# 5E3 Deluxe Interactive Volume controls (not)



## DavidP (Mar 7, 2006)

I recently hauled out my Mission 5E3 "Tweedy Deluxe" clone I'd mothballed for the past couple of years (for you-know-what reasons). This was my first build back in 2003 so I figured it may be time for some filter cap maintenance given age and recent inactivity.

After some twiddling, I find no discernible change as I increase the normal channel volume control while plugged into the bright channel set around 6 (my sweet spot)...

To re-familiarize myself with the volume controls, I viewed the great in-depth demo by RecProAudio (



). At 14:40 he zeros the bright channel and brings up the normal channel, while plugged into the bright channel 1, resulting in increasing amp volume. Hmm, nothing like that occurs on mine...

So... fellow 5E3 owners, before I start troubleshooting this in depth, I'd love to hear back from others when doing this manipulation.


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## Alan Small (Dec 30, 2019)

If you wired like this schematic then turning up the unused channel between 6 and 12 while used channel is "dimed" at 12 the sound will clean up and head into blackface scooped mid territory with less volume and distortion...it will sound cleaner and a bit quieter

This has been my experience with pure stock fender 5E3 schematic builds


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## RBlakeney (Mar 12, 2017)

On mine if I crank the volume in the channel I’m not using, it brings the volume down on the channel I am.


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## Alan Small (Dec 30, 2019)

RBlakeney said:


> On mine if I crank the volume in the channel I’m not using, it brings the volume down on the channel I am.


This is as it should be in my experience...lower volume and less dirt....Neil Young used this method to go from dirty to clean with a nifty dial turning machine he called "the wizzer"


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## Alan Small (Dec 30, 2019)

"This was my first build back in 2003 so I figured it may be time for some filter cap maintenance given age and recent inactivity."

New and well made caps in 03 should be fine for many decades(many fender amps made in the 60s still sound great with all original caps)..

contact cleaning(jacks, pins and sockets, pots) should be done regularly


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