iim7v7im7 Posted October 16, 2009 Posted October 16, 2009 Hi, I pulled the trigger and ordered an amp today. I reached out by e-mail to a number of builders and heard back from only three builders out of six that I reached out to; Li'l Dawg, Louis Electric and Sarah Richter. All three where quite thoughtful, knowledgeable and helpful. I am really shocked that some better known builders did not respond to my e-mails (many don't post telephone numbers). I guess business must be good or they are on vacation? I ordered a Li'l Dawg 12 watt D-Lux (5E3) chrome reproduction chassis with Mercury Magnetics power and output transformers and a line out. I also ordered a custom pine head cabinet from Peter Mather (Mather Cabinets). I ordered it in cream tolex with a wheat-browne stripe grille cloth to match my current rig. I am having it made somewhat smaller than a standard size: 18"W x 10"H x 8"D (normal width is 20" and normal depth is 9.5"). This head will match my David Allen Cabinet and will fit on top of my Allen Accomplice Head (22"W x 10"D). The icing on the cake was that I was able to order RCA NOS 5Y3, 12AY7, 12AX7 and 6V6s (matched set of blackplates). I figured like a simple food recipe, 5E3 requires quality ingredients. The complete amp, cabinet and tubes shipped to my house assembled ended up being quite reasonable in price in my view. It should be ready in late November. My new H535 should be here maybe a few weeks earlier. I decided for know to try the amp with my current speaker line up: Scholz SugarCone (100w, 98-99dB sensitivity) or Eminence Red, White & Blues (120w, 101dB sensitivity). I will see how I like it before exploring speaker alternatives. Hopefully, I can settle upon a single 12' speaker in my cab for both Tweed and BF sounds. :-) Bob Photo of my head/cab
FredZepp Posted October 16, 2009 Posted October 16, 2009 Congrats !! I love the look of your set-up, very cool. And I liked the comment on "a good recipe". Hard to imagine that half of the builders did not see the need to respond to your emails.... hmm. Your tone machine is on order.... sounds like a real quality amp...
iim7v7im7 Posted October 16, 2009 Author Posted October 16, 2009 Yeah, I was a bit surprised as well. Some do not provide phone numbers and just e-mail addresses (that apparently they do not answer). Their loss... No matter, Jim Dickerson seems like a great guy and he builds 5E3s for an extremely reasonable price (likely less than some kits cost). 5E3 is a simple, well documented circuit and some the high-end guys (who did not reply) charge 2-3x what Jim does. They put their faith in particular types of resistors, coupling caps, types of wire etc., but I would rather buy a solid point to point build and put the money into the magic fire bottles. Even after doing that I think I spent 1/2x for the amp. The proof will be in the pudding when it arrives. :-) Bob Congrats !! I love the look of your set-up, very cool. And I liked the comment on "a good recipe". Hard to imagine that half of the builders did not see the need to respond to your emails.... hmm. Your tone machine is on order.... sounds like a real quality amp...
Steiner Posted October 17, 2009 Posted October 17, 2009 Sounds as if you're poised for a new guitar AND new amp day. Better make sure you've got clean underwear. If they both hit on the same day you'll be in the cardiac ward! Congratulations! And, albeit redundant, Enjoy!
Jazzpunk Posted October 17, 2009 Posted October 17, 2009 Sweet! Make sure to give us a tone report when the new amp arrives. Heard nothin' but good things about Lil Dawg!
fxdx99 Posted October 17, 2009 Posted October 17, 2009 Nice - I've one of Jim's D-Lux 5e3 1x12 combos that I like a lot. You're right, a great guy to deal with, excellent build quality, and tremendous value. Of course most importantly is that the amps work/sound so well.
smurph1 Posted October 19, 2009 Posted October 19, 2009 Sounds like you will be one happy camper..Congrats!!
iim7v7im7 Posted December 6, 2009 Author Posted December 6, 2009 New amp arrived and it sounds great! I highly recommend dealing with Jim Nickelson at Li'l Dawg Amps and Peter Mather at Mather Cabinets. I was able to outfit it with 1950s NOS RCAs throughout. It matches my current rig pretty well (see photos) This plus a new H535 in one weekend is really too much to handle (but I am figuring out a way to suffer through:-) Bob
tulk1 Posted December 7, 2009 Posted December 7, 2009 That's a dandy looking rig you got there. And the Lil' Dawg to match the Allen. Kewl!
makotonine Posted December 22, 2009 Posted December 22, 2009 i wanted to make my ride a lil more custom so i ordered a front emblem with a silver old english black background and silver trim. i hope it turns out nice.
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