New to me 1958 Fender Deluxe, questions...

[samboswell]

I was extraordinarily fortunate enough to recently pick up a beautifully unmolested 5E3 from Feb 1958. I play guitar and sing for fun in my free time (mostly a mix of stones, beatles, tom waits, george jones, marty and john prine) and it's my dream amp and I'm completely over the moon, and aside from around 5 hours of very detailed dust-bunny and dead-insect removal from inside the chassis, a cathartic and careful session using about 100 q-tips and a dab of water, I plan to keep the amp as near to original as I received it. Safety is obviously a concern so I just did the common 3-wire power cord installation, 3-wire 18ga per wire, and luckily the original strain relief worked on the new style round cord. I'm fairly certain I made all the connections properly, maybe not the open wire lug though, seems like it aught to be a ring lug instead of a c-shaped lug. I also clipped out the death cap... is there anything I missed here? Is there any point to removing the ground switch too? Does it do anything? I'm scared to flip it... lol, dont think i'll try. I'll take all suggestions and advice on the aforementioned electrical safety mods, even the "don't try doing it yourself" comments. I promise I'll strictly abide by the general rule of original tweed ownership from now on: "What Lupe Lopez hath soldered let no man turn asunder." -UD..

FYI, I do take all safety precautions and drain the capacitors before working on the amp.

Since I'm such a proud new father to this amp I've included some inner photos... including a nearly 70 year old piece of signed tape...

 

[Ricky D.]

Need to replace the electrolytic caps if that hasn’t been done in the last ten years. Don’t trifle with this. They can fail at ten years old, and a filter cap can take out your power transformer.

Btw, what a cool amp that is. My only amp the last 13 years is a 5E3 clone.

 

[NoTeleBob]

You might be able to find new filter caps that will physically fit I'm the old shells. That gets you updated and keeps the vintage look.

 

[Sparky472]

Wow, congrats. Post an exterior shot! But the guts look amazing…

 

[samboswell]

Nice, thank you. I'll have a professional check the electrolytics. Will definitely pay extra to have them preserve the old astron shells.

 

[brookdalebill]

Congratulations!

 

[monkeybanana]

You might be able to find new filter caps that will physically fit I'm the old shells. That gets you updated and keeps the vintage look.

F&T will fill fit those shells.

 

[monkeybanana]

And wow what a beautiful one. I have a ‘57 and it is nowhere near that condition. I also had to replace all the Astrons. Hopefully yours aren’t leaking DC but that’s rare with those.

 

[samboswell]

More photos of the outside back/front sides. I've replaced the 12AY7 with something period correct and also plan to replace the leather handle with one that is also period correct for that era...

Wondering what you guys like for new electrolytics? the blue SA is 16uF at 475VDC, seems too large to fit in the old astron sleeves.

 

[samboswell]

F&T will fill fit those shells.

you answered my question before I had a chance to ask it, thank you!

I noticed no one commented on the wiring matching the original blk/wht wiring connections through the ground switch. I suppose I could fix the wiring to match this wiring diagram and detach all wiring to the ground switch. Is there any benefit to doing this? What would the ground switch do if switched at the moment? i'm guessing nothing as it's just going to the same transformer loop except now in the other direction/polarity?

 

[Dacious]

you answered my question before I had a chance to ask it, thank you!

I noticed no one commented on the wiring matching the original blk/wht wiring connections through the ground switch. I suppose I could fix the wiring to match this wiring diagram and detach all wiring to the ground switch. Is there any benefit to doing this? What would the ground switch do if switched at the moment? i'm guessing nothing as it's just going to the same transformer loop except now in the other direction/polarity?

There's no benefit to keeping original groundswitch. You can wire it as a on-off-on standby switch very easily but it's not necessary.

Yours is exactly like the amp John Lennon picked up in Hamburg and brought back to England. It's the amp you hear on 'Love Me Do'.

 

[Wally]

you answered my question before I had a chance to ask it, thank you!

I noticed no one commented on the wiring matching the original blk/wht wiring connections through the ground switch. I suppose I could fix the wiring to match this wiring diagram and detach all wiring to the ground switch. Is there any benefit to doing this? What would the ground switch do if switched at the moment? i'm guessing nothing as it's just going to the same transformer loop except now in the other direction/polarity?

That diagram should not be followed. The error is in how the black hot lead is contacted to the fuse. The AC hot black wire should [email protected] the fuse at the end of the fuse holder. The lead to the power switch should leave from the ‘outside‘ end of the fuse….the contact in the middle of the housing. The way the diagram has things one could make contact with AC hot when removing a fuse by hand….the other end of the fuse could touch that outside contact as one pulls it out and one could get a shock.
Nice amp. I would suggest not turning the amp on again until a recap and good general service has been done. It is a pity to lose a transformer in a vintage amp like that. The loss in value due to such a non-original tranny is considerable.