Steve St.Laurent
Senior member
- Messages
- 238
I built a 59 Strat tribute/clone this spring/summer and wanted a nice small amp to match. I was looking at Champ kits at first but after a buch of research decided to build a Tweed Princeton 5F2-A - except in a cabinet sized between a Champ and the Princeton 5F2-A and a 10" speaker instead of an 8". It's basically a Champ (5w) with a tone circuit. I have a lot of experience with electrical and electronics but first I did a LOT of reading on amps! Bought a book on tube amps and learned how to discharge the caps, work on it safely, etc. I also spent a LOT of time reading this thread: https://www.tdpri.com/threads/new-and-first-build-5f2a-tweed-princeton.779349/ - tons of great info there.
My Strat has distressed hardware from Callaham and an aged nitro finish (looks like a very well cared for vintage guitar) so I planned to do the same with the amp. I sourced some NOS knobs and fuse holder, and a stainless steel chassis from Weber. The rest of the hardware came from Mojotone. I used muriatic acid to age the hardware and chassis and used decals for the print.
For the cabinet I found https://amprestoration.com/fender-relic-cabinet/ and loved his work. Talked to him over the phone and sent him pics of my guitar and case that I refinished to look vintage so he could match to that. Then the long 2 1/2 month wait. He did an awesome job - totally worth it!!
I had a hard time deciding whether to put a nameplate on it or not. I wanted it to look vintage but wasn't prepared to spend the $ I'd need to get a custom one. I didn't really like the idea of putting a Fender one on - on my strat the headstock says Faux in the Fender font for example. I left it off at first but it just didn't look right. I won't ever be selling it and the cabinet isn't even a size Fender made - I don't think anyone would mistake it for the real thing if they looked inside. So in the end I decided to use the Fender nameplate.
I'm stoked with how it came out. I think it looks great - and more importantly sounds great! Fun project and it'll be fun playing a rig that I built! I have a lot more pics and can add more details if there's interest.
My Strat has distressed hardware from Callaham and an aged nitro finish (looks like a very well cared for vintage guitar) so I planned to do the same with the amp. I sourced some NOS knobs and fuse holder, and a stainless steel chassis from Weber. The rest of the hardware came from Mojotone. I used muriatic acid to age the hardware and chassis and used decals for the print.
For the cabinet I found https://amprestoration.com/fender-relic-cabinet/ and loved his work. Talked to him over the phone and sent him pics of my guitar and case that I refinished to look vintage so he could match to that. Then the long 2 1/2 month wait. He did an awesome job - totally worth it!!
I had a hard time deciding whether to put a nameplate on it or not. I wanted it to look vintage but wasn't prepared to spend the $ I'd need to get a custom one. I didn't really like the idea of putting a Fender one on - on my strat the headstock says Faux in the Fender font for example. I left it off at first but it just didn't look right. I won't ever be selling it and the cabinet isn't even a size Fender made - I don't think anyone would mistake it for the real thing if they looked inside. So in the end I decided to use the Fender nameplate.
I'm stoked with how it came out. I think it looks great - and more importantly sounds great! Fun project and it'll be fun playing a rig that I built! I have a lot more pics and can add more details if there's interest.
arty07: :headbanging:
