The Tweed Deluxe is not known for producing a clean tone at high volumes, and as such, was regarded as being an intermediate amplifier. At the time, Leo Fender produced amplifiers with the intention of having the amplifier stay clean even at high volumes. It is often referred to as the "Tweed Deluxe" because of its covering-a light brown material which is actually a cotton twill that is often lacquered. The inputs and controls are mounted at the top of the amplifier. Depending on the model it has either three or four inputs 5E3 and two channels.Įach channel has a volume control. It is relatively small in size, having one twelve inch speaker.
The earliest version of the Deluxe was the 5A3, and is often referred to as having a TV Front appearance because the wide panels around the grill were like the television sets of the s. As blueswestern swingWesternand rockabilly bands began getting louder, the overdriven tone of a cranked-up Deluxe found its way onto many live and recorded performances. Its predecessor was the Fender Model 26 "Woodie" produced from to The Fender Deluxe amp of the s was a medium-powered unit designed to let guitarists "hold their own" in a small group. The amplifiers were originally produced from early to and reissues are in current production. Why do we need a phase inverter?The Fender Deluxe guitar amplifier is a range of non-reverb guitar amplifiers produced by Fender. This is just a basic amplification stage that boosts the signal up nice and strong. It has lost a bit of its strength from all that tone-stacking. The signal leaves the tone stack and enters the first triode of V2. The 5E3 does this backwards, and as a result there is a significant muddying of tone as the volume decreases. Valve inputs are more tolerant of lower loads. One side of the volume pot is connected to ground and the other is connected to the output that goes to the next stage.
Now that the DC voltage is blocked, the AC signal comes out of the. Tone stacks are complicated beasts… thank goodness this is a 1-knob affair! For the sake of simplicity, imagine that the first. The trouble is that the DC voltage at the plate is somewhere around v, and we have to prevent that voltage from going on to the next stage of the amp.īasically the goal here is to allow all audible frequencies through and block the uselessly low ones out. That change in current results in a large voltage change at the plate, and voila! So now we have an amplified signal coming out of V1. One way to think of it is that the voltage drop across that plate resistor is what gives a valve the potential to amplify signals.Īs the input signal comes in, those tiny voltage changes affect the biasing of the valve, which changes how much current it draws. The value of the electrolytic cap controls how low of a frequency will be stabilized and more efficiently amplified. This prevents the AC voltage of the cathode from wiggling along with the input grid, and as a result the triode amplifies the signal more efficiently. The 25uf electrolytic cap is stabilizing the AC voltage of the cathode. The purpose of these is to prevent radio frequencies from using the input as an antenna and turning your amp into a radio. The purpose of the 1M resistor is to set a ceiling on the input impedance that the amp will see.
I find it easier to use the schematic to get a sense of what the components are doing.įirst comes the input jacks and the 1M resistor referencing to ground. Here it has been consolidated and reordered, along with a copy of the Weber 5E3 Deluxe layout that was used as reference. This started out as someone on TDPRI asking for some enlightenment on what the various components do in a 5E3… before I realized it I had described nearly every component!