Fame Tube 5

This little amp is available for quite a long time now ... not so extremely cheap, but still low priced and its rivals have become less. No Harley Benton GA5 anymore, no Fender Champion 600. If you have one of these or can get one cheap - a worthwhile project.

It is often said that this one would be identical to the Fender and Gretsch, that's wrong. It is visually quite similar, but the circuit is as different as all the other Champ versions. And: you do not need to take care of the hum, because that was already done (see electrolytic capacitor in heat shrink tubing). With an older model, I soldered in a 100uF to the diodes of the rectifier in the same way and that worked well.

Compared to the Bugera, you have to manipulate a bit more. I got the amp, because the cathode resistor of the output tube was blown. So it became customized. I wanted to change as little as possible, and it worked quite well. It's all in the pictures - click on them for zoom, if needed. Basically, it comes down to the last Poor Bluesman, adapted to the remaining circuit.

As a tube, the AU is too quiet in this amp - unless you want to practice in the block ... that might work. Here the new front with the controls. Volume, tone, and a switchable NFB.

The small speaker is quite bright, you might want to mute it. I had two of these amps, the Jensen 6" sounded much better. But you can rebuild it to 8" or 10", if you construct a cabinet.

The picture does not show everything, the explanation is more accurate. A noise irritated me. I suspected the heating but i was wrong. Then, I noticed that the central mass had no connection to the chassis. That was handled by the input jack before - without toothed ring, without scraping the paint ... very optimistic, these chinese people. I made a wire to protective earth, as you can see in the picture.

All in all a nice amp with a decent dirty sound. The controls all work in a wide range. Of course the lows are missing, but for practicing and for those, who appreciate something more gain .... great thing.