5F1 Tweed Champ-style · 1958–1964 · 5 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
5F1 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.

Machine-checked wiring. Every modelled part the operating-point netlist places on this board — 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 — has been verified in CI, terminal for terminal, to be electrically equivalent to the simulated netlist this circuit is verified against: the same net structure, 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. This diagram documents connectivity and part arrangement — it is not a dimensioned 1:1 build template. 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). Tolerances are this project's verification targets — tighter on power rails than the ±20% measurement convention Fender printed on its charts. Simulation matches every node within target — worst deviation 14.9%.

NodeChartToleranceNote
BP2 295 V ±5% 6V6 screen node, after the 10 kΩ dropper (R10)
BP3 250 V ±5% preamp node, after the 22 kΩ dropper (R11)
P1A 150 V ±20% 12AX7 plate, chart pin value
P1B 150 V ±20% 12AX7 plate, chart pin value
K1A 1.5 V ±20% 12AX7 cathode, chart pin value
K1B 1.5 V ±20% 12AX7 cathode (NFB 22k parallels at DC)
K2 18 V ±20% 6V6GT cathode, chart pin 8

Tube-pin nodes are checked against the chart's own printed ±20% convention; power-rail nodes are held to tighter internal verification targets.

Parts list

Reference designators match the schematic above. Numbering follows the schematic; gaps (R2, R12, …) are intentional. Power transformer and chassis hardware are listed at the end without designators.

RefPartValue / ratingRole
R1 Carbon comp resistor 1 MΩ · ½ W Input grid leak
R3 Carbon comp resistor 68 kΩ · ½ W Input grid stopper
R4 Carbon comp resistor 1.5 kΩ · ½ W V1A cathode bias
R5 Carbon comp resistor 100 kΩ · ½ W V1A plate load
R6 Carbon comp resistor 1.5 kΩ · ½ W V1B cathode bias
R7 Carbon comp resistor 100 kΩ · ½ W V1B plate load
R8 Wirewound resistor 470 Ω · 5 W 6V6 cathode bias
R9 Carbon comp resistor 220 kΩ · ½ W 6V6 grid leak
R10 Power resistor 10 kΩ · 2 W Rail dropper B+1→B+2
R11 Power resistor 22 kΩ · 2 W Rail dropper B+2→B+3
R13 Carbon comp resistor 22 kΩ · ½ W Negative feedback, speaker→V1B cathode
VR1 Audio-taper potentiometer 1 MΩ Volume
C1 Coupling capacitor 0.02 µF · 600 V V1A → volume
C2 Electrolytic capacitor 25 µF · 25 V V1A cathode bypass
C3 Coupling capacitor 0.02 µF · 600 V V1B → 6V6 grid
C4 Electrolytic capacitor 25 µF · 25 V V1B cathode bypass
C5 Electrolytic capacitor 16 µF · 450 V Filter, B+1
C6 Electrolytic capacitor 25 µF · 25 V 6V6 cathode bypass
C7 Electrolytic capacitor 8 µF · 450 V Filter, B+2
C8 Electrolytic capacitor 8 µF · 450 V Filter, B+3
V1 Preamp tube 12AX7 Both gain stages (V1A/V1B)
V2 Power tube 6V6GT Single-ended output
V3 Rectifier tube 5Y3GT Full-wave rectifier (V3A/V3B)
T2 Output transformer ≈5 kΩ : 8 Ω Single-ended output (impedance not marked on the drawing; typical SE 6V6 load)
Power transformer 325-0-325 V · 6.3 V · 5 V HT + heaters + rectifier filament

Circuit story

The smallest amp in the tweed canon and the clearest illustration of a complete guitar amplifier: one 12AX7 providing two gain stages, a cathode-biased 6V6GT single-ended output, a 5Y3GT rectifier, and nothing else — no tone control, no phase inverter, five watts of pure signal path. Produced 1958–1964; direct ancestor: the 5E1 (lineage edge lands when amps/5e1 exists).

Circuit walkthrough (short form)

Input jack → 68k grid stopper → V1A (12AX7, 100k plate load, 1.5k bypassed cathode) → 0.02 µF coupling → 1M audio volume pot → V1B (12AX7, 100k plate, 1.5k cathode) → 0.02 µF coupling → V2 6V6GT (cathode-biased, 470 Ω 5 W, 220k grid leak) → single-ended output transformer (≈5 kΩ : 8 Ω, typical for a single-ended 6V6; the drawing doesn't mark it) → speaker. Negative feedback: 22k from the speaker jack into V1B's cathode (at DC this parallels the 1.5k through the secondary's near-zero DCR).

Power: 325-0-325 PT → 5Y3GT full-wave → filter nodes 16 µF / 8 µF / 8 µF (450 V) separated by a 10k and a 22k dropper (all confirmed in print on the K-EE sheet): B+1 340 V (output plate) → B+2 295 V (screen) → B+3 250 V (preamp plates).

How simulation pinned down the rail dropper

The published chart marks B+1 340 V, B+2 295 V, B+3 250 V. Driving B+1 at 340 V, simulation discriminates the second dropping-resistor value cleanly — a nice example of what simulation-verified archiving can do:

Node Chart Sim with 10k Sim with 22k
B+2 295 V 291 V (1.3%) 291.5 V (1.2%)
B+3 250 V 273 V (9.2% off) 252 V (0.8%)

With 22k, the downstream stage voltages fall into line as well. Conclusion: the second dropper is 22k — a value some descriptions of this circuit get wrong — and the schematic's printed 22K marking confirms it.

Verification

Simulation is checked against the drawing's full printed voltage chart: the 6V6 cathode within 0.2 % (18.0 V vs +18 V), rails within 1.2 %, and the 12AX7 pins (+150 V plate, +1.5 V cathode) within the chart's own printed ±20 % convention — Fender measured on 1958 production tubes, while these models are datasheet-typical, so the preamp simulating slightly leaner than the era measurement is expected behavior. Planned refinements: output-transformer primary resistance in the DC deck, and full curve-traced tube models.

Sources