Finally 5E3 Perfect !

tele-martini · March 9th, 2008, 07:20 PM

After 2 weeks of battling hum and crackling in my 5E3 build I've finally fixed everything. After splitting the grounds from the power and preamp sections of board to different sides of chassis I finally cured the problem. I also added sheilded cable w/grounds to all inputs and all the vol and tone pot wiring. Now you have to turn the normal channel past 10 and the bright channel past 8 to barely get an audible hum from her. Very quiet ! Thanks to all that answered posts, PM's etc. w/suggestions.
Time to pour an ice cold beer and celebrate!!!

Gene

jh45gun · March 9th, 2008, 07:42 PM

Congrats on getting it all fixed up quiet.

Guitarslinger1 · March 9th, 2008, 07:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tele-martini

Time to pour an ice cold beer and celebrate!!!

Mmm beer...

JohnnyCrash · March 10th, 2008, 02:00 AM

Hannibal from the A-Team would probably say:
"I love it when an amp comes together."

Very cool!

I just started my amp build Friday. My gal's father died, so things have been moving very slow :(

Trimmed&Burnin · March 10th, 2008, 02:12 AM

Good on you Gene! Are you goning to post sound clips??

zeeman · March 10th, 2008, 02:41 AM

Awesome! Congrats on getting it going. Great amp.

SEK_Hakuna · March 10th, 2008, 12:04 PM

One of my 5E3 builds had problems with buzzing and hissing. I had no crackling issues though. When building it, I did an experiment with the grounding bus. I added a 12 gauge copper wire along the top of the board and soldered all grounds to it. The end was then soldered to a lug on the transformer end of the chassis. It looked really good. I got the idea from another post in another forum, far, far away in another galaxy. Once I cut the ground bus wire and split the ground locations to opposite ends the amp cleaned up to very quiet operation.

I have read several articles on "star grounding" and, from experience, concluded that the simplest method works the best.

sjhusting · March 10th, 2008, 12:13 PM

Read Doug Hoffman's take on grounding. I use his scheme and it works right every time.

Here's the short version:

Line ground to a bolt way over on the power transformer side of things

Power section ground on the power transformer side of things.

Preamp ground as far away as possible from the other two.

Basically you want to avoid heavy currents flowing around input stages.

steven

tele-martini · March 10th, 2008, 09:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JohnnyCrash

Hannibal from the A-Team would probably say:
"I love it when an amp comes together."

Very cool!

I just started my amp build Friday. My gal's father died, so things have been moving very slow :(

I'm very sorry to hear of your gal's father passing. My sympathy is with both of you.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trimmed&Burnin

Good on you Gene! Are you goning to post sound clips??

Right now I'm using a "Made for Fender" Emenence spkr. I've decided to go with a Jensen P12Q ultimately . I'll post sound clips after installing it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sjhusting

Read Doug Hoffman's take on grounding. I use his scheme and it works right every time.

Here's the short version:

Line ground to a bolt way over on the power transformer side of things

Power section ground on the power transformer side of things.

Preamp ground as far away as possible from the other two.

Basically you want to avoid heavy currents flowing around input stages.

steven

Yep.Don't have to convince me. Fully agree and lesson well learned .Took 2 weeks of pulling my hair out to find out on my own. Note: Hair loss is not something I can afford these days.

JohnnyCrash · March 11th, 2008, 04:28 AM

That ground lesson is one that was a hard one to learn...

Sometimes I throw a build together and have to relearn it :)

Aiken's description of a "river" was one that stuck with me. Competing currents, etc.

Thanks for the mojo tele-martini... she's not feeling too well.

TelZilla · March 11th, 2008, 04:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sjhusting

Read Doug Hoffman's take on grounding. I use his scheme and it works right every time.

Here's the short version:

Line ground to a bolt way over on the power transformer side of things

Power section ground on the power transformer side of things.

Preamp ground as far away as possible from the other two.

Basically you want to avoid heavy currents flowing around input stages.

steven

+1 on that.

March 9th, 2008, 07:20 PM	#1 (permalink)
tele-martini Tele-Holic Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Hilton, NY Age: 49 Posts: 938 11 Photos	Finally 5E3 Perfect ! After 2 weeks of battling hum and crackling in my 5E3 build I've finally fixed everything. After splitting the grounds from the power and preamp sections of board to different sides of chassis I finally cured the problem. I also added sheilded cable w/grounds to all inputs and all the vol and tone pot wiring. Now you have to turn the normal channel past 10 and the bright channel past 8 to barely get an audible hum from her. Very quiet ! Thanks to all that answered posts, PM's etc. w/suggestions. Time to pour an ice cold beer and celebrate!!! Gene __________________ Nothing is more beautiful than a guitar, except, possibly, two. ...Frederic Chopin

March 10th, 2008, 02:12 AM	#5 (permalink)
Trimmed&Burnin Tele-Holic Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Bellingham Wa Age: 54 Posts: 812	Good on you Gene! Are you goning to post sound clips?? __________________ Keep your lamp Trimmed And Burnin Shannon,

March 9th, 2008, 07:42 PM	#2 (permalink)
jh45gun Tele-Afflicted Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 1,031	Congrats on getting it all fixed up quiet.

March 10th, 2008, 02:00 AM	#4 (permalink)
JohnnyCrash Poster Extraordinaire Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Lost Angeles and Orange County Posts: 7,128	Hannibal from the A-Team would probably say: "I love it when an amp comes together." Very cool! I just started my amp build Friday. My gal's father died, so things have been moving very slow :(

March 10th, 2008, 02:41 AM	#6 (permalink)
zeeman Tele-Meister Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Ohio Posts: 332 5 Photos	Awesome! Congrats on getting it going. Great amp.

March 10th, 2008, 12:04 PM	#7 (permalink)
SEK_Hakuna Tele-Meister Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Kansas Age: 52 Posts: 177 15 Photos	One of my 5E3 builds had problems with buzzing and hissing. I had no crackling issues though. When building it, I did an experiment with the grounding bus. I added a 12 gauge copper wire along the top of the board and soldered all grounds to it. The end was then soldered to a lug on the transformer end of the chassis. It looked really good. I got the idea from another post in another forum, far, far away in another galaxy. Once I cut the ground bus wire and split the ground locations to opposite ends the amp cleaned up to very quiet operation. I have read several articles on "star grounding" and, from experience, concluded that the simplest method works the best.

March 10th, 2008, 12:13 PM	#8 (permalink)
sjhusting Tele-Holic Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Germany Posts: 659 15 Photos	Read Doug Hoffman's take on grounding. I use his scheme and it works right every time. Here's the short version: Line ground to a bolt way over on the power transformer side of things Power section ground on the power transformer side of things. Preamp ground as far away as possible from the other two. Basically you want to avoid heavy currents flowing around input stages. steven

March 11th, 2008, 04:28 AM	#10 (permalink)
JohnnyCrash Poster Extraordinaire Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Lost Angeles and Orange County Posts: 7,128	That ground lesson is one that was a hard one to learn... Sometimes I throw a build together and have to relearn it :) Aiken's description of a "river" was one that stuck with me. Competing currents, etc. Thanks for the mojo tele-martini... she's not feeling too well.