Torres Tweed Deluxe 5E3

This little amplifier (roughly 43 x 51 x 24cm) produced a full 15 Watts from two 6V6 valves running in Class A mode. And with all its little idiosyncrasies intact, it is, in my opinion, the definitive blues/rock amplifier. The Tweed Deluxe is such a seminal amplifier, is so desirable and (in its original form) so expensive, that there are at least 30 or 40 companies out there making clones or variants of it, either as kits or as completed amplifiers. Part of the reason for this plethora of plagiarism is that the 5E3 circuit is extremely simple, and so anyone who can hold a soldering iron can probably build one fairly easily.

One of the companies producing 'Tweed Deluxe' kits and completed amplifiers is Californian Dan Torres' Torres Engineering, which has been designing, making, repairing, modifying and restoring guitar amplifiers for some considerable time. Dan Torres doesn't claim to produce an exact Tweed Deluxe clone, but does state that his version is hand-wired in traditional style with minimum circuit modification, and that it is (in all essential features) a reproduction of the classic Fender design. The Torres Tweed Deluxe is available only as a kit, and Vyse Ltd (who sell Torres' products in the UK) offer a build service that will produce a completed amplifier (as reviewed here) at an extra cost.

From the outside, the Torres Tweed Deluxe looks virtually identical to the original, with some minor exceptions. The first is that the amplifier's nameplate has not only moved from the front of the amplifier to the top, but has also grown considerably in size. Next, there is an additional mounting bolt on either side, to help keep the amplifier chassis in position. The final exceptions are the labelling of the input jacks and their volume controls — on the original, these were labelled Mic(rophone) and Inst(rument), and on the Torres they are labelled Normal and Bright.

The combo-style cabinet is made of solid pine and is neatly covered in authentically striped luggage tweed, for a true vintage vibe. Also, in this particular amplifier, the cabinet carries an upgrade from the standard in the shape of a Jensen P12R loudspeaker. As with the original, the metal chassis is heavily chromed, with all legending silk-screened onto it in white. Physically, the valves hang off the opposite side of the chassis to the controls, the top panel of the cabinet covers the open base of the chassis and the transformers sit on what would be the top of the amp. Speaker outputs sit in-between the preamp and output valves. The valve balance almost couldn't be simpler and comprises (from right to left, looking at the back of the cabinet) a low gain 12AY7 preamp valve and a high gain 12AX7 valve — half of which is the second preamp stage, with the other half acting as the phase inverter driving the two 6V6 output valves that sit next to it. The required DC voltages are supplied to the amplifier by the 5Y3 rectifier valve, which completes the lineup.

The control and input layout is simplicity itself: from right to left, you'll find Normal channel low and high level jacks, Bright low and high level jacks, individual volume controls for the Normal and Bright inputs, a Tone control common to both, a blue pilot light, a toggle switch labelled Off/On, a fuse holder and another toggle switch labelled Ground. I have used the word 'labelled', intentionally as neither of these last two switches does what it says on the chrome. The Ground switch is in fact the mains on/off switch, and the On/Off switch is actually the standby/on switch. Personally, I don't approve of mislabelled switches (especially where mains power and other high voltages are involved) and I would have thought it prudent for Torres to re-label the switches to reflect reality, not nostalgia.

In practical terms, there is a very good reason for moving to separate standby and mains switching. In the original Tweed Deluxe, there isn't a standby switch, so the valves are forced to start working instantaneously, which results in shortened tube life. Add to this the fact that the 6V6 output valves are running in Class A, virtually at the limit of their power dissipation capability, and you'll understand why original Tweed Deluxes have a reputation for short valve life.

Once I'd worked out that the reason for the amplifier not working was the existence of the 'Ground-labelled' mains switch, I was off and running. You may remember that I mentioned the original 5E3 circuit's idiosyncrasies in the introduction. Now I can happily report that the Torres Tweed Deluxe seems to exhibit them all.

Original Tweed Deluxes are known for being a bit noisy, and the Torres lives up to its heritage with a fairly high level of hiss and hum. This background noise isn't going to be too much of a problem at a gig, but in the typical bedroom recording studio it's going to be a bit annoying, unless you're good with a noise gate. Another anomaly in the original circuit is that the tone control at 12 o'clock attenuates treble frequencies about twice as much as bass frequencies, thus biasing the amp's tonality towards the bass end. This doesn't help the perceived level of hum one little bit.

Another 'feature' of the original 5E3 circuit is the high level of interaction between the two sets of inputs and the Tone control. If you plug in to one, turn its volume to zero and turn its neighbour up, then you'll hear the other input. In addition, if you've got the volume of your input turned up, you turn the unused one up fully and both of them go up to 12 (which is of course one louder than Spinal Tap!), you'll end up with very little sound indeed. Due to its location in the circuit, when you wind the Tone control up towards 12, as well as adding potentially ear-shredding treble, you'll start to add gain. This becomes especially obvious at the higher settings.

The 'best' Tweed Deluxe foible of all is that as soon as you turn the volume up past 3 or 4, you'll find yourself running into distortion, which is why this little amp is so loved and revered. If you are looking for clean sounds then the Tweed Deluxe isn't the amplifier for you. In any event, unless you know how best to drive a Tweed Deluxe you won't get the best out of it, and you will never understand why it is worshipped in the way that it is.

The first thing that you have to know about the Torres Tweed Deluxe, or the original, is that the Normal channel has a pretty dark tonality, while the Bright channel has enough treble in it to slice through anything. You can use the volume control of the input that you're not plugged into, together with the Tone control, to modify tone and gain in the other channel. For example, if you're in the Bright channel, you can use the Normal channel Volume pot to affect the Bright channel's mid and gain. Turning up the Tone adds overall gain as well as treble, since it directly drives the second preamp stage. So, balancing the two Volume controls, the Tone control, the volume and tone settings on your guitar — plus your pick and/or finger attack — gives you access to a multitude of distorted sounds. The Tweed Deluxe isn't an amplifier that you plug into and instantly achieve the sound of your dreams. You need to work with it pretty intensively to find out how your particular amp behaves and what it can actually do. Every one that I've played is different — the drift in component values and the state of the valves all play an important part in determining how the Tweed Deluxe responds.

Plugging my '66 Tele into the Torres' Normal channel, setting the Tone at around 5, turning the Volume to 3 and backing off the guitar volume, gave the expected dark clean sound associated with that channel. However, there was a certain unexpected harshness in there that I didn't recall hearing from the originals I had played. Winding more gain in, I was straight into a rather edgier and harsher distortion than I was expecting. Even trying to balance that sound with the guitar's volume and tone control didn't pay much in the way of a dividend. Moving over to the Bright input, the result was the same. The clean sound didn't have the lovely chime and sweetness that I had expected to hear. Instead, there was a glassy edge to the sound, which cut through like a knife. I wound the Torres up into distortion and again harshness bit at my ears, rather than the middly, singing sustain that I was looking for.

Swapping over to a 1988 PRS Custom didn't change the basic character of the Torres. Running the PRS's humbuckers into the low gain input on the channels, I eventually managed a thick and meaty sustain in the Normal channel, and a more vocal-sounding result from the Bright channel. Again, the interaction between the amp's three control knobs was central to achieving the best sound. Clean sounds were a little harder to keep clean with the humbuckers, but there was a real grittiness possible with a little judicious tweaking of guitar volume levels and pick attack. However, throughout it all, the glassy harshness that I'd noticed with the Tele remained a major component of the sound.

In the Torres Tweed Deluxe's defence, I'd have to say that the sound, although harsher and glassier than I was expecting, wasn't actually that bad overall. Thinking back to modern production valve amplifiers of a similar wattage from Fender and other manufacturers that I've owned or heard, I would say that it would hold up reasonably well against a lot of them, when compared side-by-side.

One thing bothered me though: the 5E3 circuit is a pretty simple circuit and, therefore, there isn't much reason for a 5E3 clone to sound so unlike the original. I'd accepted that there would be a certain degree of hardness in the sound, due to the brand new Jensen speaker. But I didn't expect the harsh glassy quality that had replaced the Class A chime and sweetness. So, it was off to see amp guru Steve Dove, who just happens to have a couple of lovely original Tweed Deluxes in his collection. Side-by-side with the originals, all my impressions of the Torres Tweed Deluxe were confirmed. The originals chimed and shimmered as they should, and distortions were warm and fat. The clean sounds had no trace of harshness and, even at high treble settings, they didn't rip my ears off as the Torres had.

There are two major technical differences between the Torres and the originals: the Torres has 'Orange Drop' caps (which Steve and I both feel are a bit harsh-sounding in Fenders) and modern production valves. We didn't feel like changing the caps, but we swapped the valves, putting the ones from the old Tweed Deluxe into the Torres, which made a major difference to the sound. Now the Torres sounded much more like its ancestor. Up came the chime and the warmth, and the sound was no longer capable of removing wax from any ear within range. In fact, it sounded much as I had expected it to sound when I first fired it up.

The constructional differences were also interesting. The Torres' circuit board was considerably smaller than the original, was fibreglass rather than phenolic, and the components were crammed much closer together. On the original, the inside of the back panel is lined with a layer of asbestos —presumably, to ensure that any fire inside the amplifier chassis doesn't spread to the cabinet. The Torres has no lining or shielding of any kind, so you'll have to hope that you never have an onboard fire. However, the most obvious difference to the naked eye was the way in which the amplifier was wired internally. On the original, wires were dressed close to the chassis and were as short as possible. In contrast, the Torres seems to have wires looping all over the place, which will act as very effective aerials for any electromagnetic interference in the vicinity.

So, what does all this tell me? Firstly, if I were ordering this amplifier kit for myself I'd certainly be specifying NOS valves (NOS stands for New Old Stock: in other words, unused old valves). Secondly, I would specify Mallory capacitors in the signal chain. Thirdly, I'd either build it myself, get someone like Steve to build it for me, or ask Vyse Ltd to ensure that all the wiring was dressed like an original. Fourthly, I'd want a fire screen mounted inside the cabinet back panel. And finally, while I was at it, I'd want the On/Off switch reinstated as the mains switch and the Ground switch made into the standby switch (and labelled as such).

Research for this review involved a fascinating journey through the valve amplifier back streets of the web. I found dozens of boutique manufacturers, hobbyists, amp enthusiasts, musicians and technicians who had devoted hours to building and developing clones and variants of this little amplifier. I discovered plenty of places where I could buy chassis, custom parts, pieces of 'this' and bits of oil-filled 'that'. I came across erudite discussions and fairy tales, a university research project full of hard-won pragmatic knowledge, and tips and tweaks galore. But most of all, I hit upon a desire to wring the ultimate tone from what is, when all is said and done, a very simple little amplifier.

That research also leads me to conclude that Torres are in a very competitive marketplace with their reproductions of the Tweed Deluxe 5E3 design. The sheer number of builders, parts manufacturers and hobbyists that now produce these amplifiers and their component parts — either as kits or fully-built — means that Torres are going to have to work hard to convince 5E3 enthusiasts that their particular variation on this theme has something to offer over and above all the others out there.  0