Help me wade through power supply options - Edcor?

[Lonely Raven]

LOL, that's an option as well.

[Phil_S]

Seriously...because it's pretty!

I suspected as much. It's as good of a reason as any to buy the Edcor. Enjoy.

Sorry to disappoint .... You'll notice nowhere did I say, find me the cheapest, ugliest 5E3 PT available.

Not ugly, just plain:
http://cgi.ebay.com/PT325-2-POWER-TRANS ... 255a541bc9
Remove the bells, paint them any color you like!

[RJ Guitars]

For the guys who have held an Edcor in their hand and seen the workmanship, it's not hard to understand the the high praise they get. Not just fit and finish but they use high quality hookup wire and then when they pack them for shipping it's like they don't trust the friendly delivery guy not to throw the box from the truck when he drives by... 1st class outfit all the way. I can save you a few dollars off the web price and arrange to have them drop shipped if anyone is interested in that option.

rj

[Lonely Raven]

Thanks, RJ, I might take you up on that!

It's good to see business is good for you by the way. It's been a long time since we've chatted!

[M Fowler]

You forgot the important part Edcor transformers sound damn good.

Mark

[RJ Guitars]

You forgot the important part Edcor transformers sound damn good.

Mark

I suppose I should have mentioned that! There are several Wrecks now with Edcor iron and probably a lot more that I don't know about. There is one particular project that I helped sponsor that has a quick swap feature for an Edcor, Pacific, and Heyboer output tranny in an Express build. We'll listen for the results, hopefully sometime soon.

rj

[Structo]

Mercury transformers have pretty end bells also!

[Lonely Raven]

Mercury transformers have pretty end bells also!

I found the Mercury to be hit or miss on tone though. I have trouble justifying the cost. The Edcor are close to half what the Mercury are, and from what I've seen and heard, at least as good.

[rp]

In my 5C1 I decided I approve of the Edcor, but what I hear, clean, transparent, piano like tones, I don't think you want in a 5E3. A 5E3 is in part about OT saturation. I tried a too big Hammond in mine long a go and yuck. You should build the 5E3 straight, I don't think it's that versatile a circuit that you can mod a whole lot. Everything I've tried I didn't like. IMO use cc, decent caps, and a Mission, Mojo, MC tranny. You can play around with the vol and tone layout but then it starts to sounds like a 6G3.

[Phil_S]

As I understand it, the mojo in many of the early Fender designs comes from under spec transformers. I think this explains why people are rejecting the beefier ones.

[M Fowler]

That's the problem with suggesting components to people.

Everyone has a different idea of what is good tone or how they want their amps to respond. Many take a Princeton Reverb and increase the PT/OT and add a 12 inch speaker. While another group would never do that to PR and ruin the perfect tone.

If I was building another 5E3 I would use stock replacement iron as the whole idea behind building one is to get the 5E3 tone.

I use Edcor in Rockets and other custom amps because they are suited well for that application, as Ken F. over rated the iron used in his TW amps.

Mark

[Lonely Raven]

Well I do have just about enough parts to build two 5E3 type amps, and I have a 5E3 chassis, and a generic undrilled steel chassis. So I can build one by the book, and one "modern" and see what I like and learn more about the circuits as it sounds many of you have already done.

[RJ Guitars]

There is another decent option for the 5E3 transformers, Antique Electronics has a good selection of Fender replacement units. Several of us here have dealer accounts with them and the price is pretty decent.

I always will agree that you need to build at least two versions of everything... what else could a person do with all that free time?

rj

[rdjones]

I always will agree that you need to build at least two versions of everything... what else could a person do with all that free time?

rj

Free time ? Never heard of it ...
How do I get some ?

RedDog

[RJ Guitars]

Eric,

For an Edcor based 5E3, I would suggest:

The – CXPP25-MS-8 Output tranny. This is really a big well made transformer so just by that description it is not very Fenderish... but a good tranny.

The - XPWR103-120/240 Power transformer for a 120V or 240V, 50/60Hz. line to 620V (310-0-310) at 100mA center tapped, 15V at 2A and 5V at 2A.

We might ask Edcor if they could squeeze another 25mA out of the power tranny, but they have a tendency to really be conservative in their ratings so I don't think this is a stretch. Also, I have found that their secondary voltages are quite a bit above the advertised voltage, so that's why I would go with the 310 v primaries.

Then for a more Fenderish build I would go with a 5E3 set from either Antique Electronics or your favorite vendor otherwise... Allen amps has some good stuff.

I would say that it will not be challenging to make two good sounding amps but really wouldn't expect them to sound anything alike... which might be fun!

rj