Three weeks of troubleshooting just to find a cold solder joint on a single resistor...

Built a 5E3 Deluxe clone from a kit over two months, fired it up and got nothing but hum. Chased my tail swapping tubes, checking caps, even rewired the input jack twice. Finally broke out the magnifying glass and found it - a hairline crack on a 100k plate resistor at pin 6 on V1. Has anyone else spent that long chasing something stupid simple?

2 comments

2 Comments

palmer.henry7d ago

Man, I feel your pain. Been there with a bad solder joint on a cathode resistor that took me an entire weekend to find.

the_dylan7d ago

Actually, it's usually pin 1 on a 12AX7 that's the plate resistor for V1 in a 5E3, not pin 6. That threw me off for a bit when I was building mine. But yeah, those hairline cracks are the worst. I spent two days once chasing a cold joint on a tone cap that was hiding under a glob of old flux. You think you checked everything, but those tiny fractures are invisible until you hit them with a loupe and bright light. Your mileage may vary, but after that build, I started really scrutinizing every solder joint before I even power it up.