Replace my Tweed Deluxe 5e3 with...?

Ya, DRRI for your headroom. Especially with big watt 12" in there.
IMHO
Wish you luck

 

I'd lean towards a Deluxe Reverb. Better build quality than a Blues Junior, IMO. Any equalizer, and some ODs or character pedals can take you back to tweedsville, if so required. I alternately use a Joyo American Sound or a TC Spark (full sized) to tweedify my PRRI. Works great.

 

I found a 1980 Black Face Handwired Deluxe Reverb. You want headroom? Yikes! I loaned it to a friend who is gigging weekly. He wants to buy it. I told him to find one of his own.

It’s a beast!

When I need more power at gigs, I use my PRS H head. 50 watts of hadron, it’s dual channels give me a clean DR sound and a very good Tweed Deluxe grind in the drive channel. The H combo fits right into your budget.

I have two Tweed Deluxes, a ‘58 Fender and a 2001 Victoria. I used the Fender at rehearsal Wednesday. The bassist kept telling me to turn down. Amazing how loud 3 can be.

 

Used Deluxe Reverb RI. I got mine a couple months ago used for around $700. It's great. Really great. you will have no trouble selling your 5e3 if you decide to.

 

Will you be gigging? A DR in a house is overkill.

 

Yep, DR is great. For gigging mine (or my Deluxe non Reverb) get used 90% of the time. ... for over 40 years...
I'd get the 65 DR model if you are buying a RI.

 

Non reverb princeton

 

Deluxe Reverb would probably be perfect for you.

 

5f11. Thank me later.

 

change a couple caps and add an efficient speaker...

 

Keep it.

Get a Quilter 101 Reverb head.

$%^& Mr. Valve.

 

I have a 5E3 clone, a Champ 5F1, and a '65 Princeton Reverb RI, which is what I'd recommend if you're not gigging or playing in a garage with Keith Moon. A DRRI is a lot of volume.

What ever you pick i will guarantee one thing...if you sell your 5E3 you will regret it within a week. I promise you that.

" Best overdrive I’ve ever heard." That's why I own one. Mine has a VVR, so I can dial it down to a 1/2 watt. I did that because I wanted the amp to OD without a pedal. No pedal will EVER come close to how the 5E3 circuit breaks up...it's a flawed design that ends up working brilliantly. The volume knobs interact, the tone control past 8 stops adding high end and adds low. The channels can be jumped together into several combinations. I've never played an amp with so many quirks that actually positively add to tone.

Do not sell that amp...you will be sorry.

 

This ^^^

 

There's tons of things you can do to a 5E3. A Blues Jnr won't do BF clean. Nothing like. The reverb is - well, not BF Fender either.

If you want more headroom learn how the volume controls interact - you should have a 12AY7 in the V1 position too. Get a GA-12 SC64 speaker.

Coupling caps, grid block resistor, fixed bias if you want. You can go GZ34 if you like.

 

+1
If you're afraid to do it yourself, find someone to mod your 5E3 - switchable NFB, fixed bias, maybe a mid-scoop pot (switchable) - those will give you the possibility to go back and forth between 5E3 dirt and cleaner, BF-ish tones.
12AY7 instead of 12AX7 is easily reversible.
Filter, coupling & bypass caps are more intrusive mods, but can still be reversed, if you don't like them.
And get an external cab with more efficient speakers (2x12", 2x10", 4x12"...) - instant headroom increase.

 

What makes a 5E3 a 5E3 is a set of things - Leo started out with a generic schematic from Western Electric. When you bought tubes you could buy tube manuals which showed you how to build an amp using them.

This was a general audio amp design, so it included large 0.1 value coupling capacitors that let too much bass and bassy artifacts through - that's part of the farty nature - swapping them out is quick and simple for anyone with a soldering iron..

Alnico speakers are of the era. They add a bit of quack but depending which you have can break up early - the Emi Alessandro is a paper voicecoil former like a 60s Jensen and a good take on one. They've also got new alnico tophat models that look interesting.

Both those mods will take the circuit closer to the Brown amps - the 6G2 in particular which is regarded as one of the classics and I believe the best Fender I ever heard in person. Add fixed bias and you are almost at non-Reverb Princeton but still with a bit of hair.

If you leave the channels unjumpered and vary volume on the unused channel you will discover it varies the input impedance. That has the effect of increasing headroom and sweetening the amp. When I was gigging a 5E3 clone 6 on the plugged and around 4-5 on the unused channel worked with most guitars