Are you playing through Vintage 30s?   They are notorious for ghosting.

The SoundCity AC-40/80/120 Top Boost is all done and sounding amazing.  Eric at Viking amps in Virginia did an amazing job and is a great guy.  More pics if you want them.

So, the project is underway.  Going with a an AC-30 front end with top boost.  Also doing a switch on the back to go from 1/3, 2/3 full house.  Should be done in about 3 weeks.

Nik's iron is great.  I put West Labs in and they sound great too, but I honestly do not hear a difference. 

Folks, I have a Sound City L120 with great Partridge iron and enough EL-34s to heat the house for the winter. It has maybe the worst pre-amp of all time.  Would it be feasible to graft a DC-30 front end on to the power section of this beast?  Thoughts?
Thanks,
-Paul

Do NOT use a pencil as a probe and make sure that you are sitting on your other hand.   There are lots of very lethal voltages in there. Pencils are conductive.  If your other hand is grounded and you get bit, the current will travel across your chest to get to your grounded other hand.  Not good for the main pump.  I like PF Chang's chopsticks best. ;-)

Just wanted to close the loop on this.  I learned a lot sorting this out.  So here goes.
1. The hum turned out to be two things.  First thing was lead dress.  I bought this second hand and it came with MM transformers.  The leads from the transformers were all over the place.  A few twists and clips and things got better.
2. The filter caps were way too small for the Transformer.  I doubled the values and the hum vanished. Completely GONE!   I saw a post on the Vibrochamp section that put me on that track.

Toggle switch volume pots issue.
1. No brainer here, I went to a 12at7 and that helped a lot.
2. When I sorted out the filter caps the volume controls suddenly got a bit more manageable as well.  I am just starting to teach my self about analog circuits so don't ask me to explain that one. ;-)

Any way I have had a blast sorting this out and I have an amazing amp. 

Thanks to all here!
-Paul

The effeciency of the speakers you drive will have a huge impact on your db level.  Try one of the other guys cabs and see what you think.  Also make sure that you have the Out put Ohm settings matched to the cab.

So it turned out to have a couple of issues, mostly ground related.  When the guy I bought it from assembled it he did not scrape away any of the powder coating. This was defeating the grounding scheme and turing the chassis into an antena.

The powder coat looks very cool but must be scraped down to bare metal where you mount the pots, jacks and star ground point.   I did that and success, the lambs stopped screaming.  Big thanks to the guys and Mercury Magnetics for putting me on the right trail.

This is an amazing sounding amp.   I am using a Nash 52 Tele with Lollar Specials.  With the guitar volume wide open on the bridge pickup, it is incredibly aggresive, snarly, in your face, pack of Hell's Angels at the end of a long weekend fired up! Roll off the guitar volume and you are in Bakersfield twang on steroids territory.  Wow what a ride!

I had fun fixing it, I learned a bunch and I have a great amp.  Thanks for the input folks.   

I turned this up with Google.  Interesting read.

http://online.physics.uiuc.edu/courses/phys498pom/student_projects/fall04/james_milsk_gabe_jacome/james_milsk_gabe_jacome_modified_5e3_deluxe.pdf

Thanks Grod915! 

Mission amps looks like a great resource.   I am OK with the abruptness of the controls if they are working as designed.   I spoke with the guys at Mercury Magnetics and they say I have a ground loop.  I have exauhsted my personal tech skill at this point and am very lucky to have a very good tech in my area, Eric at Viking Amps.   I will be taking it to Eric this week.   

The tone I am getting out of this amp is nothing short of amazing.  All the roar of a tweaked marshall with the fat sassy soul only a Fender can cough up, all at once and at a volume that will not bring the cops.  I will be in amp heaven when the dynamo hum is sorted out.

All the best,
-p

Hi folks!  I picked up a used 5E3 and I am loving it.  It was modded by the previous owner with Mercury PT and OT's.  Other than that it apears to be straight.

I have three questions though. 

1. The volume pots seem to have 3 modes, Off, Clean (1-2), and full blast (2+).  Working as designed or do I have some work to do.  i would like them to be somewhat more gradual.

2. When you are hot and come off of standby the amp makes a clicking sound.  Same thing when you come on from cold.

3. Regardless of pre amp tubes used including JAN NOS, the chassis is microphonic.  If you tap is with a metal object the sound gets amplified.

Thoughts?