Bass through a Fender Deluxe 5E3

[JapanAxe]

A while back I got into a PM conversation with Twincam which led to him asking me whether I had tried a bass through the 5E3 (Fender Deluxe) clone that I built from a kit.

For those who don't know, the Deluxe (designated 5E3 by Fender) came out in 1957 and was intended as a general purpose combo for mics and instruments. There are 4 inputs into 2 channels with one simple tone control, and everything is interactive. You can find out more [url="https://robrobinette.com/How_The_5E3_Deluxe_Works.htm"]here[/url], suffice to say the circuit is well known for having a fat bottom end because of the high value of coupling caps used.

The output is about 18W into an 8ohm 12in speaker.

Here are pics of the completed chassis (which I built from a kit) and the cab (which I didn't!) - and btw I am told that is Ampeg grille cloth:



Today I finally got round to plugging in a Precision, and it sounds pretty good at loud living-room levels. I also hooked it up to a BF compact, which perhaps surprisingly made little difference at such a low volume. However, if you want LOUD you will just add drive.

Conclusion: Not a practical gigging proposition, but a worthwhile alternative for a mic'd-up valve amp in a studio.

[Twincam]

Interesting.
So how does it sound with a bit of gain/volume does it have a nice overdriven sound?

And what a lovely looking amp btw. Very nice.

[JapanAxe]

[quote name='Twincam' timestamp='1488723164' post='3251269']
Interesting.
So how does it sound with a bit of gain/volume does it have a nice overdriven sound?

And what a lovely looking amp btw. Very nice.
[/quote]

I didn't push it far into breakup, partly because I didn't want to risk trashing the speaker in the combo, and partly because I don't much care for heavily overdriven bass tones!

With guitar it overdrives very nicely, and will do that classic clean-but-driven sound at high volumes. I gigged it for the first time last weekend and it sounded brilliant and plenty loud. It takes effects very well, but you don't feel like you really need them as much. This is the first non-reverb amp that I have really enjoyed playing - I always missed it on my Orange TT head.