/SF lots of feedback), the other side is approximately Brown Deluxe range (some feedback), and the middle is Tweedy (none). The difference is pretty obvious. I really like Brown and Tweed modes. I also have two SF VibroChamps and I like to play through a big 2x12 cab. With efficient speakers 5W can be pretty dang loud. Another option you might consider is to build a VC with a mid control, maybe a tone stack bypass, and switchable negative feedback. The bias vary vibrato is pretty cool, but you need to turn it down even when it's off as it will still affect the bias...at least it does in both of mine. Good luck with the project. |
Well, it's on hold because I decided to fire up the Vox one last time before I listed it. I can't believe I didn't like this thing. It is the greatest sounding amp I've ever played.  My issues boiled down to a reverb pedal causing a loud hum, one microphonic tube, and the top boost bright cap. I clipped that, jumpered the normal and top boost and turned both up half way. The normal channel fills up the bass while the top boost sparkles. With a Les Paul, the neck sounds great, as does the bridge with the tone rolled back. I get a solid crunch that can be rolled back to a full bodies clean tone, and a tube screamer will boost it to full distortion. Now I need to finish refinishing my Strat. I have a feeling that will be ice picky, but only one way to find out. I will still build an amp one day. But I'm back in the honeymoon phase with the vox. 
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