5E3 Kit Build Done!

Okay, I know, I'm a bad blogger. Been weeks without an update and now an update without pictures. C'est la vie.

First the bad:

• The cab came with some glue overspray on the bare pine, locking in someone's pencil markings. I guess I could sand this off but I don't really see the point. 
• The box joints are cut too deep on one corner so they don't mount flush - you can see some gaps on the inside. The outside is smooth even through the tweed, so I'm assuming it looks fine on the outside. 
• The kit was missing the brass grounding plate. I wasn't going to use it for grounding, but it would've helped assembly somewhat. Customer service was very responsive when I was considering upgrading my cab, but I haven't been able to get them to return my emails since.  UPDATE: I have since received the brass grounding plate. Looks like these folks are just super busy.
• The pilot light holder fell apart almost immediately. The fuse holder does look cheap (the two biggest caveats of these kits) but it's holding up fine. I bought a replacement but I don't see a need to swap it in yet. 
• One of the chicken head knobs was chipped and missing its setscrew. 
• The eyelet board was shipped loose inside the chassis (despite everything else being wrapped in foam) and scraped up the inside of the chassis a bit. The scratches are under where (heh) the eyelet board is mounted, so whatever. 
• The cap over the speaker's magnet came off during shipping and was rolling around. There was no damage. 
• The sheet metal screws for mounting the eyelet board to the chassis apparently aren't self-tapping, or if they are I did something wrong. I know this is how it was done Back In The Day, but I just used #6 machine screws with nuts for a more secure connection. 
• The ceramic octal sockets aren't great. The plastic standoffs were too thick so with them installed the socket couldn't be secured to the chassis. One of the pins just up and fell out of an octal socket - one of the four you need for the 5Y3. I replaced it with an adjacent unused pin.

 Now the good:

• The chassis face is really shiny; the stainless took a good polish and the outside of the chassis is impeccable. 
• The cab is sturdy, with no rattles or vibrations.
• The chassis mounts well in the cab. 
• Everything functions as it should, the component values were all correct, and the tubes are fine. 
• The speaker sounds great. In fact, the whole amp sounds great. That's kind of a given with a proven design, but it's the most important criterion, so there you go. 
• The cost is right. If I could've swung another couple hundred I would've avoided a few headaches, sure, but at my budget I'll take the headaches. It's like I got paid to get frustrated! 

I'm sure I'll think of more as I go along. 

I did a few things differently from the stock build, but I left the circuit alone. Some things did pain me to leave out (no screen grid stoppers?! no grid stopper on the cathodyne?! freaking huge coupling & bypass caps all over the place?!) but it's a 5E3. By the time I got done with it, it would sound like a completely different amp - might not be a bad thing, but it wouldn't be a 5E3 anymore.

I did change the grounding scheme though, and I would have even if I had gotten the grounding plate. The stock grounding is just a terrible idea; sorry Leo.

Not super helpful in grey, but I can't convince Paint that this is actually a color picture. Ignore the heater wiring and ground switch.

The circuit only contacts the chassis at one point - the input jacks. Sure, they shouldn't be daisy-chained, but it's a tight fit getting three leads into those jacks' terminals. I might fix that at some point (sleeve of 1 to sleeve of 2, connect sleeves of 2 together) but it's so quiet as-is that I might not bother. Eh, it's going to bug me.

The output jacks are connected to the chassis, but they're isolated from the circuit by the output transformer, and there's no NFB. No current flow = no ground loop. If I had some isolated jacks lying around I would've used those. The main output jack is a switching jack, which helps if there's no speaker cord plugged in. Damn useless if there is a speaker cord plugged in on the amp side and disconnected on the cab side though. I'd prefer to use isolated jacks with a 470R/5W resistor across the terminals as "oh shit" protection.

Anyway -

• there are no ground currents rippling around through the chassis, so it's acting as a shield. 
• The input jacks are grounded to the first stage's cathode resistor - it would be better to have the filter cap right here, but whatcha gonna do. 
• The tone/volume controls are grounded to the next stage's cathode resistor, as they act as its grid leak.
• All the grounds on the filter caps are connected together, and the PT center tap goes right to the negative terminal of the first filter cap. 
• This chassis comes with a welded bolt intended for use as a ground point. I instead used it as the earth ground connection, which normally builders wedge between the PT and the chassis on one of the PT bolts, which is a bad idea - understandable in a vintage amp where you don't want to drill new holes, but in a new build it's a no-brainer.

In the same vein, I connected the heater center tap to the top of the 6V6s' cathode resistor for 20-some-odd volts of heater elevation. Might as well in a cathode-biased amp; free noise reduction.

The last main tweak I did is running all the wires above the eyelet board (but under the components.) It's a little uglier, sure, but it makes swapping components (and verifying connections) so much easier.

Wow would this be so much better with pictures. I'll update when I can find that stupid USB cable.