5e8a Low Power Twin Amp Kits - Best Documentation?

[72 Sonic Blue]

A few years back I built a Mojotone 5e3 kit which turned out great. I put a Weber 12a125a speaker in it and it sings. I had no prior experience with electronics, other than a BYOC fuzz pedal to practice on prior to building the amp. One of the reasons I chose the Mojotone was for the documentation they provided (other than schematics and wiring diagram). Without the manual and a couple of emails to their tech person, I probably wouldn't have been able to build it correctly the first time!

The amp is great for practice, but for gigging I'm using '94 Blues DeVille 410. The amp has been a pretty good workhorse for the last 15+ years, but I'd like to replace it with something all-tube, but mostly not so heavy.... or loud. And, I would also like to build it myself. The low power tweed twin seems to be a good all around amp that looks like it would be the next step up from the 5e3 with regard to build difficulty. However, from what I can see, Mojotone does not provide the build manual for any of the larger amps.

I had seen somewhere in this forum or another years ago that Marsh Amps provided really good instructional documentation and parts (possibly sourced from Mojotone?). I've emailed Marsh a couple of times over the past month, but have heard nothing back (which is surprising, since I've seen posts on how good their customer service is). Probably all due to the pandemic issues, maybe?

Can anyone who has built a Marsh kit (esp. a 5e8a) corroborate information on their documentation, and on kit/parts quality more recently? Also, is the Dave Hunter, Guitar Amplifier Handbook still a good choice for understanding amps/circuits, or is there a better, updated source?

Thanks!

 

[King Fan]

If you're ready to build a Twin, any Twin, you're ready to go without a build manual. And I recommend it. Not that long ago, we built amps from the layout and gradually figured out the schematic -- and what was what and how it all worked. If you still have the instructions for the 5E3 (and especially if you sussed out the bits there that aren't perfect, like the power wiring) you can easily build a bigger amp. Run a build-plan thread -- lots of folks here know this amp.

 

[72 Sonic Blue]

I was wondering about that. Like I said, I know next to nothing about electronics, circuits, etc. But I am OCD when it comes to following instructions. That's why I was looking at the 5e8a, it looks like the logical next step up in the circuit chain?