10-28-2026, 01:28 AM
Thanks for the reply. I learned a lot.
One quick point I wasn't too clear about this in the post, but I was referring mostly to modern clones of the Fender 5E3 Deluxe. Fender kept the same 250 ohm shared resistor for the cathode from 1948 to 1960 on their various Deluxe iterations. However, Va was increased in the later models without changing the resistor value (although other things in the circuit changed). Consequently, many modern work-a-likes with power transformers for modern wall voltages are biased too hot.
What you wrote about vintage amps is very true; used with modern wall voltages everything runs hotter. I'm often dealing with that with amps that I repair.
One quick point I wasn't too clear about this in the post, but I was referring mostly to modern clones of the Fender 5E3 Deluxe. Fender kept the same 250 ohm shared resistor for the cathode from 1948 to 1960 on their various Deluxe iterations. However, Va was increased in the later models without changing the resistor value (although other things in the circuit changed). Consequently, many modern work-a-likes with power transformers for modern wall voltages are biased too hot.
What you wrote about vintage amps is very true; used with modern wall voltages everything runs hotter. I'm often dealing with that with amps that I repair.


