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 Print sheet ↗
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, 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 14.9%.

Node Chart Simulated Deviation Tolerance Note
BP2 295 V 291.5 V 1.2% ±5% 6V6 screen node, after the 10 kΩ dropper (R10)
BP3 250 V 252.1 V 0.8% ±5% preamp node, after the 22 kΩ dropper (R11)
P1A 150 V 163.9 V 9.2% ±20% 12AX7 plate, chart pin value
P1B 150 V 161.2 V 7.5% ±20% 12AX7 plate, chart pin value
K1A 1.5 V 1.3 V 11.7% ±20% 12AX7 cathode, chart pin value
K1B 1.5 V 1.3 V 14.9% ±20% 12AX7 cathode (NFB 22k parallels at DC)
K2 18 V 18.0 V 0.2% ±20% 6V6GT cathode, chart pin 8

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 at the DC operating point its netlist carries — 340 V on the plates with a 470 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. 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 mid-1950s 5E1.

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