5E3 Tweed Deluxe‑style · 1955–1960 · 15 W

✓ verified 2026-07-18
Schematic — redrawn in KiCad · scroll to zoom, drag to pan
Board layout — redrawn reference diagram · source noted on the drawing Print sheet ↗
5E3 eyelet board layout — an original diagram redrawn from the published layout drawing, showing the principal parts in the order that drawing places them on the board, drawn in the period layout-sheet style with each value lettered on the part.

Scroll the drawing sideways to read the whole board — the source line and the colour legend run along the bottom of the sheet — or open the full-size diagram in its own tab. Values are lettered on the parts in the period shorthand — .02-400, 250-5, 1MEG: how to read it.

Machine-checked wiring. Every modelled part the operating-point netlist places on this board has been verified in CI, terminal for terminal, to be electrically equivalent to the simulated netlist this circuit is verified against. This diagram documents connectivity and part arrangement — it is not a dimensioned 1:1 build template.

Details

The modelled parts are the tube sockets, the plate, cathode and grid-leak resistors, the power-rail droppers, and the coupling and bypass capacitors whose two leads are both named DC nodes; the check proves the same net structure, with no missing or extra connections. Parts outside that DC model — the volume / tone / mixer control-network internals, the negative-bias front end, and the heater chain, pilot lamp and power-transformer / rectifier AC side — are drawn from the cited sources but are not machine-checked; the CI report enumerates every one of their terminals so the boundary is explicit rather than silent.

Board and part positions are drawn at diagram scale, and lead dress, grounding paths, and physical spacing all matter in a high-voltage chassis. If you build from it, verify every connection against the schematic above and the operating-point table below as you go.

Operating point vs. published chart

Chart values read from the published drawing — or, where the drawing carries no voltage chart, from the cited published measurements (never reproduced). The simulated column is this circuit's own netlist solved in ngspice by the run that gates it; every deviation beside it is those two numbers compared, not a separately stated figure. Tolerances are this project's verification targets: tube-pin nodes carry the tolerance the cited source states, or ±20% — the era's printed convention — where it states none, and power rails are held to tighter internal targets. Every gated node lands within target — worst deviation 12.9%.

Node Chart Simulated Deviation Tolerance Note
BP2 295 V 319.2 V 8.2% ±15% screens node (after the 5 kΩ dropper)
BP3 250 V 234.2 V 6.3% ±15% preamp node (after the 22 kΩ dropper)
PAY1 140 V 122.0 V 12.9% ±20% 12AY7 plate — Robinette: 110 V drop across 100k from 250 V
PAY2 140 V 122.0 V 12.9% ±20% 12AY7 plate (second channel)
P2A 167 V 151.5 V 9.3% ±20% 12AX7 V2A plate — 83 V drop across 100k
PPI 203 V 189.6 V 6.6% ±20% cathodyne plate — 47 V drop across 56k
KPI 45.8 V informational — cathodyne cathode (self-biased via 1.5 kΩ/56 kΩ stack)
JPI 44.6 V informational — grid-leak return junction
KAY 1.8 V informational — shared 12AY7 cathode
K2A 1.2 V informational — V2A cathode (1.5 k bias)
K66 19 V 20.5 V 7.7% ±20% shared 6V6 cathode, 250 Ω 5 W

Tube-pin nodes are checked at the tolerance the cited source states, or at the era's ±20% convention where it states none; power-rail nodes are held to tighter internal verification targets. Simulated figures are the netlist's DC solution, not measurements from a chassis.

The output stage behind these numbers can be drawn: the load line explorer plots this circuit's 6V6GT pair at the DC operating point its netlist carries — 370 V on the plates with a 250 Ω cathode resistor — and marks where the load line crosses.

Parts list

Every designator in this list appears on the schematic above, and every designator on the schematic appears here — the two are checked against each other in both directions, a valve's two halves counting as one bottle (V1A and V1B are both V1). One part the drawing carries as an annotation rather than a numbered symbol is listed here without a designator, and stands outside that check. The schematic draws one input jack per channel (the real chassis has four, sharing these grid resistors). Dropper wattages are not marked on the drawing.

RefPartValue / ratingRole
R1s Carbon comp resistor 68 kΩ · ½ W Instrument-channel grid stopper
R2s Carbon comp resistor 68 kΩ · ½ W Mic-channel grid stopper
RG1 Carbon comp resistor 1 MΩ · ½ W Instrument input grid leak
RG2 Carbon comp resistor 1 MΩ · ½ W Mic input grid leak
RL1 Carbon comp resistor 100 kΩ · ½ W V1A plate load
RL2 Carbon comp resistor 100 kΩ · ½ W V1B plate load
RK1 Carbon comp resistor 820 Ω · ½ W Shared 12AY7 cathode bias
C10 Electrolytic capacitor 25 µF · 25 V Shared 12AY7 cathode bypass
C1 Coupling capacitor 0.1 µF · 400 V V1A → instrument volume
C2 Coupling capacitor 0.1 µF · 400 V V1B → mic volume
VR1 Audio-taper potentiometer 1 MΩ Instrument volume
VR2 Audio-taper potentiometer 1 MΩ Mic volume
RL3 Carbon comp resistor 100 kΩ · ½ W V2A plate load
RK2 Carbon comp resistor 1.5 kΩ · ½ W V2A cathode bias
C4 Electrolytic capacitor 25 µF · 25 V V2A cathode bypass
C5 Mica capacitor 500 pF Tone — treble path
VR3 Audio-taper potentiometer 1 MΩ Tone
C6 Film capacitor 0.005 µF · 600 V Tone — cut path to ground
RL4 Carbon comp resistor 56 kΩ · ½ W Cathodyne plate load
RKA Carbon comp resistor 1.5 kΩ · ½ W Cathodyne bias (cathode → junction)
RKB Carbon comp resistor 56 kΩ · ½ W Cathodyne cathode load (junction → ground)
RGPI Carbon comp resistor 1 MΩ · ½ W Cathodyne grid leak, returned to the junction
C7 Coupling capacitor 0.1 µF · 400 V Cathodyne plate → V3 grid
C8 Coupling capacitor 0.1 µF · 200 V Cathodyne cathode → V4 grid
R3s Carbon comp resistor 1.5 kΩ · ½ W V3 grid stopper
R4s Carbon comp resistor 1.5 kΩ · ½ W V4 grid stopper
RG6A Carbon comp resistor 220 kΩ · ½ W V3 grid leak
RG6B Carbon comp resistor 220 kΩ · ½ W V4 grid leak
RK66 Wirewound resistor 250 Ω · 5 W Shared 6V6 cathode bias
C9 Electrolytic capacitor 25 µF · 25 V Shared 6V6 cathode bypass
RD1 Power resistor 5 kΩ Rail dropper B+1 → B+2
RD2 Power resistor 22 kΩ Rail dropper B+2 → B+3
C11 Electrolytic capacitor 16 µF · 450 V Filter, B+1
C12 Electrolytic capacitor 16 µF · 450 V Filter, B+2
C13 Electrolytic capacitor 16 µF · 450 V Filter, B+3
V1 Preamp tube 12AY7 Both input stages (V1A/V1B)
V2 Preamp tube 12AX7 Second stage + cathodyne (V2A/V2B)
V3 Power tube 6V6GT Push-pull output (upper)
V4 Power tube 6V6GT Push-pull output (lower)
V5 Rectifier tube 5Y3GT Full-wave rectifier (V5A/V5B)
T2 Output transformer 8 kΩ : 8 Ω Push-pull output
Power transformer 325-0-325 V · 6.3 V · 5 V HT + heaters + rectifier filament

Circuit story

The most-built amp circuit in DIY history: two channels into a 12AY7, a 12AX7 second stage feeding the famous interactive volume/tone network, a cathodyne phase inverter, and a cathode-biased 6V6GT push-pull pair with no negative feedback — the recipe for tweed compression and breakup. Produced 1955–1960. Its direct ancestor is the wide-panel 5D3, which shares this tube complement and output stage but inverts phase with a self-balancing paraphase instead.

Circuit walkthrough (short form)

Two channels (each: 1M grid leak, 68k stoppers) → V1 12AY7 (100k plates, shared 820 Ω bypassed cathode) → 0.1 µF couplers → interactive 1M volume pots (+ single tone control: 500 pF/0.005 µF network) → V2A 12AX7 (100k plate, 1.5k bypassed cathode) → tone-cap coupling → V2B cathodyne phase inverter → 0.1 µF couplers → V3/V4 6V6GT pair (220k grid leaks, 1.5k stoppers, shared 250 Ω 5W bypassed cathode) → 8 kΩ : 8 Ω output transformer.

Power: 325-0-325 PT → 5Y3GT → three 16 µF/450 V nodes separated by 5,000 Ω and 22k droppers: B+1 (output plates) → B+2 (screens) → B+3 (preamp).

How the cathodyne biases itself

The 5E3's phase inverter uses a wiring detail that's easy to miss: V2B's cathode runs through 1.5k to a junction, then 56k to ground, and the 1M grid leak returns to that junction rather than to ground — the tone network's capacitors AC-couple the grid. The stage therefore biases itself: simulation puts the cathode at 45.8 V and the junction at 44.6 V — a clean −1.2 V bias — with the plate (56k from B+3) at 190 V.

Verification

Every component value comes from the published Fender drawing. The F-EE sheet carries no factory voltage chart (only Fender's ±20 % measurement notice), so this circuit is verified against the best published DC measurements instead: all seven reference nodes simulate within 13 % — rails within 8 %, stage plates within 13 %, and the 6V6 cathode within 8 %.

Sources